What Do You Plan to Spend This Holiday Season?

Last year we spent somewhere around $800 for all of our holiday gifts. This includes the "normal" gifts for family and friends as well as cards (and postage) that we sent out to almost 100 people. This year, we're planning on spending a bit less. For one thing, we bought a new computer for my mom and dad last month and that will serve as their Christmas present (though we didn't charge it to that part of our budget.) In addition, we're going "all email" with our Christmas newsletter/card this year. It gets there faster and is less of a hassle to send out (not to mention saves use some money and time.)

We pretty much know what we're getting the kids and our relatives will again get our most popular gift each year as well as a book I picked up in quantity at Costco about two months ago, so we don't have a ton of shopping to do. And $700 should do it for us. I'll let you know if we go dramatically over or under this number.

How about you? What do you budget for the holidays?

Comments

[DebtyBetty]

I was actually figuring this out the other night. I'm currently at $1048 (including a $100 "cushion" budget), and have currently spent $245 during some early holiday shopping. I'd like to get that down a little lower, but like you, I think my sister and I are going to split the cost of a new, fairly inexpensive computer for our parents, of which my share will be about $300. I think I can definitely buy some less expensive toys for my toddler nephew.

[Passthehat]

Wow, we will likely exceed $2,000 for family and friends which is about the same as we spent last year. Come from a family of seven plus have 3 kids of my own so it adds up quickly.

[Dancinghawk]

Well, I'm single and don't have kids, so I can usually keep holiday gifting pared down without too much trouble. My budget is set at $250 this year -- I have about 30 people total on my list, and I'm making everything -- incense for my friends, bath sugar scrubs for the people I work with. Very inexpensive and fun to put together. :) Probably the only gifts I'll actually buy is something for my niece and nephew, who are too young to appreiciate smelly bath stuff.

[Clint Johnson]

My wife and I are planning to spend around $500. We are recording everything in a google document so we can keep track and have it for the future. We record everything in Quicken, but this way we can see exactly what we bought, who it was for, and how much it cost.

[Flexo]

Is it the holiday season yet? Yikes. All I have planned so far is the amount my girlfriend and I plan on spending on each other: $250.

[erik]

We're probably going to spend around $1,100. we don't have any kids yet, but we have 6 nephews and nieces. We're pretty close to them, so we usually like buying them something.

[garyatk]

In an effort to boycott how commercial Christ-mas has become, we have decided to make a charitable contribution to a Christian aid agency named LOVE INC. (Love in the name of Christ) instead of giving meaningless gifts to family and friends that don't need them. We are then going to send a Christmas letter to everyone we would have given a gift to and encourage them to do the same. We plan on spending $1000 this Christ-mas

This year my husband will be on the road during Christmas. So our plan this year is to go to The Mall of America after Christmas. Each child will get a preset amount on a gift card. And since it's after the holiday hopefully we can save on after holiday specials.The hotel and dining out will be expensive but the way I've planned we'll still save about 900.00 from what we ususally spend on holoidays. We'll see how it goes and see if we can stick to our itinerary and budget. BTW the kids are much happier with the idea of a mini-vacation than a traditional christmas.

[Madison]

Our budget for gifts is usually around $1200. However throwing plane tickets to visit family on top of that really bumps it up. We have a bigger family this year, so it might be higher...

[Me]

I also budget about $800 for my family and my husband. My husband's budget is smaller. We still purchase separately for our families but say the gifts are from "us". The budget does not include cards, charity contributions, holiday meals or the cookie supplies I use to bake for friends and family. I am interested to see what the total is with all the above added in.

I add an additional $400 for household presents or for myself such as an electronics item from a black Friday deal, or a new dress I must have for the company party (though I don’t spend hundreds on dresses). It gets absorbed. So my total budget is $1200. I put $100 a month away in a Holiday Club account. I wised up and will put the $100 in a high yield savings account next year.

[Anitra]

We'll spend $30-50 on each of the ten people within our "close" family. Probably another $50 in total on presents for work colleagues, and hopefully less than $10 on christmas cards, since I'm making them all by hand from materials we already have. So, probably around $500 in the end, maybe less if we can get good deals on some presents.

[Rick]

$100 max for me, but only because I "have" to. Christmas gifts are so overrated. Christmas is about celebrating Jesus Christ's birth, and not about selfish consumerism. I prefer to spend time with family and to reflect on what God has done in my life, and not buy buy buy things that are soon forgotten anyway.

[Andrea]

I enjoy buying gifts for people and don't see it as consumerism. Consumerism to me is buying something for me with only me in mind. I like to get people thoughtful gifts, things *they* would enjoy rather than making a generic cocoa mix and really, if I can afford to treat myself regularly I can take one time out of the year to treat others. If I have to forgo some treats in December to pay for gifts for others, isn't that what the spirit of the holidays is all about?

I also don't think giving to charity is truly thinking of the other person either, since *I* would be the one picking my favorite charity, and *I* am the one receiving the tax deduction. I feel the same way about gift cards. I think people just don't want to put the effort in the holiday anymore, which makes me sad. BTW for comparison sake, our household income is 72k and we will probably spend between $500-800 this year.

[Garyatk]

Andrea, The charity that we are giving to this year instead of buying Christmas presents is NOT my favorite charity. It is a wonderful charity however that shows the love of Christ to those who need Him most. Christ came to save us ALL from the misery WE created for ourselves. In celebration of His birth, we are giving to a charity that continues His work today. Quite appropriate I believe. Oh, and by the way, I'm very sorry you look at charitable giving as a tax deduction. When we figured out how much we were going to give, we also figured out what our tax deductable benefit was going to be, and added it to the contribution. Charitable giving and volunteerism to a Christian is a way to grow in our faith, and love for Christ, and to see His miricles happen. Through this selfless donation, several people in need will get heat, food, clothing, and shelter that wouldn't otherwise have it. I shared this in an effort to maybe encourage others who are frustrated with the wasteful consumerism, and perversion of the true meaning of Christmas. Christmas is about Christ giving us the greatest gift of all. Giving my mother another coffee table book from Borders just doesn't do it justice. MERRY CHRIST-MAS!!!!