fess up - how much have you spent on Christmas?

[partgypsy]

So I was reviewing my records and realized I''ve spent around $700 on Christmas so far. Unfortunately for me that''s being good! How are you all doing with your Christmas budgets?

 

[janinegirly]

about 1K. I bought too many big ticket items this year!!

 

[steph72276]

Just added it all up and it is about $2k

 

[Shoopy]

We''ve spent $450 so far and have my mom, brother, his parents, and his brother left to buy. However, $300 of that was our joint gift.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

I''ve spent just under $600, but that''s for everyone on my list.

 

[Squirrly]

i think around 500 for everyone. 1,000 if my plane ticket gets added in.

 

[Callisto]

While I wish I could spend hundreds of dollars on gifts for my family and friends, I''m trying not to break $300. Right now the budget looks like it will be about $250. I''ve really cut who I buy gifts for down lately. We do grab bags with both sides of the family, so its really just immediate family, SO, and SO''s parents that I buy for. I''m sure this will increase dramatically in the coming years as I get married and need to buy for friend''s and family''s kids and such. Also I currently work with a lot of graduate students and being a recent grad myself, we''re all pretty poor so no one does gifts beyond baked goods which is nice. I''m also making a gift for my dad which cuts costs a bit.

 

[KimberlyH]

We went to New York in November and are calling that our Chirstmas gift to each other, but I won''t add that into our total as it''s just my husband''s excuse for me not to buy him anything (he got something for me, cheater). The adults in my family draw names and shop for one person, we buy for my nephew, altogether I''d say we''ll have spent about $300 on gifts we''ve purchased from a store. For everyone else I make homemade gifts (usually tamales, this year I''m just baking, only making tamales for Christmas Eve dinner for my family) I would add an additional $50 for baking supplies for gifts. So I''d say about $350 total in gifts.

That was wordy.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I''m not sure. . .maybe about $200-250 (and that has been spent exclusively on my kids). All I have left is a few stocking stuffers for my DH.

After the holidays I''ll be getting a blue ray player for my Dh. We''re holding off hoping to find one at a great sale price.

 

[D&T]

about $800 for the family (nieces, nephew, FIL, MIL, parents and siblings), then DH and I have separate xmas funds which ended up about $2000 on top of that

so approx $2800

 

[partgypsy]

Isn''t it terrible it makes me feel better when I hear of people who have spent more money than I? Like I''m not THAT bad... In my defense I think it is really hard when you have about 15 people on your list to buy for, a couple (mother, MIL) who expect big presents. There shouldn''t be any crying this Christmas at any rate.

 

[Haven]

We only give gifts to the kids in our family and our parents. We spent just under $400. That was for nine children and three parents. We only spent $25 on each child. (We don''t have our own kids, yet.)

 

[yssie]

We did the home-made thing for pretty much everyone except the kids this year, so it's under 250, probably under 200. I'm only counting ingredients and jars, not my new crock pot and other kitchen gadgets that I just had to have to do it right

Usually winds up being about triple that!

 

[D&T]

Date: 12/21/2009 1:44:01 PM
Author: D&T
about $800 for the family (nieces, nephew, FIL, MIL, parents and siblings), then DH and I have separate xmas funds which ended up about $2000 on top of that

so approx $2800

and I hate spending this much on the ILs... as they aren''t terribly grateful

or genuine and really rip on gifts from FIL many times before on how "cheap" something is. I need to cut back and think of other ways, Its just obligatory gift giving and its not fun

I might have to opt to do handmade, homemade products by me next year. The ILs insist that everyone gives/gets a present

whatever budget we have, but then its like you don''t really have much of a budget when you have to shop for 23-25 people (includes step MIL and step FIL)... sorry for the mini rant and threadjack

 

[yssie]

Date: 12/21/2009 2:48:11 PM
Author: D&T

Date: 12/21/2009 1:44:01 PM
Author: D&T
about $800 for the family (nieces, nephew, FIL, MIL, parents and siblings), then DH and I have separate xmas funds which ended up about $2000 on top of that

so approx $2800

and I hate spending this much on the ILs... as they aren''t terribly grateful

or genuine and really rip on gifts from FIL many times before on how ''cheap'' something is. I need to cut back and think of other ways, Its just obligatory gift giving and its not fun

I might have to opt to do handmade, homemade products by me next year. The ILs insist that everyone gives/gets a present

whatever budget we have, but then its like you don''t really have much of a budget when you have to shop for 23-25 people (includes step MIL and step FIL)... sorry for the mini rant and threadjack

That does not sound like fun at all. I wonder, is it just one or two people in the IL clan who feel this way or is it everyone? I can see how that would get painfully expensive

 

[D&T]

Date: 12/21/2009 2:52:55 PM
Author: yssie

That does not sound like fun at all. I wonder, is it just one or two people in the IL clan who feel this way or is it everyone? I can see how that would get painfully expensive

DH and I are going to advocate for just couples or family gifts next year or something instead of single gifts for everyone- we'll see how that pans out. Its very painfully expensive

 

[lilyfoot]

We have spent $150-$175 of our cash for gifts for 10 family members, however we also had about $100 in gift cards that we used to buy some gifts. We got a lot of good deals at a local outlet mall, using store coupons, and BF''s employee discount at work. Mostly everyone is getting 2 gifts each.

On each other, BF and I have spent about $700. $400 of that is for the netbook he bought for me though.. also I know we are both not done buying stocking stuffers, so add a bit more to that.

I think we did really well. We''re good bargain shoppers

 

[Smurfysmiles]

We spent about 750 on gifts and also getting the guest bedroom and bathroom ready for the ils

 

[E B]

We're on a tight budget this year, so for approx. 10 family members and a couple of white elephant gifts, we're at about $400 total. DH and I decided not to exchange gifts this year and we didn't buy for the baby since he'll be getting plenty from everyone else in the family. Some of our gifts are handmade, and for the others I bargain-hunted. For example, I bought my mom a nice Sony digital frame during the Black Friday sales for less than half of what it costs now on Amazon.

 

[charbie]

hmmm...DH and i each set a cap at $250 on each other, then about $30/person thereafter. On my side we also just do a "name from a hat" and have a $150 limit- but keep in mind that then that''s all my mom and sister get since they don''t have SO''s who they share gifts with, so the limit is a bit higher so they can actually get some gifts.

sooooo...we''ll be around $1000 all in all...wow...i didn''t realize how much we spent!

 

[kama_s]

Around 700$ or so - it''s hard to include the cost of every little stocking stuffer. We really don''t exchange gifts with a lot of people - I''ve cut back significantly on Christmas gift-giving because I really don''t like the fuss and wastefulness involved. I bake and give cards to friends. My father doesn''t live in the country and doesn''t celebrate Christmas. That leaves my husband, brother, MIL, FIL, BIL and his wife. This year I made pretty pottery items to go with gifts that were under 50$ for each member of the in-law clan. Majority of my budget went towards my brother (since he''s still a kid and I''m the only one he gets Christmas gifts from) and ofcourse, my husband.

 

[NakedFinger]

Wow is it bad it never occurred to me to keep tabs?

I just added everything up and it came to $2,000! Eek! If you include allthe %&*$#@!$ wrapping paper and bows I had to buy(ended up having to go back to the store two extra times to get more), all the food I had to buy for baking, and the "Me" money I spent on getting new boots, my hair and nails done, and a new outfit for X-mas eve, X-mas, and Day after, then its $3,000! ughhh Holidays!

 

[sunnyd]

We''ll be at $450 for everyone (14 people, dang big families!) not including gifts to each other. I think I''ve spent $150 on DH. We just got married 1.5 months ago, so we''re sick of presents and spending money. Haha!

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

$2000 but that includes the cash for the kids. I think I am done but I might get DH one more gift.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 12/21/2009 4:12:16 PM
Author: NakedFinger
Wow is it bad it never occurred to me to keep tabs?

I just added everything up and it came to $2,000! Eek! If you include allthe %&*$#@!$ wrapping paper and bows I had to buy(ended up having to go back to the store two extra times to get more), all the food I had to buy for baking, and the ''Me'' money I spent on getting new boots, my hair and nails done, and a new outfit for X-mas eve, X-mas, and Day after, then its $3,000! ughhh Holidays!

I also bought new clothes for an outfit. . .everything on sale at good prices. . .got a new pair of Sevens for $111 because Macy''s had them 10% off then another 20% if I used my credit card. Plus, I found a cute pair of shoes at the Rack. Probably total for the outfit was $200-220. I may not wear the jeans, but a pair of slacks instead. . .I ended up wearing the jeans on my b-day so already got use out of them

.

 

[diamondringlover]

Around $1000 to $1200 of which around $700 was for my boys, that also includes my oldest son's birthday it is Dec 26.

 

[butterfly 17]

If I break it down, I got my husband a snow blower set up- $500
My oldest daughter got the ipod touch, a cover, boots, operation spongebob- $325, give or take
My middle daughter got an mp3 player, two board games, a singalong microphone, boots- $150
My baby got a two pairs of earrings (she is always losing them) and two toddlers toys- $100
My mom and dad got a deep freezer for the garage which I split with my brother- $150
We are doing a grab bag with the rest of the family so no more than $25 a gift, so for me and my husband- $50
My babysitter and her daughter got one days pay and a barbie doll- $100
I only have three nephews and they got the Wii super marios game and an "i Love you"Elmo doll- $80
I do have an additional 15 to 20 cousins that I normally buy gifs for, but I am thinking about just giving them money this year. I was thinking about $20 each or maybe a family DVD for each family, which would be cheaper, but then I have to wrap them up, so I am not sure.


Without my cousins gifts, we have spent about $1450.
With my cousins gifts, $1850.

I also got two pair of Morris & David earrings which were $1500 ( $750 a pair), for christmas and a new YSL muse large bag in eggplant ($900). The earrings were definitely a Christmas present, but the bag was just something I wanted, lol.

So, the total would be $3350, without the bag. With the bag $4250. Of course, there are a few things here and there I didn''t include, like I got a few games for Christmas like Jenga and Bananagrams, a few books for my girls (ex. diary of a wimpy kid dog days, etc. ), etc.
And I haven''t decided if I am getting my ILs anything as they have never given us anything or my kids anything and I am sick of giving to others and getting nothing in return at least for my kids.

 

[So Excited]

WAY to much!!!! 1800 on a video camera for the family, 700 on the man, he said he spent 500 on me and a healthy 700 on our daugher.... oh yeah and 400 on our family/friends. YIKES... I can''t believe that we spent that much now that we add it up!

 

[Italiahaircolor]

We''re over-spenders for sure! Without breaking down, we''re just over 4k with everyone...and we''re done.

 

[lyra]

I don''t want to know, honestly. We paid cash for everything, and we are not bankrupt yet. We spend not much on each other, but spend a lot on the girls (19 and 22). Their big ticket items were $300 each, ordered in August, so the buying was well spaced out too.

Every year we say we''re going to cut back. Hasn''t seemed to work yet, although I will say that all the gifts were practical in some way. Nothing frivolous really.