Christmas running total and would DH have a clue?

In a way I do but not looking too closely or giving DH a coronary.

I don't know but I could add it up quickly , OH hasn't a clue we have cut down a lot in the last couple of years though and always do our big food shop from the joint acc so he knows whats spent on food but not on presents..

I know what we (I) spent on our 2DDs and their children only because we like to spend a similar amount each of them. DH hasn't a clue till he asks. Including DH it is more than usual this year as he has an 'th birthday on the 23rd and is being thoroughly spoiled!

My total is running at about £170 at the moment.

This includes -
Gifts for DH, Mum, Step-Dad, FiL, 3 step-neices (token gifts), two friends
A Christmas pudding
Regular cards and special cards for some family and friends

Still to buy -
Gifts for DH, Step-Dad and FiL
Cost of Christmas dinner out for both of us
Petrol for 800 mile return journey to spend Christmas with Mum and Step-Dad
Stamps for cards to be posted
Incidental cost of staying away from home

It will probably be about £600 by the time we get home after Christmas. The bulk of the cost of Christmas for us is spending it with my Mum and Step-Dad. And we have a great time!

PS DH does know because he manages our bank accounts.

My DH wouldn't care either way what we spent. We only have a joint account and everything comes in and goes out of that one account. He very rarely wants anything for himself and is the most unselfish man you could meet.

We too have a joint account, but in the main I manage it. He would not have the vaguest clue what Christmas might be costing - and neither would he care.

We save each month for Christmas. We usually save around £70 per month but when we start spending, it usually adds up to more than we save. If you count the Christmas food and drink as well as gifts, also meals/lunches out with family and friends plus taxis, I dread to think what we spend but hey ho (or ho ho )

And DH doesn't really care these days although he has suggested that we cut down in the past.

Like the above poster, DH doesn't care, and it is no earthly use me trying to put the brakes on him. I am a total skinflint, and he would never spend more than we could afford, so i let him get on with it.

I will probably be in about the same area as you Coolgran.
I spend £20 -30 per head on the DCs and DGCs but give them money too. MrA administers our investments (though I am kept in the loop) but I manage the day to day accounts and as long as at the end if the year money out < money in, he doesn't ask any awkward questions

When I told DH what we had spent so far this year (pretty much done now) which was well beyond what he guessed, he said, oh right....
Last year I convinced him to agree that we'd limit our gift/s to each other to a £50 cap. (Partly because he is so difficult to buy for).

For DSs and DILs I reckon on £40/50 per head but sometimes manage to get away with less by using TK Maxx..... this year we bought 4 of them theatre tickets. They don't get money.

I'm the one who would look for the best price and keep tabs, no doubt from my 22 years with an ex who didn't work and myself as breadwinner and then single parent of a ds at university.

To be honest, per head ... it's the dgc who benefit most and I do think that where they are concerned it's getting out of hand. But then perhaps I'm comparing it to the days when I was about 14 and got a new school blazer as my Christmas present.

DH knows that I am good with money and never questions the cash flow, it's myself - from some sort of a moral sense - that feels it's all too materialistic..... not sure if that's just the word I'm looking for.... maybe commercialised...
I don't have any decorations up yet and usually hold out until around the 17th, which means I haven't got tired of them and they are still 'fresh to the eye' when it's time to take them down, which is usually 2 Jan.

Thank you all - it's interesting to learn how others work it.

I agree with you Coolgran about it feeling too commercial and I do think children generally have far too much stuff and that's why I give them one thing and the rest is money - their parents can buy them something if they really need it, or put it in their savings account, I don't ask. I certainly wouldn't dream of engaging in any sort of competition with the other GPs about who gives the most.
I agree with you too about the decorations. Ours will go up about 5 days before Dec 25, my only worry is that the Xmas trees might have sold out as the fashion now seems to be to install them at the beginning of December!

I know pretty much to the penny because i have a spreadsheet and have had one for 10 years. Up until last year when I took early retirement i paid for it all, and the spreadsheet was to ensure that all the children had roughly the same number of gifts for roughly the same amount of money and helped remind me what I bought the previous year.

Now my DH pays for everything because I have 7 years to go to pensionable age and I never had a work based pension for a number of reasons.

We certainly spend less than before because our income is reduced but I love Christmas, I love treating the kids and grand-kids and as I don't smoke, don't really drink etc I feel its my one guilty pleasure so I'm not sorry for what I spend. Its worth every last penny.

This year as a family we have set a budget £10 per person, only grandchild is exempt from the limit. So far we have actually all had quite a lot of fun trying to buy for each other!

We give one person a £50 present and a £5 limit per person on the rest. Our DC decided this a few years ago saying the present giving had got out of hand. It was a huge relief. Thank heaven for Aldi and food!!

I've got a spreadsheet for presents, and have done for the last 10 years. It tells me what I've we've spent and what I we would have spent if I'd we'd paid full price (I pride myself on getting bargains!). DH shows no interest at all, but I did tell him what the total spend was when I bought the last present the other day and he went a bit green round the edges. I then pointed out that we have spent 3 times as much in Christmases past when we were both working and also when we didn't have this year's system of Secret Santa presents for adults in the immediate family (each just buying for one person, up to a £35 limit).

I could easily tot up what cards/postage/tree/food etc have cost, so could quickly come up with a total. I am that sad.

Not a bit sad... brilliantly efficient.

DH doesn't want to know about the Christmas budget. He just sits back and waits for it all to happen.

I swear he still believes in Santa

There are very few compensations for having a DH who is not with it but having complete control over financial matters is one. He neither knows nor cares where money goes or how much I spend and it is quite good to never hear again "HOW MUCH?" !!! Wish it were otherwise though.

In answer to the OP, 'no' and it's probably best kept that way!!

We always laugh when everyone opens their presents because the DC and DGC give DH a big hug and say 'thank you, Dad or Grandad' (and thank you to me too).
It's usually the first time he has clapped eyes on any of it.

He very occasionally gets a bit anxious about how much I we spend but, although I like to spend I know our limits - and I do like a bargain and discounts!

I did a food shop yesterday and asked DH to guess what the total was, he said about £30. The total was £125.

I save my tesco club card vouchers all year, and it usually adds up to about £100. We use this for additional festive food and drink shopping. I save each month through the year for gifts, and we have a set spending amount, and amounts of gifts(!) to buy each other, plus the gifts for OH's family. I budget all year so that a little unexpected splurge in December is do-able, and OH has no real idea of what it costs, just knows we can afford it, and that's all that matters to him!