I mean, I really don’t want to put a dampener on your chirstmas spirits or anything like that. Far from it. You might very well think this is me:

No, that’s not me. That’s the Grinch. I’m not the Grinch. I’m not saying don’t spend money. It’s after christmas now anyway, so it’s too late, the money is already spent. So why am I writing this now?

Please read on, you will see, there is a point to this (well, 4 points actually, once I counted them).

What We Can Learn From Our Christmas

In this post: Promise Yourself A Happy, Stress-Free Christmas I wished you a happy, stress-free Christmas, and I hope that’s what you had. did you? did you get past the 9.58am mark without arguing? We did. We made it to about 10.10 before we had our first argument but it was brief and about something very small (a lost remote control).

We then went on to have one of the best Christmases we have ever had. We took our time opening our presents and enjoyed a really relaxing day. We had gotten each other fairly modest but thoughtful presents and nobody was disappointed with any of them.

How We Saved A Lot Of Money This Christmas

Yes we did. We had a fantastic Christmas and we have saved a lot of money. How? Well, we enjoyed great food and time with family, we watched some TV shows, went out for a nice walk with our dog and enjoyed our presents.

We did have some more expensive items that each of us wanted, but we have decided to have a few less expensive items on Christmas day and wait until after Christmas, when the sales are on to buy the more expensive items – thus saving a lot of money.

In actual fact, the couple of more expensive items we were thinking of buying have now become one item. Having paused for thought we have decided we don’t really need the other one.

I did still get a couple of presents which I won’t particularly use (I won’t say what they are just in case whoever bought them is reading this), this is because it’s really difficult to tell friends and extended family you’d rather not receive anything or if they’re not sure not to get you anything at all instead of wasting money on something you don’t really want – it’s sometimes tricky to put across this message without it getting awkward. Luckily in my case the things which aren’t much use are really small and therefore very little money has been wasted (plus, don’t worry, I will find a nice and loving home for both items).

What’s The Point?

Before I hand over to you, the point of me writing this is to remind you of a few things. Well actually, there are four points and here they are:

1. You can be smart about what you buy and save money, even at Christmas, without spoiling the fun,
2. the important things are the things you can’t put a price-tag on anyway (hopefully you got that from this and from the previous post)
3. if you have unwanted gifts, don’t just shelve them or throw them into the back of a cupboard, find someone who does want them and will use them
4. even if money has been wasted on unwanted or over-priced gifts, now is a good time to recognize that (i.e. right in the moment when you realize it, when a good example is right in front of you) so that you learn for next time

Now It’s Your Turn – Any Unwanted Gifts?

So now it’s your turn. How many unwanted gifts did you get this Christmas? How many unwanted gifts did you give? Did you pay over the odds for any gifts you gave or receive gifts that were too expensive? What do you plan to do with those unwanted gifts? Do you know of anyone who would find more use for them than you do? Can you find them a better home? Please let us know in the comments below… (and be honest!)

If you have absolutely no unwanted gifts and have not overspent this Christmas either then bravo!! How cool is that?

What did you enjoy most about this Christmas?