October 2009 Weddings
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
holiday shopping related
So I'm trying to get organized for xmas shopping, and I am trying to be better about budgeting. I'm curious, how does everyone else do their shopping? DH is already done, we got each other new skis for xmas... but the rest of both of our families... ugh. I haven't even started... how do you budget for xmas? Do you set a dollar amount for each person and try to stay around that? Or do you just try to get something that works within your price range for everyone? Are there particular family members you allocate more money to than others? (like parents v. cousins or something). Any advice on budgeting and organization would be really appreciated! Thanks!
Re: holiday shopping related
I take $20 out of every paycheck year round to contribute towards "gift fund." It might be a little late to do that this year... but you may want to consider it in the future. It REALLY helps.
We do budget. For my nieces and nephew, we try to stay around the $20/$30 mark. We go more (about double) for parents and our sibling secret Santa.
For family, we do between $15-$20 a person. We are on a really tight budget this year and using every resource possible. I was able to get hooked up at American Eagle this year with their back of the store discounts. I got $40 shirts for $13.
I also have tons of Dunkin Donuts gift cards that I got last Christmas. I don't go there, but my stepdad LOVES their coffee so I am using the gift cards to buy him the coffee packages for his gift.
The rest of our shopping will be done at Kohls. I love that they have everything for anyone there and I am a card holder so I get awesome coupons. Plus, if you are a Kohls card holder for every $50 you spend you get $10 kohls cash. So I liked a pair of boots there that happened to be $50 and I used the $10 I got back to get part of my sister's gift!
I like the idea of taking $20 out of my paycheck every week. Once I have a more steady job I will probably do that! However I am a shop-a-holic and it may be tough! hehe
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For my family, we do a homemade gift of some sort (last year I made jar mixes of soup, cornbread and brownies for each person/couple) and a note that we donated to a charity in their name. It works well because none of us really needs anything and most of us would really rather something went to charity anyway.
DH's family is really big on gifts but we don't know eachother very well so it drives me nuts because I end up with like 5 sets of lotions/soaps every year. We try to stick around $20 per person with the exception of his sister and brother-in-law and his parents... then we just try to find something thoughtful that they'll enjoy so the amount varies.
One thing that's really important to us is that we DO NOT go into debt over Christmas even if it means we have to be a little tighter with our gift giving budget.
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Last year we did $50 total for parents, $25 for individual gifts (siblings), kids we used discretion. This year we are doing things pretty similarly. The only change is that my family (myself, bro, sis and each of our spouses) did a name draw so now for example I only have to buy for my sister and we set the limit at $25. Both my bro & sis have kids so we'll get them a few books & small toys. H only has one sibling so we'll just get him a gift card somewhere b/c that's all he ever wants/likes. His bro also has 2 kids and one that is due the next month, so we'll do the same thing & get them books & small toys. We usually just get the kids mind enriching things like books so its something worthwhile.
Geez, you guys make me feel like I'm wasting money on gifts!
For parents, we usually go $50-$75 for each parent, depending on what we find. My parents are divorced and remarried, so there are 6 parents. If there is something we want to get them that costs more (i.e. the pot/pan set we got MIL last Christmas that was about $400), we go in on it together with siblings.
For siblings, we spend $50 each. I just have 1, so that's easy. DH has 2 who are each married, so we do a name draw between the 6 of us. They have kids, so we get them stuff too - maybe $25 each. I have 2 stepbrothers who I will see this Christmas, so I'm going to convince them to do a name draw too. They have kids too, so we'll probably get them something too - another $25 each.
For each other, who knows... last year, I got DH a new expensive smart phone, so that was like $400. I don't plan on that this year, I hope to keep our own gifts to a minimum. It's different now that we're married... I'd rather save the money than have him spend it on me! I try to play the no-gifts-for-each-other card, but he always agrees to it, then gets me a gift, and I get him nothing (like we agreed) and feel like an idiot about it afterward. So, I'm not even trying that again.
Typing it all out makes it feel like it's so expensive! Argh!
UGH! This happens in our house all the time! And then I get mad because we agreed on something... while I love that my husband likes to do nice things for me, it's really annoying.
I'm glad it's not just me who thinks this is annoying!
We have a tiny, tiny list- the parents (on both sides), 1 aunt, and the teenage child. Something for the dog, and we decided this year to do stocking for each other (with candy and small trinkets), and one joint item for the house.
Sure there's the occasion work gift or something, but I look for unique over expensive. Starbucks gift cards can bring joy for days.