I save a certain amount each week that is strictly for gifts for the year, including birthdays and weddings. I know how many people I am buying for and how much I am going to spend and allow extra for the unexpected.
I spend the same amount on each my nieces, and then the same amount on the grand niece and nephews.
When I go Christmas shopping I have my list of who to buy for and what I can spend. While I’m certainly not anal about going a few bucks over, I do stick to my budget.
I have friends though, that have no idea what they will spend. They will go shopping, see something they think somebody will like and buy it with no thought to cost. They don’t keep track of what they bought for whom. Then they get home, add it up, find out they spend twice as much on one kid as the other and have to go buy more to even it up. Or they bought 3 gifts for one person and nothing for another. Ultimately they end up spending more than they can afford and are broke for the next few months.
I don’t specifically save a set amount each week to cover gifts, but my shopping style is much closer to yours than to your friends. I have a rough amount of what I’ll spend on different tiers of the family and pick up things within that range as I come across them through the year. Then in early to mid-November I sit down with my squirreled-away purchases and make a list.
I’ve been lucky enough to not need to budget for gifts, so far in my life. Probably it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start, since my husband is launching his own business now. Of course, what does a budget mean when you never know what your income is going to be?
I do spread Christmas shopping out over the year though. No qualms about buying gifts at any time, here.
It kidnd of blows my mind that apparently some people don’t budget. How can you just spend without thinking about it? I am sure these are the people who also get disgusted by the whole affair.
I budget, a general amount,for each person I have to buy for. I may go over by a couple of bucks, I may go under, too. When the kids are older and want expensive stuff I’ll give them money. Of course I don’t have any off my own, but that behooves me even more to budget…I will never get that money back in the form of presents for my own kids.
Why is this confusing? While I’m not going to spend $2,500 for my niece, if I find something that seems good, I’ll spend $50, $100, or $200. How could I budget an amount until I saw something I thought she’d like. Similarly, if I find something for my wife I like, I’d spend $100 or $1,000, or anything in between. Is that a $1,000 budget or a $500 budget that I’m willing to be flexible on?
I had a coworker that would put xmas on his plastic charge card. And spend the following year paying it off. Then do the same next year.
I remember one raise we got amounted to $80 a month. They couldn’t live with the extra money. Immediately went out and bought a car that cost $80 month more. I couldn’t live like that. But these people do exist.
If I had only one I might be more flexible, but I have 2 and between them they have 5 kids and 2 stepkids.
There’s a lot of difference between buying for one person and buying for 9.
I have one son, but even he gets a budgeted amount. I’m a lot more relaxed about what I spend on him (within reason), but if I had several kids I’d be a lot less flexible.
Yes. I have a general budget worked out on a spreadsheet for about 18 months in advance, and the “Misc.” category gets a boost in November and December for gifts. It’s generally about $500, divided more or less equally amongst everyone I need to get gifts for (we only do immediate family; my group of friends decided long ago to not get gifts for each other outside of major events, e.g. weddings, births, new houses, …).
But this year and going forward my GF and I, since getting engaged, decided to implement the “couples” gift, i.e. I’ll get gifts for my family and put your name on them, and vice versa, instead of each of us getting a gift for everyone in both families, resulting in less gifts overall, but higher quality gifts for everyone.
In past years, I’ve set up a medical savings account (allows medical expenses to be paid with pre-tax dollars) and then collected medical receipts, requesting the reimbursement in late November. That way it functioned a bit like a Christmas savings account. Then things got scattered for a couple of years and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to save enough receipts to get the money back.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to start that up again. Other than that, I only budget by trying to buy things months ahead of time, to spread out the purchases. And keeping a list, so that I can see what’s been spent.
I have to buy for about fifteen people, so yeah, I budget. And I know what I want to buy before I step foot in a store. Actually, that’s probably why I find shopping so hard – I know exactly what I want and can’t find it.
I have a budget, though it’s much looser than described in the OP.
In terms of savings, Christmas just comes out of my regular savings. Since December is the low point of my year finance-wise, I know how much I can spend based on how much I have in savings. If I have a nice cushion of savings for the emergency fund, then I’m willing to spend more on Christmas. If savings are already short, I’m not making the problem worse by over-spending for presents.
Once I’ve decided how much to spend, then I also put together a list of the people I need to spend money on and about how much I want to spend on each.
When it comes time for shopping, I’m willing to go over budget by a little bit, and I’m willing to shuffle around the amount I spend on each person, but I pretty much stick to my guns.
Not officially. I just agree on spending limits with my giftees. Usually spend about $25-$45 and I only have to buy for my mom, sister, and boyfriend. And maybe my mom’s boyfriend.
If I qualify, and I’ve yet to not qualify, I get a monetary award around Black Friday based on my performance during the previous fiscal year. My budget for Christmas presents comes out of there.
Usually it’s just something for me, her, and maybe something we both can use. Last year, I myself a new computer desk because the old one was falling apart, some DVDs for her, and a futon frame & futon for us.
We do buy for others if we go visiting for the holidays. We just just pick up something relatively inexpensive & easily transportable that I think the recipient would like and don’t bother trying to give everyone an equal amount.
We quit doing gifts years ago, and it’s so much nicer. The youngest on one side of the family is 18, and on the other, is 23. All but the 18-y/o are employed or retired and we’re pretty much in the position to get ourselves whatever we want whenever we want it. When gift giving became a dreaded chore, we opted out.
Instead, we do a $10-20 goofy gift exchange game. It’s fun and creative and after an hour or so of playing, everyone ends up with a silly token. No pressure, no bills, no returns, just fun family time.
We will give my husband’s folks a couple of gift cards for restaurants because they really like eating out but they won’t treat themselves too often. And my mom loves wine, so we look for new local varieties for her. But that’s it. I honestly don’t recall the last time my husband and I bought gifts for each other.
So I guess my answer is, no, we don’t have to budget for Christmas.
I budget. We spend approximately the same on both sons (taking into account what they’ve needed help with throughout the year and who got what “big present” last year) and just as important, they always get the same number of gifts. Which is why one can get a camera while the other is opening a DVD. We stopped doing stockings and went to Xmas bag teasers with only a thin layer of tissue paper to protect (ha) from prying eyes, set under the tree at least a week before the big day, which I gradually add to day by day. (Even my husband starts getting antsy.) In with the tossed-aside-chocolates-for-later and what have you is a small but unexpected gift. Something they didn’t ask for and maybe didn’t even know they wanted, but makes them go “Oh, man…!” Two or three years ago they declared these must be “opened” on Christmas Eve. Our kids are going on 33 and 40. Don’t tell me Christmas isn’t magic.
I save a little out of each check all year that transfers to another savings account automatically. (I do this with several accounts earmarked for different things.)
Around this time of year, I divide and disburse this money to all the involved family members in an envelope with an index card. I tell the kids especially “This is your holiday budget. Keep a list, shop well and wisely, and keep the change.” The kids have become very good shoppers and I increase their share a bit each year.
