Caitriona Redmond: How I coped when all of my Christmas savings were wiped out with one accident

This is not the first time we have celebrated Christmas in a recession. As money gets tighter for more and more of us, Caitriona Redmond shares the story of her toughest Christmas ever

Caitriona Redmond. Picture: Emily Quinn

It was during the big freeze in December 2010 that my carefully planned Christmas budget began to fall asunder in a spectacular way. We had been doing well up until that point. I had scrimped and saved so that we could plan for a wonderful Christmas morning for our 2-year-old boy and 11-year-old girl. I had skimmed money off the grocery budget each week and carefully shifted bits into a big jar of change; dreaming of a wonderful Christmas day where Santa brought us all we’d wanted.

Times weren’t Dickensian but they were tight. We’d negotiated a monthly reduction on the mortgage and were receiving family income supplement (now working family payment) due to a low income.