Apparently the recession won’t stop us splashing out this festive season. A report in the News of the World says the average family will spend £665 on Christmas this year, which is more than 20% up on 2008.

Not that everone will be spending as if there’s no tomorrow though. I also stumbled across a survey on moneysupermarket.com that revealed that the average amount we splash out on our children’s Christmas presents is a bit more modest. The most common answer given is that we will spend about £50-100 per child and with most kids expecting a sackful of presents these days, that means bargain hunting is a must.

This Christmas Get The Label has a dedicated section for Christmas presents under £10 from designer brands including Adidas, Playboy and Bench. In fact, there are gift ideas for every budget with something available for everyone. Menswear, ladies’ fashion and children’s clothes are all included.

Some of the clothes are only available in selected sizes and there is limited stock of some items so, if you’re looking for the widest choice of designer labels at discount prices this Christmas, it would be best to get your order in early. There’s only five weeks to go!

So the big news in the Kilburn household and the Hectic Mum office this week is the news that I am now a Hectic Mum To Be!!! Having felt very tired for the last few months (my mum thought I was anaemic) and also putting weight on, I failed to realise exactly what was going on until the 16th person asked me if I was pregnant!! Right, I thought, I’ll take a test just to prove them wrong!!   But, I ended up proving myself wrong. Having broken the shocking but happy news to my husband I booked an appointment at the Dr’s for a second opinion! She confirmed I was pregnant and estimated I was about 16 weeks!!! (more…)

It’s that time of year again – yes sale season is here at Get The Label!! And we at Hectic Mum love this time of year - we can fill our wardrobes – and those of our loved ones – for half the price. And when you’ve got kids it’s all about budgeting wisely as we all know well!!

So, what is the sensible way to shop the sales to ensure that you don’t end up wasting money on stuff you won’t wear and you only bought because it was cheap? My three sale rules are keep it simple, go for the basics and try everything on!!! If it doesn’t fit you now it probably never will – so take a deep breath and if it doesn’t do up – walk away!!

I’ve had a look on the Get The Label site and found a few perfect pieces for you to snap up…

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There wasn’t a lot for mums to get excited about in the budget announced by the Government this week, but I did spot a few plus points.

Child tax credit is increasing by an extra £20 per year, which will help some people, while parents with disabled children will now get an extra £100 towards their Child Trust Fund.

One of the new initiatives I did like is that grandparents who help with childcare will get National Insurance credits towards their state pension from April 2011.

This is long overdue. I’ll bet a lot of Hectic Mum readers agree when I say that lots of us couldn’t survive without a bit of help from Nan and/or Grandad. Maybe someone wants to set up a new blog called the Hectic Nan!

Anyway, here is a link to a quick budget calculator to see how the 2009 budget affects your family finances.