How much do you budget per year for Christmas gifts? I mean to include your family, extended family, close friends, daycare/support help, etc.
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We go insanely overboard every year. Now that I'm not working, and we have DD, our budget will be slashed. I'm going to DIY a lot of gifts, to save money.
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I don't have a budget... I just spend... is that bad?
ETA: I do plan a certain amount for each person though. For example, it might be $75 for parents, $50 for siblings, $25 for nieces/nephews. And then it's kind of random how much we spend on each other. And I haven't even started thinking about how much we'll spend on Xander!
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@deerylou: Our budget is much tighter this year too (unless I get a raise anytime soon).
I would love to DIY, but I find the materials sometimes to be just as expensive!
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No budget, although it would be a good idea to have one!!
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@Adira: Yeah, that's kind of how we handle it too. Budget? What budget? Sounds like a good idea, though.
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I have never budgeted before but really want to this year. I find that the thing that trips me up is that in NYC, supers, doormen and other building staff are expecting ginormous tips.
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@Adira: I am the same way. We set a limit for each person, but not an overall budget. I usually over spend every time.
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I'd have to add it up... we draw names for people in my family and I usually spend about $50, so that's $50 x 2 (DH draws a name as well). I have 3 nieces/nephews and think I'll do about $30 each for them, $50 for each parent.
DH and i haven't set our budget yet for J and each other.
We have to set a budget or else we run out of money, we just don't have much extra so we start planning it out in October!
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Planning on $500 but that was in include the tree so I voted wrong.. We only do immediate family (7 people plus each other)for the most part. A couple of other (little kids.)
Oh and I'm cutting out a couple people from the above + I think we will just do LO not each other.
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We cut out a LOT of gift giving, especially between close family members.
I would love to do DIY stuff, but I am super short on time!
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I don't really budget out a total amount, but I like to spend about $50 per person, per event. Except for DH. My parents both have December birthdays so I spend $100 each of them, $100 total for my brother and his GF, then a couple hundred for DH. He'll probably spend a couple hundred on me too. DH's family stopped buying Christmas presents for each other, so I think that comes to around $600ish. We also bought a few things for DS this year, but he'll only be a few weeks old.
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@Smurfette: I'll admit, getting the credit card bill for December is usually shocking!!!
ETA: It doesn't help that BOTH my parents' birthdays are in December too!
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I budgeted $800 this year and hoping to keep it under that. This is the first year I made a budget since I started using YNAB at the beginning of the year. I've been putting money away monthly. I hope I can keep it under control!
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@BlueWolverine: @Adira: Do you guys normally budget? Or just spend until the monthly money runs out?
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I really don't enjoy exchanging holiday gifts. I don't especially care about receiving gifts because I can afford most of the small scale things that I want, and I don't like have extra clutter in my apartment. I would rather spend time with someone than have them spend money on me. And I really dislike shopping and avoid it as much as possible, so buying gifts for other people is also an unpleasant experience for me. (I don't care about spending money; I just don't enjoy the experience.)
Every once in awhile, I will think of the perfect gift for someone, but it's rare and not usually timed for a holiday.
So, the only people we buy holiday gifts for are my parents, my MIL and my sister. My husband feels similarly about gifts, and so he and I don't bother to exchange gifts for birthdays or the holidays. We splurge on things we care about such as vacations, which are more important to us.
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@Mrs. Pen: This is around what we want to spend but then when I factor in daycare teachers (3) and our work exchange (for both of us) and 7 nieces/nephews it really blows the number up higher!
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Before we had Chloe, we'd go all out. Now we have a budget. And, my brother & sister only recently got full time jobs (both recent college grads) so starting last year, we slashed exchanging gifts between the three of us/spouses.
Now we all go in for gifts for our parents. DH and I focus on Chloe, and get each other something small.
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@ElbieKay: yes, I dislike the forced gift. If I find something meaningful that I want to buy I would love to do it, but I don't want to waste my money or your space on something small and junky.
I would love to try to plan gifts around "activities". We tried to do it last year to plan an event for the kids instead of exchanging gifts for the 8 grandkids. We just did a day at the park and lunch at the pizza buffet. I think they had fun.
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Regarding the activity, my parents asked me what I wanted them to get for my son, thinking that I would suggest a toy or whatever, but we agreed on Soccer classes.
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@T.H.O.U.: Oh, I know what you mean. I've been searching the internet for DIY ideas that utilize materials I can buy in bulk, because individual materials can be costly. I also plan on baking and making cranberry lime vodka.
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@deerylou: Please let me know what you find! Last year I did little buckets of homemade laundry soap for co-workers. It came out pretty well. The Dollar store is great for packaging materials!
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I dont' have a budget (yikes) but I LOVE to shop the deals. I make out a list and stick to it, total will be around 500-750. That is including:
2 sets of parents, 5 neices/nephews, 1 Goddaughter, 2 Kid Friends, 1 SIL, 1 BIL, 2 dadycare providers, 1 Secret Santa Friend, 1 cousin.
I'm not exchanging with my sisters this year, we decided to focus on kids. However, I will probably make something crafty/homemade so it will cost a little.
DH and I are techincally nto exchaning, we already bought concert tickets as our present to each other. And are planning on getting a DSLR on sale. I'm not including this cost since it's techincally a long overdue gift
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I said between 500-750. I would say about 1/3 of that is DH's gifts. We like to purchase gifts that we need but are too expensive otherwise.
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We're don't usually keep a strict budget, but try to stay between $35-$50 for most people. We actually only gift shop for a couple of kids, and the name draw at my parents and my MIL's, so that cuts out a ton of gifts. We just do stocking stuffers between each other, and will keep it under $200 for our LO.
I also have holiday gifts for my eybrow/lip waxer and maid. And then we also do one $200-300 gift for someone in need.
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@T.H.O.U.: Homemade laundry soap is a wonderful gift idea! I have 5 siblings in laws, most of which have families, so we're thinking about doing personalizing chalkboards (http://www.shanty-2-chic.com/2012/11/diy-christmas-gift-5-chalkboard.html), and painting wooden dolls to represent each family.
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I don't have a strict budget, but I try to stay at or around $500, give or take $100. I have 10 people on my list plus D and E (who will probably come in at around $100 each).
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I chose "less" but I guess I could have chosen "under $500" too. We have budgeted $240 and that's for all of our family members. We decided not to do gifts for each other this year because we are taking a big trip in January.
We each have 2 siblings, who are coupled off, plus our parents, and so we plan to spend approximately $40 per couple. I hope we can pull it off!
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@looch: Thanks for a great idea! LO does a tumbling bus at school and we will owe for next semester in January. I will recommend to family to contribute to her fees. She really does not need any additional toys.
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@T.H.O.U.: We don't budget! We just spend money!! *throws money around* It's a bad habit, but that's why I became an engineer!
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For our holiday, I budget $250 for each set of parents (maybe a keurig and some cups, or some cookware, or some tickets to something) and then about $100 per sibling (that's 8 between the both of us). We don't do gifts for each other, and LO usually gets about $100 gift from us. So, somewhere at 1,300. We get all that back via gifts from my parents (monetary usually) and his, and gifts for LO from all his aunts/uncles.
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@ElbieKay: Totally share your sentiment. I cannot stand clutter. My IL's always want me to tell them exactly what I want, which is awkward to me. They are super generous and buy me a nice gift, but then gift me lots of clutter as well. I hate shopping in general, for myself or others. I hate others spending money on me, especially if I won't use it and I know its a "waste". I wish we could just spend time together and forgo the whole gift-giving thing. Not that I don't love them and wouldn't love to give them the perfect gift. I just usually don't know what that is!
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@deerylou: I did these for teachers last year using frames I found on sale for about $10.
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I haven't added it up yet so here goes:
(FYI DH and I do our families seperately - so only mine will be shown below).
DH - $250 to 400 (haven't picked a gift yet)
Mom - $50
Dad - $25 (plus TONS of random golf gifts throughout the year)
Dads GF - $25
Nephew (we dont buy for my sister and her husband)- $75
Niece (same as above, no buying for her parents) - $75
BFF 1 (I buy for her two kids) - $75
BFF 2 - $50
Administrative Assistant - $25 (bath & body works stuff plus gift card for lunch)
Hair Lady - $25 (nice bottle of vodka)
Nail Lady - $25 (nice bottle of vodka)
Dog Walker - $75 (restaurant gift certificate)
Cookie Tins - $150
Mail- $10
Garbage - $25 (they rock...always take our big boxes)Cookie Tins...I make 7 different kinds of cookies at Christmas time (and Khalua Cake) and package them up. I generally make 10-15 gifts this year it will be more. They will go to our cleaning people (3), Daycare (4), work (1 big box), neighbors (3) and they also are my hostess gifts for any parties we go to. I do a big day of baking and keep them around through the season.
So thats $950 - $1100 depending on what I spend on DH. EEK! I dont have DD on here - we'll likely only spend $50-75 on her this year as she will only be 3.5 mos!
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Haven't quite figured it out yet. Waiting to see how much of a bonus DH is getting this Friday and we'll go from there. Budget is very tight. Since starting YNAB I have managed to set aside $145 in the Christmas fund so far so at least we're not starting at $0!
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I don't have as strict a budget as in years past, but I'm still deal hunting like crazy! I've been spending an average of 25$ a person... that goes all the way down to my nephew who I bought clearance puzzles for for 3$, up to my older nephew who is getting a toy + cash for about 40$.
All in all...probably 500$, including what we got for LO and the presents for DH and I. That's 6 nieces + nephews, 1 brother, 3 sisters, 5 parents, one grandparent, and 4 HB babies.
I will add that this year, we are putting everything on the credit card to be paid off with DH's bonus, so I'm probably spending more than I should
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We don't budget! I go crazy at Christmas and if I see the perfect gift, I get it! I love giving great gifts.
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We have a big family Christmas on my side, with grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc., and budget $1200 for everyone, total. (We mainly got that number by deciding to set aside $100 each month for Christmas - 12 months = $1200.)
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We have about $850 budgeted including family/friends and then about $150 for DH and I to each spend on each other
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In a normal year? About $1,000. But this year I'm on mat leave, so...I don't know exactly, but less than $1,000!
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