Real-life mums share their tips on how to do Christmas for under £200

…home-made decorations. Forget the shiny new baubles you spotted in the Christmas department that really match your colour scheme, and get creative instead. "We always make new decorations for the tree," says mum-of-one Lizee Brown. "One year, we cut out parts of egg boxes, covered them in tin foil and tied them together with string to make them look like bells." And when it comes to decorating your house, you don't need to spend money on expensive flowers. "I always use greenery and herbs I picked from the garden to decorate the living room," says mum-of-two Gabby Landau, adding, "Last year, the girls and I spent an afternoon gathering loads of twigs and sticks and then spray-painted them silver and gold." Once dried, you can display them in vases or metal jugs scattered around the house.MONEY SPENT: NONE

…and we mean literally. We've all got enough stuff already – and what better way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon with the kids than by making a batch of edible gifts and giving them as presents. "One year I bought loads of glass jars and made huge batches of red onion chutney to fill them with," says Lizee, adding, "I also made salted caramel to give out to friends and family." Buy a batch of small clear bags, some twine and brown cardboard tags to wrap up your sweet treats in – not only will they look impressive, it's cheaper than buying a load of presents (and so much more fun to receive than a pair of reindeer socks).MONEY SPENT: £30

Christmas Day with all 26 members of your extended family can be fraught enough as it is, without adding presents into the mix. (How much to spend on Aunt Viv? Cousin Clare only bought you a set of tea towels last year, so she doesn't really deserve anything nice… but what if she does get you something nice this year? Etc). Avoid the whole issue and agree in advance to do Secret Santa among the adults instead. Get an email group going and set a budget of, say, £10. One of you will have to allocate everyone their Secret Santa. It'll add a fun twist to Christmas lunch – and will only cost you £10.MONEY SPENT: £10

Mum-of-two Harriet Russell says, "I start thinking about my Christmas shopping list as early as October and am always on the lookout for non-perishables that I can stock up on, that will last until the end of the year." If you allocate a small portion of your weekly food budget to Christmas items in the run up to the festive period, and slowly stock up on things like Christmas pudding, dried fruit and nuts and anything that freezes well and that is on offer (think veg including parsnips and Brussels sprouts, and shop-bought stuffing), you'll bring down the cost of your big pre-Christmas day food shop.MONEY SPENT: £50

If you can't afford to splash out on the show of the season, there are still countless things to do with your kids that won't cost a penny. Sign up to receive newsletters from websites such as littlebird.co.uk, which are full of cheap deals on family-friendly activities. Subscribe to all the museums and galleries in your area – they often hold free drop-in sessions during the Christmas holidays and you can take a packed lunch with you (full of special treats for the kids) and make a day of it.MONEY SPENT: £0-£20

Look online for deals and discounts. The best time to start your Christmas shopping is the January before, when shops are practically giving away leftover festive stock, such as Christmas cards, tinsel or crackers. If your kids are older and have asked for a super-expensive gift, you could present them with a gift voucher on Christmas Day and promise to take them shopping on Boxing Day – you'll snap up the same item at a massive discount, meaning they will have got their dream gift, and you'll have saved a huge amount of money.MONEY SPENT: £80

"We are going to try something called Time Tokens this year," says Lizee. "It's basically like a gift voucher – it could say something like, 'One morning, I will bring you breakfast in bed,' or 'I promise to spend an entire morning playing schools with you.' It's about giving your time to someone else." This is a particularly good idea for older kids and can be mixed in with inexpensive stocking fillers, so they still get the fun of ripping open some wrapped gifts.MONEY SPENT: NONE

Don't waste money on fancy wrapping paper – use old ends of wallpaper, if you have any lying about, or buy a job lot of brown paper (you could even get your kids to decorate it before using it. The result will be the same – especially when it comes to wrapping presents for children, the paper their toys come in is the last thing they'll notice!MONEY SPENT: £5