With Tina Leonard
Saving on communions
You may have seen the first part of a two part documentary series called Communion Day on RTE 1 on Monday evening last. The programmes give us a snapshot of Irish family life in the run up to the First Holy Communion; a landmark family occasion for many in this country.
But with the pressure on to buy dresses, accessories, bouncy castles and cakes, how can you budget for the day and make savings, while still ensuring your child has a day to remember?
Tina Leonard was here with her tips.
According to the Catholic Church the primary focus of the First Holy Communion is the reception of the Body of Christ for the first time and it represents an important milestone in the continued growth of the spiritual life of the child.
But these days it seems the event really mixes the sacred with quite a bit of partying an expense, perhaps with the emphasis on the party element rather than the sacred in many instances.
So much so, in fact, that last October Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, in launching new Dublin Archdiocese policy guidelines on the sacrament, stressed that parishes should work to ensure that the celebration of First Communion not be accompanied by extravagant expense.
How much do people spend?
Last year, a survey from Ulster Bank found that parents spent an average of €744 on their child’s First Holy Communion. That was down from €1,000 in the previous year but is still a huge amount.
By the way, that amount was broken down into €179 for the outfit and accessories; €176 on clothing for the rest of the family; €303 for food and drink and €86 for entertainment.
This survey found that the money collected by approximately 60,000 Communicants last year had decreased from €468 to €432 and of this, the majority €325 has been saved. Of the average €107 they spent, the most popular items bought were: video games (57%); clothes (43%); toys (36%); sports equipment (22%); books and music (12%).
In this survey a minority of 9% borrowed money to cover the cost of the day, with the average being €343.
Meanwhile a survey by the EBS came up with an average spend of €555 per child.
Bear in mind also that the ‘communion grant’, a discretionary payment made to social welfare recipients for religious ceremonies has now been axed. This had already been halved last year when a cap of €110 was imposed.
However, for social welfare recipents with exceptional need they can still apply for assistance with clothing. This is capped at €100 for an adult and €50 for a child.
Preparing a budget
Preparing a budget is important so that you do not get into debt due to the occasion and also so that you can avoid borrowing.
Step 1: How much can I afford to spend
Before you even start to think of dresses and drink and your specific budget for communion day, find out how much you have to spend. You’ll know this by consulting your household budget (that’s assuming you have one). There you’ll see how much money comes into the house every week or month and how much goes out, whether that’s on groceries, utilities or social costs.
Whatever you have left over, your surplus so to speak, you can choose to put towards the First Holy Communion Day.
If you’ve found that you’ve no spare cash at all to spend on the Communion, you should avoid borrowing if you can. That’s because you’ll have to cut back later to find a way of paying it back (plus interest), and that goes for credit cards with their extortionate interest rates too.
So, you’ll either have to cut back on daily spending in order to generate more cash, or increase the funds at your disposal.
If you can get extra income from work that would be great, but it’s not always possible.
On the other hand, almost everyone has something that somebody else wants, so you could always try selling something. eBay says that Irish homes cling on to an average of 41 items that amount to €2,135 worth of unused items that can be resold to raise cash. (And by the way their research found that Sligo, Galway and Limerick households are the top hoarders of unwanted items).
So, sell your unwanted items on a classifieds site, at a car boot sale, or in second shop that buys unwanted items.
Step 2: How much do I want to spend?
The next step is to find out how much you plan on spending for this family milestone. Detail all the expenses you may have from the outfit, to the accessories and the cake and bouncy castle. If the total amounts to more that you have budgeted for, then you’ll need to revise it.
Step 3: Revise your budget.
It may be that what you’ve discovered you can afford to spend and what you’ve calculated the costs to be, do not match up. This is when you have to start getting tough. Start pairing back the Communion spending list and keep doing that until the money available to you and the amount you want to spend are equal.
Having a great day for less
To make your money stretch further embrace savvy consumer behaviour by keeping your eyes and ears open for offers and deals, by being creative and by choosing to celebrate in a way that suits the budget available to you.
Outfits
Over one third of parents feel the most important aspect was what the child wears. That’s according to research from TK Maxx, whose survey also found that 31% wanted value for money.
The sky is the limit when it comes to the prices buying dresses, and you may be looking at at least €100 and upwards plus extra for accessories in boutiques. But you might still be able to pick up a communion dress from €26.99 at TK Maxx for example (they may be sold out now). Check out other stores too. For example, Monsoon has a ‘frost jaquard satin dress’ for €49 (the most reasonably priced one there). Or go designer at Debenhams with a John Rocha jacket and trousers for your boy at €64 and €40 respectively.
Also look at the fantastic offerings in charity stores such as Oxfam and St Vincent de Paul, and think of buying second hand online. There are currently 292 communion dresses, suits and accessories for sale on www.donedeal.ie, with many for under €100.
And what about the dress or suit your niece or nephew wore or an older sibling? Few will know or care that it was worn before, and you could always customise it to make it a bit different.
For example you might know someone who is handy with a needle or good at doing hair. Ask them to sew extra sequins on your girl’s dress to create more bling or to create a hairstyle. You can always return the favour by offering to do something to repay the person, for example babysitting or helping computers or whatever you’re good at.
Entertainment
This is where the costs can keep rising when you take into account a venue, bouncy castle hire, the restaurant bill or buying food, a cake, decorations and on it goes.
If you choose to have a party at home, why not have a joint one with another family or families. That way you could share the approximately €100 on the bouncy castle, and share all other costs too.
While you’re at it save and use your supermarket loyalty points to put towards groceries if you are having a house party, and buy own brand to make savings of up to a third compared to leading brands. If you’re hosting on your own, ask family and friends to each bring a plate or a bottle of something.
Or if you choose to have a family event, you can get discounts on restaurants or excursions. The handiest way of finding these is on the ‘daily deal’ sites and you can check them all out on one site – www.mydealpage.ie. Over 1.5million vouchers were sold to Irish shoppers last year so it’s clearly the savvy way to save.
There are plenty of cut-price restaurant deals available and also beauty treatments if you want those.
For fun family excursions, keeping checking and you’ll find everything from horse riding to mini-golf to karaoke sessions at around 50% / 60% discount.
For example at the moment Groupon has a voucher for €12 (52% off) for a family of six to visit the Foynes Flying Boat Museum, Grabone has a voucher foe a three hour roller skating session in Dublin for €7 (was €15) and another example from Groupon is a voucher for a children’s party, catering for up to twenty and including a magic show and face painting for €99 rather than €199.
Above all, you want to be able to relax knowing that you’re in budget, not in debt. Your child will look beautiful no matter how much their outfit cost and whether you choose to celebrate by going on a family excursion using discounted vouchers or by clubbing together with others for a party, you’ll still have a great time.
The second part of Communion Day will be broadcast on RTE 1 this coming Monday 11th at 9.35pm.
You can also go to their website www.rte.ie/tv/communionday for extra features such as a communion day budget calculator, a fashion shoot and budget tips.
