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I budget $100,000 for holiday gifts (non business). If I only spend $20,000 that means I have $80,000 left over. Since it's already budgeted, I take some for myself as a reward for not busting the holiday gift budget. I can honestly and truthfully look myself in the mirror and say, "Good going, you stayed well within budget again." Now, should I get the Christian Louboutin or the MIU MIU; or maybe, oh yeah the Manolo Blahnik?
I set aside one hundred dollars each month for Christmas every year. That keeps me from stressing out when the holidays approach because I know I already have the cash set aside. I've been using this method for several years now and it works well.
However I did not plan for my father-in-law to become very ill, or for my uncle to pass away unexpectedly from flu complications. Due to those factors we decided to drive back to California for the holidays to be with our families.
The trip back home blew my budget out of the water, even with us driving the 1,000 miles, instead of flying. There were motel expenses, eating out for nearly nine days straight expenses, extra gifts to buy since we were coming home.
I don't regret the trip, but it did add a lot of extra stress and I'll be paying off the extra Christmas expenses for the next month or so.
I don't regret the trip, but it did add a lot of extra stress and I'll be paying off the extra Christmas expenses for the next month or so.
Here's a thought, save $25 a month for holiday gifts and bank the rest as an emergency fund. Clearly you don't have enough money to weather an emergency so why are you dumping so much into gifts you can't afford? And why did you feel compel to buy extra gifts? If you were blowing the budget, why add to it?
Here's a thought, save $25 a month for holiday gifts and bank the rest as an emergency fund. Clearly you don't have enough money to weather an emergency so why are you dumping so much into gifts you can't afford? And why did you feel compel to buy extra gifts? If you were blowing the budget, why add to it?
Did you miss the part where I said I save 100 each month all year long for Christmas? That includes gifts, activities, baking, decorations, basically everything related to Christmas that we spend money on. I'm being smart by budgeting my money so that when the holidays roll around I have money for it all. Putting 25.00 aside each month wouldn't be enough.
This year was an exception because we had a last minute 1,000 mile trip that wasn't planned. Yes, I bought extra gifts for family members that we don't typically see, because we love them and I wanted to bring something to show them that we care about them. Sure I could have come empty handed, but that didn't feel right, especially since they were giving us gifts, letting us stay at their houses, or providing us with meals. Certainly they were spending more on us then they had planned for as well.
We do in fact have a healthy emergency fund, that can handle an emergency situation easily. I did not feel that this warranted an emergency. It is something I can pay off easily over the next month. Yes I can take the money out of savings, but I'd just be putting the money right back into savings again in less than a month's time. I won't be charged interest if I pay it off completely, plus I get benefits for using my credit card for travel expenses.
Thanks for jumping all over me over something that seemed fairly benign. Clearly you don't know me at all.
So you really didn't blow your budget out of the water as you claim. You had the money for that trip in a fund designed for that purpose but you decided not to use the emergency fund for an emergency but rather spend the holiday budget for an emergency? Why the heck do you even have a budget if you don't use it for the intended purpose? What's next, spend the food money to payback the holiday money, and spend the housing money to payback the food money; all the while saying your blowing budgets out the water? If you just used the emergency fund for it's intended purpose, (the emergency you just had) no budget would have been blown anywhere.
I spent maybe $100 on Christmas. That is far less than 1% of my salary. My wife and I get each other gifts at random times throughout the year when we see something the other person might like.
If you just used the emergency fund for its intended purpose, (the emergency you just had) no budget would have been blown anywhere.
It's a matter of personal discretion what constitutes an emergency for purposes of an emergency fund. I'm sure some people break into it for things that could have been foreseen just because they ran out of money at the end of the pay period. The poster took a more conservative approach and decided to leave the Emergency Fund alone and fund the unexpected travel from other sources. Hey, he/she could need a new transmission next month.
To get back to the original question: there's no gift-giving among the adults in my family. Really, what am I going to get my brother who owns 3 paid-off houses and a Tesla? I have two wonderful granddaughters (ages 2 and 4) but DDIL's family keeps them over-supplied with noisy electronic toys and giant stuffed animals so I contribute to their 529s and focus on experiences. The "budget buster" was the Sugar Plum Fairy Ball, put on by the local ballet- a fancy lunch at a beautiful historic hotel with entertainment by the ballet students and an appearance by the Sugar Plum Fairy. For 3 adults plus the two little ones it was $485. It was a perfect solution since the 2-year old wasn't really mature enough to sit through a performance of The Nutcracker and behave- when she hears music she wants to get up and dance.
From the title of this thread I thought it was for posting if anyone encountered any budget busters, not a thread for chastising and "correcting" whoever felt that they did.
I spent alot of money on expensive food and wine --probably close to $1,000 all total. We do not exchange ANY gifts except for our small grandchildren and I spent under $25 each -- they each received 3 nice toys that I bought at Tuesday Morning. I have a large family and had out of town guests that stayed over 10 days so I cooked multiple big meals. My gift to everyone is all the food and cooking -- I made filet mignon and leg of lamb and honey baked ham and we had good wines, beers and desserts, etc. I made about 4 or 5 big batches of homemade cookies as well as cakes and pies. The one good thing is I have absolutely NO waste -- we use everything or freeze meal sized portions of leftovers for later this winter. I do have 2 cartons of sour cream that I have not touched but am sick of cooking or baking so they might go to waste. And I had the money saved to pay for everything -- I knew it was coming.
Wow, outside of the anti religion side rant, you mean to tell me the people who supposedly love you cant figure out a gift you would like past 1 week.
Personally I find that sadder than anything else you said.
Happily my husband and kids know my likes and dislikes very well, I assure you the gifts they have blessed me , including those to celebrate the birth of our lord and saviour are treasured 10, 20 30 years later.
I've never once gotten anything I would consider "crap".
Because you have fallen hook line and sinker for the whole social construct of "Gotta gift people crap on the 'birth' of my imaginary friend from the sky so nobody I know thinks I am a grinch"; cheers to you!
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