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1) What's your expected overall holiday gift budget this year?
2) What's your spending limit on things like teacher gifts, 'stocking stuffers,' 'just--in-case' gifts and other holiday presents? Per gift and overall.
I've seen TV shopping hosts suggest 20 bucks for teacher gifts, stocking stuffers, Secret Santa gifts, etc.
That seems high to me for what I call trinket and token of appreciation kind of gifts you don't even have to get someone anyway.
All you have to do is get creative or shop really well and you can get a GOOD gift for way less than that.
1) What's your expected overall holiday gift budget this year?
2) What's your spending limit on things like teacher gifts, 'stocking stuffers,' 'just--in-case' gifts and other holiday presents? Per gift and overall.
I've seen TV shopping hosts suggest 20 bucks for teacher gifts, stocking stuffers, Secret Santa gifts, etc.
That seems high to me for what I call trinket and token of appreciation kind of gifts you don't even have to get someone anyway.
All you have to do is get creative or shop really well and you can get a GOOD gift for way less than that.
I should preface my remarks by saying...I LOVE Christmas shopping, I LOVE giving gifts, I LOVE the season. I never really "budget" per say but I expect to spend somewhere between $4000 and $5000 this season on gifts. This is split between my 1st cousins, my parents, my aunts and uncles, one niece and nephew, and close friends. Half of my spending will probably go to my niece and nephew and the other $3000 will be split between everyone else. I don't have kids of my own and I absolutely love spoiling the hell out of my sister's kids.
I don't celebrate Christmas and if I did it would be more about the traditions of family not the spending. My kids celebrate so they get cash each year. It varies from year to year. The grands get about $50.00 each and my stepdaughter gets anywhere from $100-$500 depending on how things are for her.
I do bake cookies, because I like to and I send out cards for those who I know celebrate.
Wow, 20 bucks per teacher? That seems like a lot to me. My brother and sister in law were career teachers and they used to b*tch about their gifts. Frankly, I wouldn't give them a damned thing.
I think that my holiday budget is probably about $100. I don't have any kids in school so I no longer have to worry about that. I knit a few hats and scarves and place them on the 'mitten tree' at the mall. I bake for friends and neighbors. I mail a box of silliness and memories to my sister who lives far, far away.
I don't have any kids, so luckily I don't have to worry about the teachers/day care/babysitters stuff. I usually do baked goods (and jar gifts) for neighbors and friends, as well as adding them to supplement family gifts.
My husband takes care of gifts for his family (mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, and their two kids), so I really only have to buy for my husband, my mom, my stepdad, my sister and my nephew (brother's son). And maybe my brother. He had stopped doing present exchanges because of financial reasons...I'm not sure if that is in play or not still.
I usually spend $50-75 per person for my family, and...more than that for my husband. So, maybe $300-700, depending on how many people I wind up buying for, how far up in the budget I am and how heavy their gifts are since everyone lives out of town and I wind up shipping gifts.
I am working on bringing my numbers down, though. I also do some shopping throughout the year so I don't get hit with one big bill.
Let me start this off by saying that from an economic perspective gifts are a horribly inefficient means of spending/allocating money, so I try to keep the gift giving limited. The problem when you start giving gifts to everyone is that you start spending money on things for people that they would never spend their own money on, combine that with a time limited obligation to purchase and you often end up spending more for a product than they would. That may be a bah humbug mentality, but it just gives some perspective especially for extended family and friends where gift giving turns into handing out cash and gift cards and the spending becomes wasteful for everyone.
The wife and I don't exchange or do something really small in the $20-$30 range, we have other goals with our money. If we happen to need something as a couple then it doesn't really matter what time of year that falls on. In general I only exchange with my immediate family and my wife exchanges with hers. We don't have kids so that makes it cheaper. I don't really have a budget for the amount I spend on my family. I will spend a hundred or a couple hundred on my parents and usually fifty to a hundred on my brother and sister. But usually it is more dependent on what I want to get them. If there is something very useful that my parents will get a lot of use out of I will get it for them within reasonable limits, and keeping the scope of my gift giving down allows me to spend more on that item.
The problem when you start giving gifts to everyone is that you start spending money on things for people that they would never spend their own money on
Well, that's part of the joy!
Buying mom a sweater that she loves but would never buy for herself...
Taking a nephew to a hockey game, when his parents can't...
Getting your granddaughter that doll she likes but otherwise wouldn't get...
I think that is all wonderful!
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. I don't have kids of my own and I absolutely love spoiling the hell out of my sister's kids.
