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Now things for the house don't count but this is the time to buy alot of good electronics we have been waiting for.
Our gift list is very small as our family is very small but I was wondering how much money you spend on gifts and how many people you have to shop for.
What is your $$$$$ limit on gifts for grade school kids in your immediate family?
About $100 for my own kid. About $20 for the nieces/nephews (3 of them). That's it! Grown ups don't get gifts. After Christmas, we take the kiddo shopping with the money from her grandparents - she has to save 10% of what she gets, and she can spend the other 90%. They each give her about $50.
I know that's a lot less than most people spend on their kids, but IMHO Christmas has gotten way out of hand in our society. I haven't seen my kid any happier on the years we spent many, many more times than this year's current budget.
I used to spend about $20 on 11 nieces and nephews and chip in for our parents but that varied from year to year. Now I only spend $20 or $25 on 5 of them. I also buy for two adult children which doesn't come to $20 a piece. No adult gifts except for my parent. I refuse to get into gift giving to second generation nieces and nephews. Now I just remembered I have to find out what food or desert I am bringing this year.
What is your $$$$$ limit on gifts for grade school kids in your immediate family?
Wife and I spend $25 each for nieces and nephews (5 total kids). We don't buy anything for our siblings. We chip in with siblings to buy a gift for our parents. This year we're buying them tickets to a Vegas show.
My list of giftees: hubby, niece (12), nephew (8), brother, SIL, mom, dad, two grandmothers, hubby, MIL and FIL. All of them are getting something homemade (scrapbooks, bird feeders, cookies, etc.) and I plan to spend as little money as possible because I'm only working part time and it all goes toward bills.
I feel like I'm spending a lot on my own kids this year; last year I managed to do all of Christmas (my 2 kids -- one grade school, one preschool --and 12 extended family) for a total of about $300. This year I'm spending between $200 and $300 on each of my kids, and about $20 per person for extended family. My kids' lists aren't long at all, they've just gotten more expensive (we've been sucked in by American Girl, against my better judgement). Last year for extended family adults, I found a great cheap gift - used wordle.net to make word pictures with words special to each person or couple - very personalized and meaningful, but very cheap - just had to pay for frames from Wal-Mart.
Those are small amounts, I feel like we are spending a lot. $1000 or so, two families, wifes parents and 2 dogs, brother & wife and two dogs and now kid, sister and two dogs, my parents, sister, my aunt/uncle/cousin, my other aunt/uncle and 2 cousins, one more aunt and grandma, and actually one more aunt and her dog. "It's the way it's always been". No way to just stop. Kinda sucks. I told my wife I hate getting all these useless presents every year, it's getting out of control. I would rather split the $1000 between the two of us and buy stuff that we actually want and need. Frustrating.
The really frustrating part is my parents really pushed for my side (giving xmas presents to all my aunts and uncles and cousins), even when we were living in a small apartment making very little money (me: $12/hr, my wife: $10/hr).
To answer the question (sorry) we budget $50 per person for immediate family and $15-$20 per person for extended family, adults and kids. With black friday we can get a lot accomplished though, sounds like a small amount but the presents aren't bad.
wow a big variation here. I'm grateful we have such a small family but even if we had a huge family I don't think I would spend so much money on "useless presents".
Except for something homemade, I wonder what kind of quality present can be found for $20. Thanks all for your posts.
We have 2 grown kids and don't give them any presents at birthdays or Christmas cause we add them at no cost to our family phone plan and AAA. We also give them alot of frequent flyer miles. We figured free college educations and no interest car loans was enough.
Our two youngest are 8 and they are getting scooters, clothes, books, puzzles, remote control cars and a fun experience during the holidays. That means tickets to something rather expensive but don't know which one yet. Also sizeable contributions to their college funds.
One advantage to having 2 sets of kids almost 20 years apart is realizing how much money was wasted "just because it's a special occasion."
We decided the best girft of a lifetime we could give our kids is not having to ask them for financial help in our old age. That means handling our resources the right way now.
Still we try to make Christmas a happy time for them. We just have to be creative.
We stopped buying gifts for each other years ago. Instead of buying into the commercialism of the holidays, we focus on being together as a family and enjoying good food. I can't remember what the catalyst was for the shift in our tradition, but we now prefer doing it the way we do.
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After Christmas, we take the kiddo shopping with the money from her grandparents - she has to save 10% of what she gets, and she can spend the other 90%. They each give her about $50.
