Here's a piece talking about Christmas spending Some interesting info from it:
The average shopper is planning to spend $929 on gifts this holiday season according to the American Research Group. With the average U.S. family income of $55,775, according to the Census ACS survey, this means, on average, that families spend 1.66% of their total income on presents for Christmas.
We spend about $800 a year on Christmas and have for a decade or more. Since we've made substantially more than $56k per year, we are well below the national average.
Even in early retirement, our income is almost twice the national average, so we're still well below the average spent on the holiday.
How about you? What did you spend on Christmas this past season? And did you get any really cool gifts? ;)
We spent about $500; counting mailing costs. We are retired, so my husband and I gave each other “gifts” we would have bought anyway- I gave him gym clothing that he picked out because we work out almost daily, and I received a generous donation to a cause I love. My adult children received food baskets that I put together. More distant relatives received personalized stationery. I feel very good about what I gave and got. The hardest part of holiday shopping for me is the planning involved, everything from who is on the gift list to what is an appropriate gift.
Posted by: Jen W | January 09, 2017 at 04:00 PM
We spent a grand total of $350. Last year we spent $850 and it decimated our budget for January. This year we did a lot more DIY gifts to cut costs. The really great part was that we used credit card rewards to pay off Christmas, so our out of pocket cost for the holidays was only $50. :)
Posted by: Mrs. Picky Pincher | January 10, 2017 at 06:18 AM