How is the economy affecting your

[happygirl]

Holiday plans

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

I cut my budget for extended family, not alot, but some. I also insisted that when DH's MIL asked us to host Thanksgiving for their side of the family and offered to buy some of the food for it that DH take her up on it. At first he said "oh, it's okay." NO it's not!!

I'm also not putting up any outside lights this year to save on electricity.

 

[happygirl]

I changed the wording of the post, I didn't think it sound very good

 

[happygirl]

I cut my budget for extended family, not alot, but some. I also insisted that when DH's MIL asked us to host Thanksgiving for their side of the family and offered to buy some of the food for it that DH take her up on it. At first he said "oh, it's okay." NO it's not!!

I'm also not putting up any outside lights this year to save on electricity.

I'm not putting up any lights either

 

[Disneyjamie]

No lights here either. Inside or out.

 

[DawnM]

Not really effecting it too much. We are typically fairly frugal with gifts.

Dawn

 

[rentayenta]

As far as plans, not gifts, we are actually doing more this year. We will have guests for almost the entire stretch between Thanksgiving and New Years.

 

[Princess April]

Nothing has changed, we may actually be spending more $$$ than ever before because we have lowered our debt so much and are dealing with cash. The economy (thankfully ) hasn't really effected the industry DH and I work in.... besides that I am pretty frugal to begin with. I have a friend that just had a baby (2nd) and just returned to work and is bouncing checks like crazy because of a little accounting error on her part. Poor thing I almost fainted when I heard that they had no extra $$$ or even an emergency fund! She told me they live literally paycheck to paycheck and don't have a penny to spend at the end of the month! Bless everyone dealing with this and other financial situations... I see how difficult it can be.

 

[happygirl]

Nothing has changed, we may actually be spending more $$$ than ever before because we have lowered our debt so much and are dealing with cash. The economy (thankfully ) hasn't really effected the industry DH and I work in.... besides that I am pretty frugal to begin with. I have a friend that just had a baby (2nd) and just returned to work and is bouncing checks like crazy because of a little accounting error on her part. Poor thing I almost fainted when I heard that they had no extra $$$ or even an emergency fund! She told me they live literally paycheck to paycheck and don't have a penny to spend at the end of the month! Bless everyone dealing with this and other financial situations... I see how difficult it can be.

My prayers go out to your friend. I hope she can figure out something

 

[wdwfan16]

We are doing the same as in previous years. We are doing more for those is need.

 

[rparmfamily]

We just got notice our renters are moving out on Dec1. Great...just in time for the holidays. Tough to do 2 mortgages this time of year!

We aren't doing gifts to extended family on my side. Only to neices/nephews, my mom (widow) and my 97 yr old grandfather. So that's 5 people on my side.

My DH's side there aren't kids yet so that's FIL/MIL/SIL/BIL. They will get small gifts, like a $25 g/c and some chocolates/coffee from Hawaii.

My kids...are getting 1 big gift and a few smaller ones. I think a DS for my son (already on layaway LOL) and a American Girl doll for DD.

We aren't doing any gifts for each other. Once we get a new renter, we are planning a weekend trip to Maui to see the whales.

 

[dfchelbay]

I actually started doing this the last few years and will continue this year. All outdoor lights and decorations are on for a couple hours only. We used to turn them on at dark and leave them on til bedtime...about six hours or so. Now, there is about a two to three hour time limit on them...approximately 7-10 ish p.m. I still love the lights and decorations, but do not like the electricity bill that comes with them. Also, we used to start lighting up the house Thanksgiving weekend and continue until the New Year. Now, it's later in December and pretty much until Christmas Day. This way we still get the joy of all the decorations, and just a small increase in the December electricity bill.

P.S. We decorate outside like Clark W. Griswold...more lit up than an airport some say!

 

[Planogirl]

No travel for us is the big thing. Our cars are getting a bit old to be traveling too far and we can't really afford to get another one just yet. Hopefully we can solve that after the beginning of the year but meanwhile we're stuck at home.

 

[SRICE100]

We reduced extended family. It was touch to convince MIL that it made no sense to exchange so many gifts as SIL and others in the family are struggling now. So just kids this year. We did this on my side of the family as well.

Mostly I just purchase gifts for DD and DS, and gifts for them to give to people like teachers, coaches, day care, etc.

DH and I don't exchange gifts. We always go on a solo trip between Christmas and New Years (last year Miami, this year Nashville).

I think we will be reducing by about 25-30% this year.

 

[HunnyPots]

No real effect here. Actually, this year is a bit better. Last year, my husband was working 32 hour weeks with intermitent week long plant shut-downs throughout the year. This year, they are functioning 100% again.

But as our holidays are never big money events, we didn't have any real change last year and we most likely won't this year. We did away with extended family gift exchanges long ago and only buy for our two kids.

We'll decorate pretty much the same except this year I am determined to get a real tree! I said last year after hauling the artificial down the attic stairs and spending an hour putting the thing together and then taking it apart and trying to make it fit back in it's box and hauling it back up the attic stairs that I would never do that again. I'm getting a real tree and then hauling it to the curb when I'm done with it!

 

[georgina]

No change. We scaled down our buying years ago, and just get a few things for our parents and our kids. DH and I buy our own gifts so we get just what we want! The economy has so far not affected our income. I did get some new LED icicle lights at Costco.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

We are giving to others as much as we can as we have been so blessed this year.

 

[AndreaDM]

Like a previous poster we too just had our renters move out, ugh! Not only that, but they left some costly repairs for us too. Thankfully none of our 3 kids have asked for a ton of stuff and what they have asked for are really practical things. I have a daughter in culinary school and she wants some cake decorating supplies and things like that. We will be scaling back the amount of gifts we buy simply because I've realized I was just buying things to make the tree look fuller on Christmas morning. But, it's not the presents the kids talk about when they talk about past Christmases, it's the food, the cookies and candy, playing games in our pj's all day and that I let them have ONE mimosa each Christmas morning - except the 6 year old, she get's sparkling juice, lol.

 

[EthansMom]

I usually have the kids' photos taken at a professional photography place in the fall and spend about $300 on photos to give at the holidays (to Grandmas and Grampas -- 4 full sets -- and other family). This year, I'm just going to print out some candid shots we've taken. I plan to donate the savings to charities that help out those in need in our local community (local food bank, energy assistance fund).

We're also spending less money on LOTS of food and instead concentrating on buying the holiday foods we really love. I'm sick and tired of spending money and time preparing foods that none of us truly enjoy because it's the expected food to have (pumpkin pie, for instance). Last year, I made fudge (that turned out awful) and gingerbread (found out I don't like gingerbread, who knew?) which were both a complete waste. So, we're sticking with tried and true foods... and maybe a bit less variety, but also less food getting thrown out... 'cause we always have too much food at the holidays, anyway.

Not an economic change, but I'm also not buying presents for the nieces and nephews... giving the distant ones each a $20 GC and the nearer ones each $20 cash. Will save me a lot of time trying to think of a good gift (that they may or may not already have) and then going out to purchase said gift.

 

[Disney845]

SO's mother and step-father moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains a couple of years ago and while we see them regularly (when they come here) we have not seen their new home yet, and they have been very eager for us to come see them. So we are going to the Mountains for TG this year.

We normally do WDW for TG, so we decided that since we were not going for the holidays this year that we would let our APs expire after our September trip this year. This also ties in to the fact that SO's youngest brother and his wife are having their first baby in early 2010, and we are planning a trip to AZ to see them. So passing on WDW for the holidays frees up funds for this.

I have just this past week taken on a large extra project at work for some additional money to put primarily towards the AZ trip, but I am sure some of the funds will come in handy for X-mas presents. So this really affects my time this holiday more than anything else.

I don't know if we will bother with decorations this year, because I am not sure when we will have the time to do it? But if we do, we bought LED lights on sale after the holidays last year so that they would be more energy efficient.