Man I went to Wal Mart on Christmas Eve last year and it was the most depressing place I'd ever been. People scrounging for every last cent they had to buy their kids Christmas presents, almost coming to blows because they're so frustrated not knowing what they're gonna do financially. It was rough.
That's why I'm a firm believer in incremental purchasing. So, instead of waiting until the last minute, and trying to buy for everybody, I think "Okay, I'll get their's in September... their's in October... their's in November..." It eases the burden. And putting £5 a month to the side also helps a tonne.
I knew parents who would bitch moan, and complain that they didn't have much money for christmas presents, and they it was always "so expensive", however, both of them were smoking 300 cigarettes a week between them. That works out at around £120 per week, so you're looking at £480 per month, which works out at £4,760 per year, (about $6200). Then they put on the pathetic act "We don't know what we're gonna do..."
It was like that Ricky Gervais joke, where there was a woman who would eat ten servings of Pie, Chips and Peas per day, and would get a taxi there, and the long and short of it, she said "I keep trying everything, and nothing seems to work!" and Gervais said "I dunno, how about just having NINE servings of Pie, Chips and Peas a day", I felt like I was in that joke, when they're sat there, each with a
in their mouth, spending more on them than they did on food for the whole family.