Cost of Christmas….What in your budget

Serious Business Backup 44 replies 1,881 views
thePITman's avatar
thePITman
Posts: 3,867
Nov 23, 2009 2:50pm
The number of people for whom I'm buying this year has gone down by about 5 people as my family (brothers, sisters-in-law, and parents) decided to have an exchange instead of getting everyone something. I will get to pocket most of my Christmas bonus this year.
tk421's avatar
tk421
Posts: 8,500
Nov 23, 2009 3:11pm
$0. I'm completely broke.
Quint's avatar
Quint
Posts: 737
Nov 23, 2009 3:13pm
I'm a poor starving law student, so I will use the old. . . sorry. . . didn't have the time or money to get gifts method. . . or I'll hand out coupons for 1 free favor.

$0
ernest_t_bass's avatar
ernest_t_bass
Posts: 24,984
Nov 23, 2009 3:15pm
Now that my immediate family has their own families, I think it is time to stop the gift giving with the extended families. Currently, we have to go to:

Our family (most important) ... wife, daughter, me, dog
Wife's family (big family)
My family
My Mom's side of the family
My Dad's side of the family
My girlfriend's family

When is enough enough?
R
raiderbuck
Posts: 1,623
Nov 23, 2009 3:18pm
-About $200-$300 on my mom and sister
-And then an undisclosed amount on my Dad's retirement party. Twenty-three years serving the good (and criminal lol) people of Mansfield, OH. Have no idea what it's going to cost, but I know I'll be pitching in quite a bit.
Quint's avatar
Quint
Posts: 737
Nov 23, 2009 3:20pm
ernest_t_bass wrote: Now that my immediate family has their own families, I think it is time to stop the gift giving with the extended families. Currently, we have to go to:

Our family (most important) ... wife, daughter, me, dog
Wife's family (big family)
My family
My Mom's side of the family
My Dad's side of the family
My girlfriend's family

When is enough enough?
HAHAHA. . . GF's family. . . nice.
C
cchsfootball04
Posts: 20
Nov 23, 2009 3:34pm
I'm pretty broke but I will probably end up spending a couple hundred all together if I can save up that much money. I need a new job.
zambrown's avatar
zambrown
Posts: 1,093
Nov 23, 2009 3:43pm
About $500 all together. We quit getting gifts for each other and the adults in our respective families don't exchange. That is for mother-in-law and the boy (ofcourse we also just bought the class ring, as well. Ouch!)
F
fan_from_texas
Posts: 2,693
Nov 23, 2009 4:24pm
We don't generally spend all that much. We'll spend $50 on my parents, $50 on her parents, probably $100-ish on our siblings. For Mrs. FFT and me, the best present is just being able to have some time off to spend some quality time together and hang out with family. I imagine we'll get something for each other, though in years past that's usually been less than $100/each.

All told, I would put us under $400-500. I don't really know what else we'd spend money on. The thought of having thousands of dollars spent on you every Christmas is mind-boggling. I just don't even know what I'd even want.
N
noreply66
Posts: 466
Nov 23, 2009 5:46pm
I'll be around $1000.00
sleeper's avatar
sleeper
Posts: 27,879
Nov 23, 2009 5:58pm
$100

That is my goal every year. Anymore than that and the people around you are probably materialistic and should probably revalue your life. There is more to life than having "things" unless those "things" are women and beer.
believer's avatar
believer
Posts: 8,153
Nov 23, 2009 6:24pm
Three daughters @ $100 each. Period.

I love the meaning of Christmas, the family gatherings, the food, the spirit, the office parties, the football games (LOL)....but I loathe the gift giving part.

I can't stand the vastly over-done commercialism and materialism....and I'm a die-hard capitalist!
P
puffyisback
Posts: 253
Nov 23, 2009 7:44pm
we spend probably a grand all together":

The 4 year old obviously most important
my parents
her parents
my sister
her sister
her grandma
my grandma
we each get 1 name out of her family exchange
she buys for 1 co-worker
V
v_falcons
Posts: 447
Nov 23, 2009 7:51pm
Spent about 400 bucks today, I'm about halfway through the list.. yipee
ICEMAN59's avatar
ICEMAN59
Posts: 160
Nov 23, 2009 8:34pm
Probably around $750, total.
U
Upper90
Posts: 1,095
Nov 23, 2009 8:37pm
My family doesn't celebrate Christmas, but I've got some friends that do, and they get me stuff....so, in turn, I get them stuff, because otherwise, I feel awkward and uncomfortable. Plus, despite my not growing up celebrating it, I truly enjoy the "spirit" of Christmas.

So, with that said, I still can't see myself spending over 200 on friends.
Sage's avatar
Sage
Posts: 2,070
Nov 23, 2009 9:46pm
Friends/Family don't give me anything because they know I'll pawn it off for drug money.
GoJPM!'s avatar
GoJPM!
Posts: 799
Nov 23, 2009 9:57pm
$1000 max. No credit cards, all cash. No January bills for me!
Scarlet_Fever's avatar
Scarlet_Fever
Posts: 736
Nov 23, 2009 10:40pm
$1000 here also. Plus no credit cards for me either.
MANAZE's avatar
MANAZE
Posts: 1,055
Nov 24, 2009 2:12am
Nice that are some people that still care. We don't have a lot but we always try and at least do one Angel Tree Child.

My wife and I shop all year round so we always go over are "budget" but because it is spread out so much it doesn't really hurt us. I'm lucky to have two boys that are still young enough not to care if its Spiderman from the 3rd movie or the cartoon, to them its just Spiderman. So when places like K-mart has a sell we stock up on toys for them. Like just a few months ago they had half off of clearance and we picked up like 50 dollars worth of toys that would have cost 300. It was all TMNT Power Rangers and Pokemon stuff but thats what they love. So it works out for us right now.