xmas budget?

[imthatgirl]

*im not asking what everyone spends, thats personal and varies of course by person.*

im curious how everyone comes up with their budget?

this will be our first year that we really have to budget and i dont really know where to start. i have 3 kids, but i dont necessarily need to spend the exact amount on each, they dont know price of things yet.

so do you figure out first how mnay things you want to buy them and go from there? do you first figure a dollar amount per kid and then borrow from one kid to the next? or do you have another way of doing it?

and how about others? how do you decide, when youre on a budget, what is a good amount to get for extended family?

 

[mommy-on-the-move]

We tend to brainstorm for ideas on what we'd like to get each kid, then sit down and look at what that's all going to cost and then we start to decide which items are going to be realistic and what small additional gifts we want to add in their.

We also set a figure per niece/nephew etc

 

[swald91]

We never budget-we just say this is what we have and no credit card use! My kids usually have saved $$ from b-days, holidays-etc and they spend their $$ on themselves-toys or gifts for friends. This past trip was our 1st w/ Free dining & that was great for us! Spent alot less & we don't normally buy stuff for others. Maybe something here or there for ourselves or special gifts. I know we spent more w/o the dining plan in the past. But I think, like you said, everyone spends different. It would be interesting to see what others do budget!

 

[imthatgirl]

We never budget-we just say this is what we have and no credit card use! My kids usually have saved $$ from b-days, holidays-etc and they spend their $$ on themselves-toys or gifts for friends. This past trip was our 1st w/ Free dining & that was great for us! Spent alot less & we don't normally buy stuff for others. Maybe something here or there for ourselves or special gifts. I know we spent more w/o the dining plan in the past. But I think, like you said, everyone spends different. It would be interesting to see what others do budget!

you make your kids buy their won xmas presents, what kind of parent are you

just to clarify i was asking how people budget for xmas.

 

[daleswife]

I dont know how we are gonna budget for christmas this year!!!! Reason??? I dont have a clue what to get my kids!!!! DD is 5 and out of dora and into princesses but not really, ya know what I mean??? And my DS 1 dont even know where to start with him.....AAAAHHHHHHH

 

[swald91]

you make your kids buy their won xmas presents, what kind of parent are you

just to clarify i was asking how people budget for xmas.

no no no! When they want to get gifts for their friends-they use their own $$!! We buy them too much to begin with!!!! I personally think the trip alone is a great gift-but I think my kids just don't appreciate what we do for them. I would love to go for Christmas-actually be there- but it is so expensive. So maybe if more posters state their budgets-it might be do-able for us. We are thinking about Jan. but $$ is definitely an issue. I always say that next trip no spending on Disney souvenirs-ha! (I'm the biggest rule breaker!!! hahahaha)

 

[imthatgirl]

I dont know how we are gonna budget for christmas this year!!!! Reason??? I dont have a clue what to get my kids!!!! DD is 5 and out of dora and into princesses but not really, ya know what I mean??? And my DS 1 dont even know where to start with him.....AAAAHHHHHHH

5 was a tough age with my daughter as well. she still liked the princesses, but not enough that i wanted to get her things that she was just about to grow out of.
i remember getting her a lot of fake jewelry, fake make up, a pocket book(this was a huge hit) we got her a DS. but yeah that was a tough year.

 

[imthatgirl]

no no no! When they want to get gifts for their friends-they use their own $$!! We buy them too much to begin with!!!! I personally think the trip alone is a great gift-but I think my kids just don't appreciate what we do for them. I would love to go for Christmas-actually be there- but it is so expensive. So maybe if more posters state their budgets-it might be do-able for us. We are thinking about Jan. but $$ is definitely an issue. I always say that next trip no spending on Disney souvenirs-ha! (I'm the biggest rule breaker!!! hahahaha)

no, no. we arent going to disney for xmas...wish i was. like you we just got back. actually i think we were there the same week.
im just trying to get through xmas this year!

 

[swald91]

Forgot to mention...while on the free dining plan I really wanted to save those receipts & total it all-just to get an idea, but never did! I still have them but it's kinda depressing looking at them now. My kids are SO tough to buy for. They are 12-daughter & 8-son. (I need to convince my husband that a trip to Disney would be the best gift for all of us!!!!!!!!)

 

[daleswife]

sorry, hit wrong button......

 

[swald91]

no, no. we arent going to disney for xmas...wish i was. like you we just got back. actually i think we were there the same week.
im just trying to get through xmas this year!

Sorry, thought you were talking about a trip to Disney! Before my kids were born I used to be done shopping by Halloween!! I used to do a little at a time-so it's tough to have a budget. But, that was then...

 

[jlparedes]

Oh gosh, typically we get out of control at xmas. Two years ago I started a budget and say I will spend XX amount on each person I buy for. I also start shopping the year before the next xmas (yes I'm one of those people LOL) so that I'm not scrambling around at xmas time.

This year, I may not be working full time so I let my family know that if they are over 18 uears old, they will not be getting gifts from us and to please only shop for the kids this year....I will shop for DH, but we just get a few little things for each other.

 

[imthatgirl]

Sorry, thought you were talking about a trip to Disney! Before my kids were born I used to be done shopping by Halloween!! I used to do a little at a time-so it's tough to have a budget. But, that was then...

guess you always have disney on the brain. youre not alone

 

[LadyShea]

We went around to all the extendeds and got everyone to agree (happily) to only buy for the kids, and even then to limit things to one gift per kid from each family!

It was seriously getting out of control...no fun at all to go into debt to basically exchange money, because gift cards are so easy it seems everyone had started getting them.

 

[adoptionmomma4]

I have 4 kids ages 3,7,9 and 11 and they are soooo hard to buy for. What do you get a kid who has everything? I have never had a budget for Christmas and I ALWAYS went way over board. On Katie’s first Christmas she was 10 months old. She was still opening boxes of Christmas toys on her first birthday in February. That same Christmas my older kids got almost 70 (yes you read that right 70 ) gifts by the time they got gifts from both families and friends. Two years ago we had a new foster child placed in our home in September. At Christmas time my oldest DD told her "your going ot love Christmas here, we get so many gifts my mom has to move the furniture!"

Last year I started something different because Christmas was getting out of control. We are getting them 3 gifts because that is what the baby Jesus received. I will also fill a stocking for each of them. I do not have a dollar amount for each child because that is way to hard. I do however try to make it as equal as possible. I do not buy them clothes for gifts. We also buy family gifts. Last year we got a Wii and board games. This year we are getting a new laptop. I will admit it was hard to stick to my first year and I did go over the limit a little. This year I will do better and try to stick to the limit. My DH thinks I am trying to cheat the system because I got DD 3 a dollhouse and I am calling the house and all accessories 1 gift.

My mom and brother contribute money to the kids’ college savings plans for holidays and birthdays. My MIL still just buys to buy, but I am working on her. I want her to contribute to the college account as well.

Good luck. It is so hard to try to be fair to everyone.

 

[CrAzY4DL]

For the past 2 years, we have mainly not budgeted an amount, per se, per child but X amount of presents. My oldest daughter (now 9!) would make a list, I would get what I want and then send the rest of the list on to family members. Younger DD (now 5!!!!) would just walk down toy aisles at Target pointing at everything so I would make her a list (edited of course!). If older daughter got 10 presents to open, younger daughter got 10 presents to open with more money usually being spent on older DD because old kids = pricier stuff, haha. This year, I am budgeting $100 for each kid and it's mostly because we just have toooooo much stuff. I know people SAY that but seriously, my kids have too much stuff!!! 90% of their toys are shoved in our "dirty room" (hee hee that sounds nasty!!! it's the storage bedroom but kids call it the dirty room *** it is CHOCK FULL of stuff!!!) so I am really not into buying more. My parents got them a Wii for this Christmas, so I figure I will buy them each 1 Wii game and then spend $50 on whatever is on their list and they each ask Santa for ONE thing (we do this every year. I'm not letting Santa get all the credit for my shopping!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA). Me and the girls are getting annual passes to Disneyland in October, instead of $50 worth of stuff I might just take them to DL for a few days during break. Who knows?! Hmm!!!
But, that's how I budget. Usually it ends up being somewhere between $150 and $300 per kid and I'm just so over that. Now, every year we spend $50 per parent (2 moms, 2 dads) and we have 2 nieces and I spend $25 per niece at Christmas. This year I am just combining it and getting them a VSmile. Their mom (my BFF) is just like us-overwhelmed with the stuff!!!

 

[MoniqueU]

I get their christmas lists way early, this year in June I think it was and start buying what is on their list. They have so much already the lists aren't that long. My DD 10 wanted a laptop so I picked that up at a good price and then picked up another one somewhere else for my DS at an even better price with more stuff included. I got pretty much every video game my DS wanted and the same with my youngest DD. My oldest dd is the killer. I can't even come close to figuring out the kinds of clothes she wants. I will go to the stores she likes, buy something there and it is never the right thing. So I cashed in all my amex points and she is getting 300 for her birthday plus a digital camera with HD for her birthday. For christmas I wrapped a bunch of little burts bees stuff with more gift certificates in the wrapping. So she will be sitting under the tree thinking she didnt get very much and it will turn out she got tons of gift certificates. It helps that we get a christmas bonus in December to help with all the stocing stuffers, the tree, massive amounts of food etc.
I just bought my husband one thing a sony hd player.

My mom and my MIL are about 200 bucks mostly because I have no clue what else to get them, I usually spend more.
I have no neices or nephews to buy for and don't exchange with the aunts and uncles. That leaves my grandma who just likes pictures of the kids, pretty simple. I do need to get started on taking some pictures of my kids but they are past the age of wearing coordinating outfits or even colors so this is going to be tough.

 

[santa's surpriz]

I don't work out much of a budget...I buy one gift for my daughter every payday starting August-September. It's usually a clearance item. So by Christmas I usually have more than enough. My parents know that I am single and money is tight so they do not expect anything, I stopped buying gifts for the rest of my family years ago. No one ever appreciated what they got so we decided to stop wasting our money. We pick a charity each year and collect donations instead.

 

[eeyoremate123]

I have no idea what yo get my kids either!! what should i do???

 

[ALittleDisneyFan]

This will be our first year shopping for our DD at Christmas (she was not home the past 2 yrs). I have no idea how to budget for her. To be perfectly honest, we have our trip 2ish wks before Christmas which will make things a tad more tight... especially when our extended families keep growing! It's overwhelming. Altogether we have 7 nieces/nephews to shop for.. I am not looking forward to it!