Oy Vey, did I bust my holiday budget!! how did everyone else make out?

[eliza61]

Whew, this year I busted my holiday budget. On gift shopping I did great but entertainment/food went through the roof.
I'm happy I did it but lol I already told the kids we won't be eating out in January.

1) had a chance to grab tickets to see Wicked on broadway. excellent show and I always wanted to see it but wow Broadway plays are getting up there with Disney park tickets.

2) my niece and her family made a surprise trip to the East coast (they live in Vegas). I invited the "family" over at the last minute thinking maybe 7 or 8 would be able to come since it was short notice. 22 showed up. We had an awesome family dinner but feeding a crowd ain't cheap. everyone brought some beer and wine so I didn't have a booze tab (we are definitely drinkers. lol)

How did everyone else do with their holiday budget? Hope everyone had a great time.

 

[Chelley00]

I wasn't doing too bad until one of my older DS's longtime girlfriends cut her family vacation short to come here for Christmas, and my other oldest DS's best friends flew in from out of state to stay here too (his family moved away 2 years ago and came here on a college visit so he can move back home). I ended up going out to shop for them to make sure they were included in our Christmas traditions (Christmas Eve pajamas and four gifts plus stocking stuffers on Christmas morning)

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We did pretty well actually. And most of the big hitters were bought some time ago, so the latest CC bill didn't cause a heart attack LOL

I went over budget on DW as she said "no presents" and I did not adhere. Still came in under $100 and got 2 things she REALLY liked, so I didn't even get lectured She of course also broke her own rule, but did a little better on the budget.

 

[Jake&IzzyLand]

Same here, present budget on point. Food and drinks always get me!

 

[powellrj]

I did great until the last week. I did great early on, then I decided I needed to add a few people to the gift list. I also went crazy with the groceries the last week. I think they will last into next week so we should be Ok. DH wasn't very happy but he didn't say anything. We also took everyone out to dinner Saturday night that we hadn't planned on, but it had been a hard day and it was nice to have us all together.

 

[kool_kat]

My husband and I didn't even get gifts for each other - we just did stockings. We also don't have kids but still somehow managed to spend over 1k on presents...I'm still trying to figure that one out. Food killed us too. We actually didn't do too bad on eating out but groceries were 200 over budget. This is our first year married and I am now realizing how expensive it is when you have to buy for two families.

 

[LinderInWonderland]

Gift budget was on point and for the first year ever, so was food and entertainment!

Highlights:
1. DH and I had all of Christmas Eve day and night to ourselves (a gift from my DSIL) and watched Star Wars The Force Awakens for the third time and then just hung out at home. It was great!
2. Christmas Day is also our honorary nephew's birthday. We don't exchange Christmas gifts with their family (except for food gifts) but we do get him a birthday gift. Our gift of a squishy soft stuffed fox was a huge hit, so I was delighted!

 

[disny_luvr]

We stuck to our budget. I put money away each week for Christmas and we didn't spend over the saved amount. I did purchase some extra food as we took some along to our Christmas Day gathering and we had some friends over last night for dinner but I had extra money in my checking account to cover those extra purchases. I'm so happy I had enough money to cover Christmas and don't have to worry about paying it off later.

 

[eliza61]

I'm pretty good with paying it off, although I did hit my savings. I'm just doing an end of month reality check. Wicked tickets were 150 bucks and by the time I finished with dinner, parking and tolls, a simple night out with sister and good friend ended up with my savings being 400 bucks lighter.

Same with dinner, easy 500 buck bill over normal grocery bill.

 

[TB'sWidow]

Count me in as going over! we just did a trip to Disney on Thanksgiving break an told the kids an grandkids it was part of their Christmas gifts an they wouldn't be getting much well that went out the window lol and I still bought stuff now I'm like why did I do that oh well their faces were worth it I guess

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

I did not do well. LOL. Set $800 budget for my daughter's gifts and spent $1300. LOL. Way too many cute clothes out there, and she is an only child. lol. Yes - spoiled, but its ok I can afford to do it, not missing a rent payment over it. But we go to disney next week so I was hoping to stay under $1000, but couldnt do it. LOL.

 

[tarheel618]

Yep- I blew it-must plan better for next year

 

[MomToOne]

Kept to budget.

Well, until I hit a curb with the rental car - a HUGE 6 person SUV instead of the reg full size I was SUPPOSED to have, long story - and blew a tire. I'm waiting for the bill on that one - I shudder to think what it will be. My insurance will cover anything over my $500 deductible, except for the "loss of use" charge they will hit me with. But since my sister rented the car using ff points (despite my very vocal objections), there is no credit card coverage to take care of the deductible. So I will be out the loss of use charges + probably $500 since I'm sure they will find a way to max out the repair bill. Luckily I got an unexpected end-of-year bonus. And my lovely sister will be chipping in because this whole mess was her making - another long story.

 

[pigletto]

Yes and no. I kept to budget within $25 or so, until my dh said he secretly hates the fact that we don't do gifts for each other. For several years we have done stockings but put gift money towards trips. He explained he doesn't like not having things under the tree for me Christmas morning. It's really not a big deal to me, because I know it goes to the trips but he wanted tangibles this year. So we added $250 each ($500 total) and got each other some things about two weeks before Christmas.
You know what? I didn't think I cared but it was awesome to get and give surprises. I am in love with my new Fitbit too. I would have asked for it for my birthday anyway, but it was nice to have toys on Christmas morning. I can see his point and will start budgeting each other back in to the the overall Christmas plan.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I did well with my budget. We don't really entertain at the holidays, so no big increase in grocery money or anything. DH busted the budget on my gifts, which was super sweet, but I will have to pay that cc bill when it comes in.

 

[finny1981]

We had put aside money for Christmas and did Christmas shopping in November going about $200 over total on the 4 kids until DH was given the 23rd-27th off (he is salary and normally works 6-7 days 10-12 hours a day) so he wanted to head up to Great Wolf Lodge for Christmas and we went up there from 12/23-26 and so Christmas went over by a lot this year. Good news is that we did not go into debt for it!

 

[roadtripper]

Did great with the gift budget (except for that weekend Disney trip LOL), but food and alcohol were crazy. Hosted 35 Christmas Eve. Plus I decided to host a New Years Day brunch, so the madness isn't over...

 

[kool_kat]

Yes and no. I kept to budget within $25 or so, until my dh said he secretly hates the fact that we don't do gifts for each other. For several years we have done stockings but put gift money towards trips. He explained he doesn't like not having things under the tree for me Christmas morning. It's really not a big deal to me, because I know it goes to the trips but he wanted tangibles this year. So we added $250 each ($500 total) and got each other some things about two weeks before Christmas.
You know what? I didn't think I cared but it was awesome to get and give surprises. I am in love with my new Fitbit too. I would have asked for it for my birthday anyway, but it was nice to have toys on Christmas morning. I can see his point and will start budgeting each other back in to the the overall Christmas plan.

My husband is like this too. This was our first year married (and only our 2nd Christmas together). I personally don't care much about tangible gifts, but I value travel very highly. I would much rather forego Christmas presents and go on a trip. We ended up having the opportunity to take 3 very nice trips in 2016, but in order to do it we had to give up gifts for the year. My husband really struggled with being ok with this. He was worried about me...it took several conversations for him to understand that I will always pick travel over tangible gifts.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

My husband and I didn't even get gifts for each other - we just did stockings. We also don't have kids but still somehow managed to spend over 1k on presents...I'm still trying to figure that one out. Food killed us too. We actually didn't do too bad on eating out but groceries were 200 over budget. This is our first year married and I am now realizing how expensive it is when you have to buy for two families.

Welcome to the club! My husband has 2 families since his parents divorced when he was very young sooo....2 sets of parents/3 married siblings/ grandparents/ nephews on his side. Then of course, there is my side of the family so - we actually buy Christmas gifts for 3 sides!

 

[CandleontheWater]

Like many of you, it was groceries that was the killer. I need to work in an extra $200 for groceries throughout the year so I have my extra christmas cushion. I also need to reign myself in, we were leaving to visit family the day after Christmas, so I decided not to cook, but just to have snack food/appetizers throughout the day. I ended up buying WAY too much, we didn't even touch some of the frozen apps or cheeses I bought! The good thing is that the frozen stuff will stay good for a while, so for the next couple weeks Sat night will be appetizer night, and all the other snacks stayed good until I got home, so I've been having cheese and cracker lunches all week. Not great for my waistline, but yummy, and at least nothing is going to waste!