Holiday budgeting

blondie42107 · September 2014

Has anyone started thinking about the holidays? Thanksgiving and Christmas (for those who celebrate) are coming up soon. I'm starting to make a list of things we'll need to budget for: family pictures, Thanksgiving celebration, holiday cards, gifts, travel, etc. Just curious how others handle the holidays.

Wulfgar · September 2014

I try to save up over the course of the year. Did pretty bad at it this year but when my promotion pay kicks in I should have enough to cover everything that I need to do.

The nice thing is that we don't host anything so we don't have that as an added cost and we don't do professional family pictures.

This year we will not have travel because we are not going to travel around with a newborn (due Christmas day).

vlagrl29 · September 2014

Yep I have started thinking about it. We are spending way less this year because next year will be expensive due to our trip to st. lucia. We are budgeting $25 per set of parents - there are 3 and $50 on each other. Probably the same for DD. That's it. We are doing more home made gifts this year and a photo greeting card of our family for friends and print out 3 year old photos of DD. DH will be shooting the photos of DD and our family for the greeting card so that part is really inexpensive, just have to pay for postage and prints. I'm honestly looking really forward to not having to spend as much and shopping less. My hope is to have it all done by black friday. No travel for us because all family is in town.

vlagrl29 · September 2014

I also will be getting greeting cards for family at the dollar store, also tissue paper and bags.

brij2006 · September 2014

We cash flow it within that month. However, we budget $300 for gifts (we only buy for parents and bosses), then I plan an extra $100 in that month for groceries, and $50 for holiday cards and stamps.

lifeonthehill · September 2014

We only buy for the people we will see on Christmas day. We will travel from one Christmas party to ME in the a.m. to another party that night in FL. That means we have about 10 more people. We try to be as simple as possible.
We have a giftcard left over from last year to re gift that someone got us to a place that doesn't exist in Maine. We also got three really cool travel mugs from our work that we will use as gifts with k cups inside. We are not really sure what else to get but we are putting a $250 max budget on everyone else.

vlagrl29 · September 2014

I calculated our budget to be $200 this year….. so excited. I hate having to do all the hustle and bustle during a time when you should just be spending time with family.

lifeonthehill · September 2014

vlagrl29 said:

I calculated our budget to be $200 this year….. so excited. I hate having to do all the hustle and bustle during a time when you should just be spending time with family.

That's how I feel. Why cant we get together eat amazing food and be together without the stress of gifts?
We are paying $600 to fly to FL(which was a great deal) to visit Hs family and now we have to scrape together another $175 for all the people there which doesn't include the 4 gifts we already have ready.

vlagrl29 · September 2014

alyssa32713 said:

vlagrl29 said:

I calculated our budget to be $200 this year….. so excited. I hate having to do all the hustle and bustle during a time when you should just be spending time with family.

That's how I feel. Why cant we get together eat amazing food and be together without the stress of gifts?
We are paying $600 to fly to FL(which was a great deal) to visit Hs family and now we have to scrape together another $175 for all the people there which doesn't include the 4 gifts we already have ready.

This is the time of year I'm glad we are both only children. We don't have to buy for brothers/sisters or nieces/nephews. Even for our anniversary next month we aren't doing big gifts like usual. We are just going to eat out at a nice restaurant while the grandparents watch DD.

blondie42107 · September 2014

I should add that I love both holidays so that likely doesn't help.

H and I buy for each other and obviously we'll buy for our two kids. We'll buy for our parents, our sibling and their spouse and our nieces/nephews - 4 total. I also do a small, inexpensive gift exchange with a few friends. We buy for four of our friends' children - one is our god child. (We have another god child but she's our niece - already counted).

I also do a small gift card to a local coffee place for our mail carrier, UPS and FedEx drivers - we have pretty frequently deliveries.

Our family pictures are very reasonable and it's the only family pictures we take each year, always in the fall.

We do photo holiday cards and I already have free photo cards for Shutterfly so I'll only have to pay for shipping and postage.

brij2006 · September 2014

vlagrl29 said:

I calculated our budget to be $200 this year….. so excited. I hate having to do all the hustle and bustle during a time when you should just be spending time with family.

Agree. I absolutely love the holidays, but that's for the food and family. I could care less about the gifts part of it, and hate it when people feel obligated to buy each other a gift just because it's Christmas. Save your money and just bring a dish to pass or a game for us all to play. Let's make memories instead.

CuriousKiddosMama · September 2014

We budget every month, and I try to find stuff for people during the year, since I hate shopping around Christmas. I love getting shutterfly presents for the grandparents since they don't get to see ds all the time, so I try to buy those during the year when stuff is on sale or when all you have to pay is shipping. For ds and each other we try to buy sale or clearance early on during the year. Ds will probably get 1 big gift this year from us- he has so many toys from friends with older kids that he doesn't really need much.

We do generally host at least once so that does add up a bit, but it also tends to be a bit if a pot luck where everyone helps but I do the main course.

lifeonthehill · September 2014

I hate to admit this because we don't tell people but we have a "re gift" box. We get sooo many gifts we will never use them all and we try to keep things minimal in our home. I am a huge clutter person and we fill a good will box twice a season.

Our re gift box has things we are given throughout the year we know we don't want/need and we try to use it to our advantage for the following Christmas. We got 6 coffee mugs last year and 3 huge tins of hot cocoa from my side of the family and work friends. Those will be wrapped and shipped to FL for all 4 of Hs aunts and uncles. It will save us a lot. We also have a sentscy warmer that doesn't match our home my mom re gifted to us that would go perfect in MIL's kitchen so we will re gift that as well.

Xstatic3333 · September 2014

I was just thinking about this! Honestly, my current genius plan is to stuff a $20 in an envelope each paycheck starting this week. My family makes it hard to do an affordable Christmas without some serious hurt feelings, so we'll need to budget at least $400 for parents (that's six in total for us) and some obligatory work presents. I'll add another $50 for small gifts (mostly booze) for aunts and uncles, $25 for cards, and if I can swing it I'd like to get some decorations for the new house. Sigh. I usually tend to cash flow most expenses as they occur, but having a buffer set aside will be nice. Maybe I'll do Christmas cookies this year for work and the aunts and uncles.

I'm envious of families that keep it simple and about the memories. I'm really going to try to set that precedent with our own future children.

Erikan73 · September 2014

I put away a little money each month for birthdays & christmas presents. This year we are downsizing some on the gifts, at least expense wise. I'm shopping already drying to find things on sale. And for once, just because I'm finding something on sale doesn't mean the person gets more. They get the one thing. For meals we do potluck for our family so that one person doesn't have to bear all the expense and work of making the holiday meal.

hoffse · September 2014

H and I have decided to use the holidays as an excuse to buy something for the house we both want - and that's going to be our gift to each other. This year it's going to be a new mattress because ours is dead (as I've been saying since the beginning of this year!) and it's really starting to hurt our backs.

We picked up some great gifts in England, so we're more than halfway done, and we're completely done with our families who are the challenging ones. We try to make those gifts personal. We have a few more gifts to buy for extended family and friends, but they are things we buy every year. No surprises there, but it's easy to budget for and the recipients like them.

We also spend quite a bit on our secretaries... but that's a cost of doing business and keeping them happy. They just get gift cards.

I wish we didn't spend so much, but our families and friends are very generous. We have to reciprocate, and I don't mind it as long as we find the "right" gift. We really don't do birthdays. So $25-$50 once a year for Christmas is something I'm willing to do. Most of our family and friends are foodies, so the gifts we give (and receive!) tend to be consumable and stuff that we normally wouldn't buy ourselves - high end coffee, steaks, I love the Harry & David pears.... etc.

Re: food - we potluck so nobody gets stuck with a huge cost for that.

formerlyGDaisy09 · September 2014

We stick to gifts for immediate family and try to keep it fair, H and I each have 2 siblings and we have 4 nieces and nephews on H's side. We set a $50 budget for each parent, $40 for each sibling (H's sisters and their Hs usually get a restaurant gift card for them to use together). and $15 for each niece/nephew, right there we're talking about $420.

I always go into cookie baking overdrive starting the first weekend of December, so bosses, friends, co-workers, and random party hosts get plates of cookies...I usually stock-up on cheap plates at tag-sales or the Christmas Tree shop...so I guess the get a festive plate out of it too. Last year I went overboard on cookie stuff...but I have supplies left for this year....probably $100 for flour, eggs, butter, sugar, etc to make 7-8 different kinds of cookies.

Last year H and I set a budget and a few rules around gift-giving (which backfired on me). we set $200 and said that we had to shop local. We haven't set a budget this year, but based on last year's flubs the rules will be shop local and no gift certificates or jewelry.

strickland8052 · September 2014

We are very moderate about gift giving. We get stuff for our parents and my two little cousins, and that is about it. We called off gift giving with adult cousins/uncles/aunts, etc a long time ago, because everyone was just exchanging $20 bills with everyone else. H and I also decided we would not give each other gifts, because we'd rather save that money for a nice vacay. Last year we gave our parents pictures from our wedding. This year, H is going to make them rain barrels, which shouldn't be more than $30 each. I recently learned how to make candles, so I plan on making a bunch of candles for co-workers, neighbors, and friends who unexpectedly pop in with gifts. For my two little cousins, I'll probably buy their gifts with my CC cash back rewards from October and November. I also try to buy them little things when I go on trips, which I will include in the Christmas gift.

We do love to host for the holidays, so last year food got pretty expensive. I'll hopefully keep that under better control this year with my new couponing hobby.

We do not do greeting cards or photos.

Most of our family lives within 3 or 4 hours, so travel isn't usually an issue.

als1982 · September 2014

H and I don't buy gifts for each other for Christmas or any occasion.

mana8503 · September 2014

This is our "cheaper" holiday year. We will only be going to NC for Christmas since we get the kids on Christmas day. We go down for 5-6 days, that's without pay for H. Next year we get the kids for Thanksgiving, so we'll be down for that THEN back down after Christmas.

Anyway, usually we use H's extra pay in Oct/Nov to get presents. Christmas is my downfall and we usually over spend and take out $$ from savings in January until we get our tax refund. (maybe I should put this in the confessions post...). This year, since the debt we've been focusing on is paid off, we will use some of my extra pay in Oct towards the holidays along with savings.

I don't plan to get too much for the baby. She'll be 3 months, she has everything she needs. I'm sure the gparents will make up for it. We have 4 parents, H's 2 kids, 3 siblings, 6 neices and nephews (all in 20s so giftcards from our rewards credit cards), 1 grandparent. I see a lot of photo gifts of the baby and from our family pictures.

I also do christmas photo cards, but I use pictures I take myself. This summer we splurged on professional ones and will have newborn pictures. I'll do a mix of both. I almost wish we were going down for Thanksgiving to get a picture of all the kids together for them. But it's just not feasible.

dragonstarjk · September 2014

I like to work my CC cashback for gifts. Discover card is pretty awesome because I can use the cashback directly to purchase through Amazon, which is where I do most of my gift shopping anyways. I also might redeem it for gift cards.

My family is really into exchanging gifts; last year I proposed that we do a name draw and just each do one gift and that didn't go very well, so I'll probably end up just cringing and purchasing gifts for everybody. I usually set my budget around $500 to cover gifts for parents, grandparents, siblings, my niece, coworkers, etc.

DH and I sometimes get each other gifts but last year we went halfsies on a Keurig and that was cool because we spent less and it was fun to pick something that was for both of us. We might make that our new tradition.

Keeptruckin · September 2014

Last year we really cut back but it was still insane. My family shows affection through gifts, it's their love language lol! Last year we spent about 1400 total. The year before it was closer to 3000. No way, no how we can do that now and stay debt free. So we sat my family down and told them, sorry we cannot do gifts. We will spend time together and I will bake some yummy treats. Everything ends up being thrown away or regifted anyways. So we will spend about 150 on DD, 50 on printing calendars and photo gifts (already did my free shutterfly calendar!) and maybe 100 on treats and extra groceries. So hoping for a $300 Christmas!

LS45 · September 2014

I budget for holiday spending out of the "extra" paycheck in the last quarter of the year. (I budget for two pay checks a month, but am on a bi-weekly pay schedule). Out of that, I do line items for immediate family, extended family, co-workers, friends, and charity. I also keep a running list of gift ideas for everyone within the budget in Excel. If I come across sales during the year, then I'll buy early for Christmas.

vlagrl29 · September 2014

Keeptruckin said:

Last year we really cut back but it was still insane. My family shows affection through gifts, it's their love language lol! Last year we spent about 1400 total. The year before it was closer to 3000. No way, no how we can do that now and stay debt free. So we sat my family down and told them, sorry we cannot do gifts. We will spend time together and I will bake some yummy treats. Everything ends up being thrown away or regifted anyways. So we will spend about 150 on DD, 50 on printing calendars and photo gifts (already did my free shutterfly calendar!) and maybe 100 on treats and extra groceries. So hoping for a $300 Christmas!

Good for you! That seems like such a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a holiday. I told my mom that our budget for DD this year will be $50. she said you can't get anything for a kid for $50….I'm hoping I can find things on sale, fingers crossed.

Xstatic3333 · September 2014

vlagrl29 said:

Keeptruckin said:

Last year we really cut back but it was still insane. My family shows affection through gifts, it's their love language lol! Last year we spent about 1400 total. The year before it was closer to 3000. No way, no how we can do that now and stay debt free. So we sat my family down and told them, sorry we cannot do gifts. We will spend time together and I will bake some yummy treats. Everything ends up being thrown away or regifted anyways. So we will spend about 150 on DD, 50 on printing calendars and photo gifts (already did my free shutterfly calendar!) and maybe 100 on treats and extra groceries. So hoping for a $300 Christmas!

Good for you! That seems like such a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a holiday. I told my mom that our budget for DD this year will be $50. she said you can't get anything for a kid for $50….I'm hoping I can find things on sale, fingers crossed.

I agree, good for you! I'm not quite brave enough to try this. The thing is, when I was building up debt, I just charged awesome presents for my parents no problem. Now that we're clearly doing better it's much harder to say that we want to cut back. Especially in my case, where my parents are the rare kind that have offered financial help (hosted our wedding, chipped in on my grad school tuition, gifted us a nice sofa for our new home, etc.) and literally asked for nothing in return. I'm hoping once we have a LO we can just deflect attention in that direction and the gifting between adults will be reduced. It's true about gifts being a love language, and they are definitely that way for my dad. I learned long ago that declining any generosity from him just makes him sad, so all I can do is do my best to reciprocate.

hoffse · September 2014

AprilH81 said:

I'm thinking (and worrying) about Christmas... I'm very hopeful that my side of the family will agree just to buy presents for the kids and get together for brunch/dinner whenever we can make it work with everyone's schedules. We have done this before so it should be an easy sell. My sister has three kids (3 1/2 and 1 1/2 year old twins) so they don't need elaborate presents.

DH is HUGE on Christmas. He says Christmas and vacation are the two times he spends money without worry. Normally it wouldn't be an issue, but we have had HUGE expenses this year (wedding, honeymoon, selling a house, buying a house, kitchen remodel, furniture, etc.) so a lot of our cushion is gone. I would really like to get him and his family on board with doing the same. His parents are crazy generous and I feel the need to keep up. He is an only child, but he buys $10-15 gift cards for his adult cousins... It just seems silly.

I'm an only child, and this used to happen in my family. We finally decided to do a "cousin's draw" where you have a $50 limit and you draw a name. We basically all exchange $50 amazon gift cards, but it saves a lot of money and hassle in the long run. And honestly, we all have plenty of stuff and don't need separate gifts from each of the 13 other cousins...

Xstatic3333 · September 2014

hoffse said:

AprilH81 said:

I'm thinking (and worrying) about Christmas... I'm very hopeful that my side of the family will agree just to buy presents for the kids and get together for brunch/dinner whenever we can make it work with everyone's schedules. We have done this before so it should be an easy sell. My sister has three kids (3 1/2 and 1 1/2 year old twins) so they don't need elaborate presents.

DH is HUGE on Christmas. He says Christmas and vacation are the two times he spends money without worry. Normally it wouldn't be an issue, but we have had HUGE expenses this year (wedding, honeymoon, selling a house, buying a house, kitchen remodel, furniture, etc.) so a lot of our cushion is gone. I would really like to get him and his family on board with doing the same. His parents are crazy generous and I feel the need to keep up. He is an only child, but he buys $10-15 gift cards for his adult cousins... It just seems silly.

I'm an only child, and this used to happen in my family. We finally decided to do a "cousin's draw" where you have a $50 limit and you draw a name. We basically all exchange $50 amazon gift cards, but it saves a lot of money and hassle in the long run. And honestly, we all have plenty of stuff and don't need separate gifts from each of the 13 other cousins...

I like that idea! I may suggest it.

My cousins and I (there's only four of us, and we're pretty close) tend to exchange booze. It's fun, and we usually all end up with something we wouldn't normally try. They've been including H (the only SO) lately too which is sweet. Last year I did a wedding picture of the four of us instead.

formerlyGDaisy09 · September 2014

AprilH81 said:

hoffse said:

AprilH81 said:

I'm thinking (and worrying) about Christmas... I'm very hopeful that my side of the family will agree just to buy presents for the kids and get together for brunch/dinner whenever we can make it work with everyone's schedules. We have done this before so it should be an easy sell. My sister has three kids (3 1/2 and 1 1/2 year old twins) so they don't need elaborate presents.

DH is HUGE on Christmas. He says Christmas and vacation are the two times he spends money without worry. Normally it wouldn't be an issue, but we have had HUGE expenses this year (wedding, honeymoon, selling a house, buying a house, kitchen remodel, furniture, etc.) so a lot of our cushion is gone. I would really like to get him and his family on board with doing the same. His parents are crazy generous and I feel the need to keep up. He is an only child, but he buys $10-15 gift cards for his adult cousins... It just seems silly.

I'm an only child, and this used to happen in my family. We finally decided to do a "cousin's draw" where you have a $50 limit and you draw a name. We basically all exchange $50 amazon gift cards, but it saves a lot of money and hassle in the long run. And honestly, we all have plenty of stuff and don't need separate gifts from each of the 13 other cousins...

And while giving a gift doesn't mean you have to get a gift, none of them reciprocate... And I'm not sure they would really notice if we don't do it this year. lol

I might suggest the name draw for my side of the family (outside of the kids) so there are still presents to open but way more manageable...

this used to happen in my family. now we do a Yankee swap, $25 limit, all items must be made in the USA. It's fun, my sister, mom, and I usually craft something...my sister made magnets with family photos, my mom made a bunch of home-made baking mixes, and I made canned apple-butter and jam. everyone seems to have lots of fun with it, my dad even put together a car detailing kit last year, my aunt put together a box of snack and dip mixes. Everyone goes home with something thoughtful so it feels less like we all just passed $25 around.

hoffse · September 2014

Gdaisy09 said:

AprilH81 said:

hoffse said:

AprilH81 said:

I'm thinking (and worrying) about Christmas... I'm very hopeful that my side of the family will agree just to buy presents for the kids and get together for brunch/dinner whenever we can make it work with everyone's schedules. We have done this before so it should be an easy sell. My sister has three kids (3 1/2 and 1 1/2 year old twins) so they don't need elaborate presents.

DH is HUGE on Christmas. He says Christmas and vacation are the two times he spends money without worry. Normally it wouldn't be an issue, but we have had HUGE expenses this year (wedding, honeymoon, selling a house, buying a house, kitchen remodel, furniture, etc.) so a lot of our cushion is gone. I would really like to get him and his family on board with doing the same. His parents are crazy generous and I feel the need to keep up. He is an only child, but he buys $10-15 gift cards for his adult cousins... It just seems silly.

I'm an only child, and this used to happen in my family. We finally decided to do a "cousin's draw" where you have a $50 limit and you draw a name. We basically all exchange $50 amazon gift cards, but it saves a lot of money and hassle in the long run. And honestly, we all have plenty of stuff and don't need separate gifts from each of the 13 other cousins...

And while giving a gift doesn't mean you have to get a gift, none of them reciprocate... And I'm not sure they would really notice if we don't do it this year. lol

I might suggest the name draw for my side of the family (outside of the kids) so there are still presents to open but way more manageable...

this used to happen in my family. now we do a Yankee swap, $25 limit, all items must be made in the USA. It's fun, my sister, mom, and I usually craft something...my sister made magnets with family photos, my mom made a bunch of home-made baking mixes, and I made canned apple-butter and jam. everyone seems to have lots of fun with it, my dad even put together a car detailing kit last year, my aunt put together a box of snack and dip mixes. Everyone goes home with something thoughtful so it feels less like we all just passed $25 around.

Ha yeah - if we actually saw each other we probably wouldn't pass money around... I forgot to mention that part. We're all on opposite sides of the country and haven't seen each other in years, so spending $15-$25 each on 13 cousins you barely know was getting ridiculous. I was relieved when the swap started. The first year I didn't buy a gift card, but I received one. Then I started sending them too. I've received a $50 amazon card from a different cousin for the last 4 years!

This sounds terrible, but I use my annual $50 amazon gift card to stock up on kitty litter each year. Of course I don't tell them that, but it's what I need!

Keeptruckin · September 2014

Like pp said, it can feel like we are just exchanging money. I will buy you a 100 Victoria secret gift card if you buy me an amazon one. I am hoping to really focus on the time together instead of the gifts. I am lucky in that my kid is happier with a few well chosen things.

CuriousKiddosMama · September 2014

AprilH81 said:

STOCKBROKERS said:

I start saving since beginning of the year

What your stock broker doesn’t want you to see.
http://easypcinvestor.com/

@vikingsfan711 not sure if you are around or not, but here is a vendor spamming...

Thanks! Sorry it took me a while. I don't see notifications on my phone- and although I've been on my computer more lately I don't remember seeing a notification there either. I do have to get on the computer to block him if it was posted other places too. Ugh, we are getting a lot of junk posted lately!

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