Holiday Shopping already? Budget??

[enchantedpixiedust]

Hi

We're getting ready to set up our families online Christmas wish list and was wondering who has started Christmas shopping already.

We have a BIG group and everyone buys multiple gifts for everyone (unfortunately). How much do you usually average per person gift wise? Do you just set an overall budget? I'm looking at my spreadsheet from last year thinking I could have bought all new furniture from what I spent. I think I just get that Holiday-dazed-look and buy and buy.

 

[kimwim8]

I have started looking, but no purchasing yet. I'm hoping to buy my kids some stuff at WDW in October.

As far as the rest of the family, once our siblings have kids, we only buy for the kids, and we do $25 each. I am quite the bargain hunter, so I can actually do pretty well with that. I have 7 neices & nephews to shop for, so it gets a little overwhelming.

Parents we usually spend $40ish each, since we feel like they help us out so much during the year. Grandparents usually only want pics of the kids, so that's what they get.

I wish I could start shopping earlier, but then I feel like I might find something later that I want to buy, and I might have spent over my budget. So I wait. Oh, and I have to be out there on black Friday....it's a tradition!

 

[crazelion]

I set a budget for 200.00 dollars or less and don't go over. I have a large family thats all i can afford to spend.

So I start the day after Christmas shopping for bargins. The places I shop is the Dollar Tree, Dollar General , Family Dollar and Wal-mart. I have got some nice gifts for cheap.

I known get odd gifts for people and they love them.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

I usually spend about $100 on my mom
$50 on my dad (he's just much harder to shop for)
$50 on my brother & Sis in law
$25 each on my neices (2 of them)
$25 on Grandma
$25 on best friend
$25 donated to Toys For Tots

= $325 and I usually stay WAY under that.

Chris and I spend about $150 on each other though we aren't doing that this year, since our Dec trip to WDW is our gift to each other.

 

[mrsltg]

I have started my shopping for dd. We were at the Disney store and she saw something that she wanted. I went back a few days later and picked it up along with some other things.

I usually do $100 for each parent ($400 total), $25 - $50 for each of my brothers (>$100), $50 for my grandparents, $10 - $15 for each of my aunts and my dd's aunt ($50 - $70 or so total), $500 for dd, $1000 for dh.

I love shopping and wrapping, and I really love watching my dd go wild on Christmas morning!

Erin

 

[monkeyboy]

I have almost paid off last years bills

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

I try not to total up Christmas purchases or WDW trip budgets--it might scare me!

 

[Crankyshank]

I budget Christmas in my excel budget. That way i have a set price and it's easier to keep track of what I am spending and where. I also make a list of what i want to buy that person.

I hate spending time at the malls during the holiday season - I detest crowds!

This is usually how I budget:
$75 Mom
$75 dad
$50 Grandparents
$25 Grandmother
$100 in-laws (usually get them a gc someplace)
$50 brother
$50 sister
$250 for hubby to spend on me
$250 for me to spend on hubby
$50 for 2 family yankee swap gifts
$25 pets

 

[lilpritch04]

DH and I both get an extra paycheck in the fall, this year it is at the end of September. We use part of this check for Christmas gifts.

We are trying to stick to $25pp for our family, but I know that will be hard. We just combined our finances last year and the Christmas budget became a huge fight since we were used to have much more disposable, and personal, income before we bought our house.

I used to spend about $100 on my parents and $50 or more on my brother. Before DH and I bought the house and got married, I usually spent over $200 on just him. I would save money all year round to put towards gifts. He would just charge everything and spend about $50pp, but his family is much larger and he always spent about $200 on me as well. Needless to say we are paying off some of his debt now. Arg--less $ for Christmas and less money for WDW HM!

Last year we gave our families framed engagement pictures and then the kids got gifts, that worked really well for our budget, but we know this year will be different. We are thinking of giving our parents coffee table wedding books from MyPublisher.com since they will appreciate that--and they understand our financial stress and situation right now.

 

[Amberle3]

I like to do gift baskets. It's easy to find smaller things people will like during the year, and I just pick those up and put them aside. Then I try and find something interesting to put the stuff in (doesn't have to be a basket) and spend an afternoon close to Christmas assembling everything.

That way the costs are spread out over the year, you have the opportunity to do some really good bargain shopping, and the end total is usually less than buying "big" presents. Plus everyone else seems to give the "big" presents (I'm not talking necessarily price-wise) so this way it's a pretty good bet that the recipient isn't going to receive a duplicate of something in your basket.