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Family dynamics

17th Oct 2021

Britain’s biggest family share their savvy festive shopping tips

HerFamily

That’s a lot of wrapping paper…

If you thought Christmas hectic in your house, spare a thought for Noel and Sue Radford, who have 22 children to shop and wrap presents for.

That’s right, Tommy Bowe, TWENTY TWO CHILDREN.

The family, who have a bakery business, have had to concoct some pretty savvy tricks and be super smart with their money.

The money-savvy couple doesn’t ‘believe in’ credit cards, always saving upfront for what they need to buy — a smart move.

“We save for it over the year, putting money away in an account. I do supermarket savings stamps for the food shop too,” the mum-of-22 told the Sun newspaper.

However, when there are 22 kids in the household, the cost of Christmas presents must rack up pretty quickly.

The Radfords admit they set a budget for the kids based on their ages, and tend to spend between £100 and £250 on presents for each of their kids at Christmas – which works out at a total of over £5,000.

 

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Christmas Eve bags all ready for tomorrow ??☃️?? #christmasevebags #goodies #christmas #excitedchildren

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The busy mum told the Star newspaper how she loves getting the best buys online in order to keep costs down.

“We always shop around for the best deals online, it’s worth making sure you get the best deals on your utilities and take advantage of voucher deals where you can.”

And, as everyone who has young children at Christmas will know, you can never have enough batteries.

“I buy batteries in bulk too, packets at a time,” Sue explains, which helps keep Christmas day running smoothly.

“The absolute worst bit of Christmas Day is putting the batteries in toys and actually getting to them through all the packaging and those twiddly little fixings that you have to unscrew.”

Sue explains she is a “demon wrapper”, and can wrap a whopping 20 presents in just 15 minutes, going through 60 to 70 rolls of wrapping paper every festive season.

Not leaving everything until the last minute though, the 45-year-old said:  “I buy presents through the year, and wrap them as they come in. One of our biggest headaches at Christmas is where to hide all the gifts. We have them everywhere — even in the boiler cupboard. The trick is remembering where.”

 

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Love this picture ?? #threegenerations #newborn #auntie #niece #beautiful

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