Getting used to spending less this year

[conniemac]

I am a Christmas nut and have always provided huge christmas's for my loved ones every year. I mean HUGE!!! This year though, because of my financial situation I HAVE to spend less. It has been real difficult for me to accept this. However, I am starting to remember what the true meaning of Chirstmas is again and it's not presents. I am actually excited to spend less and I'm getting more creative with my gifts too!! I have decided to adopt a three gift limit policy. Jesus only received 3 gifts and if that was enough for HIM then I'm sure it's good enough for my kids! LOL!

Here is my giving list:
ds - 3 $50 items each + stocking w/cash (teenagers want $!) = $300
dd - 3 $50 items each + stocking w/cash (teenager want $!) = $300
dh - 3 little gifts = $100 total
me - 3 little gifts = $100 total
2 sets of grandparents - 3 gifts each @ $25 each = $100
I am giving everyone else in the family homemade cookies and a personal Christmas card.

I am NOT spending one penny on decorations, wrapping paper, cards, etc because I have enough of that stuff in my attic to decorate 3 houses! I bought my paper at the after Christmas sales last year at 75% off! I even have cookie bags left over from previous years so I won't need to purchase those either! We are traveling home for Christmas so I won't have to worry about special food purchases this year. The only thing I have to buy are baking goods but I have been picking them up a little each week!

The best thing is that I have already purchases 90% of my gifts and I'm only waiting on Toy Story 3 to come out on Nov. 2 to finish my shopping! It's all paid for in cash so I can really enjoy the holiday without having to worry about the bills in January!

Is anyone else spending less this year? I would love to hear from you!

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

Conniemac, what a great thing you are doing. We really cut back on gift giving last year and it made all the difference not only to my budget, but to my stress levels. I have come to realise that we do not really need all that Christmas has become. I hope to simplify things a bit more this year.

 

[luludou]

I think it'll be more or less the same as last year. I tried... made a few more homemade gifts but I'm sure it'll be about the same.

 

[HouseElf]

We cut back years ago - and have never added it back in.
Now with our budget even tighter, we feel the pinch but believe we will be able to make it a special holiday - regardless of how 'little' we spend.

We give our boys three gifts each, and stockings. It would be hard to put a price to it, as they are not equal in value - one childs idea of a great gift, a dvd he wants, may be equal to the personal value placed on a new pair of runners for another son.
We do not exchange, dh and myself, gifts. We do not shop for any extended adult family members - and limit our nieces and nephews to gift cards.

We focus a lot on the activities we do (my sons are 18/15/12).
We attend Advent services, visit Christmas displays, go skating, attend the local holiday productions, volunteer as a bell ringer, have holiday home movie nights, bake cookies or treats and visit family and friends with our homemade goodies.

:clothes:

 

[Christmaslvr]

I definitely have to cut back, I'm collecting unemployment...huge pay cut! lol I also have less people to buy for, BUT I am going to try and not compensate for that. I only have my DD, my SO and my mom to buy for and I'm definitely not going to buy things just to buy them, like I use to do! My DD will be flying out here the first week of December for her winter break and we are going to plan on lots of fun things to do...I know we all will appreciate that just as much!

 

[farmerswife]

We cut back years ago - and have never added it back in.
Now with our budget even tighter, we feel the pinch but believe we will be able to make it a special holiday - regardless of how 'little' we spend.


We focus a lot on the activities we do (my sons are 18/15/12).
We attend Advent services, visit Christmas displays, go skating, attend the local holiday productions, volunteer as a bell ringer, have holiday home movie nights, bake cookies or treats and visit family and friends with our homemade goodies.

:clothes:

Houseelf

We are exactly the same. Although now both of our children are in colleges in different states it still is all about the activities and not the presents. ~ Farmerswife

 

[ChristmasCheerSpredr]

I am trying to spend less this year. We decided last year to only buy for the kids when we get together with dh extended family- this is not a huge savings for us as we give breakfasts baskets which consist of homemade jam, some of our here on the farm raised sausage and fresh eggs from our chickens. Where the savings for this group for us is the aunts and uncles.

But I want to cut back on everyone else EXCEPT our daughters! I don't want to cut on their things. I am just going to get more creative about it than I have been before. I am using coupons as soon as I get them and stashing things away.

For example, my grandma does her Christmas shopping in August so for my family she takes me along so that things are the right size, ect. So we went into Gymboree for dd7. She bought her birthday gifts and Christmas presents in there. It was Gymbuck time so by the time she was done I had 75.00 worth of Gymbucks! So I went last week to redeem them. I am a clearance rack hunter in there! I got my God daughter a shirt in there to finish her Christmas gift, and the things for dd7 birthday done in there which is coming up soon. That was a help!

I also had some Justice cash to use in that store that I earned school shopping so I used that to get some shirts for dds and a zhu zhu pet for my Goddaughter. I did this online, so the shirts were 2.97 each and the zhu zhu pet was 14.00 BUT with my Justice money I am figuring that was free. And the one I got her is an exclusive at their store and its PURPLE her favorite color! Hooray!

I feel like I am doing prettty good so far.

I already have dmil done, I got her a nice sweatshirt last year in the Christmas clearance at Penney's and just got a Tropical Smoothie gift card to put with it, so she is done!

I hope to find something at the Penney's clearance for dfil. Keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[caitsmum]

My "Christmas Budget" largely depends on how well my husband does in Tios each year (he's a coach driver- this year he has done a lot of tours!) as there is no room for it in our general day-to-day budget which is already trimmed to the very bare essentials!

This year it has worked out at £5 a present each (from me to each of the kids, from him to each of the kids and from each of the kids to each other - we don't get pressies anymore unless there are "leftovers") and £30 a child for their Christmas stocking.
There is money for DH and I to have a stocking too (this year DD1 aged 14 has begged the job, so I will actually get a suprise!) but we only have a £20 budget!

So, my total budget - gifts for us all - £100
- Stockings for the kids - £90
- Stockings for me and DH - £40

To pad out the stockings the children get new toothbrushes/toothpaste/fancy bubble bath etc which come out of the household budget - as I would need to buy them anyway!

It's what we've always done - although money has only been really tight the last 3 years. Previously if something was £9-12 instead of the allocated £5 then they still got it.
Thankfully, with 5 of us in the house even just the little gifts mount up to a big pile under the tree!

AM

 

[mrspaul]

Hi Conniemac - I am spending less this year too - my husband was medically disabled on june 28th of this year - (his vertabrae's are crushing his spinal column, his spine is narrowing) - he has a tremendous amount of back pain - we are in the long long wait and paperwork jungle of SSDI - so that just leaves my paycheck to cover mortgage, utilities, food - you get the picture !!
Fortunately I Christmas shop all year long and had a very good jump on christmas before he was disabled. But - definately less spending this year and less number of presents for the people I do buy for - I have a small gift list anyway - dh (got him Psych Season 4 on dvd, package of socks, two thermal pants, two pairs of heavy gloves), I hope to still get him a gas gift card and a gift card to walmart - he is able to do a little of the fishing he was always so passionate about - so a gift card that he can get "sinkers and - stuff" would be good.
my dd - I got her 5 polo shirts (clearance at lands end and ll bean - she expressed a need for shirts), 4 silk headbands from lands end, ll bean tote bag, fleece vest from ll bean, sweatshirt jacket from ll bean, all these items were bought on very good clearances. She does want a couple of dvd movies, not sure if I will get those.
and for son in law - two Chaps sweatshirts - kohls on clearance, Seasons 3, 4, 5 from the show he loves The Office - on good sale at Target, package of socks, pair of fleece sleep pants - both of those on clearance at kohls.
my granddaughter - I have gotten her 14 gifts so far - she is age 4 - 6 of those gifts are dvd from shows she loves (Caillou, Rubber Dubbers), 5 games, and two Little Pet shop toys - A book "new socks" ( wants this book very much) - there are two more books she really wants. I could be done with her at this point and let her mom - my daughter get the books along with the list of things they are buying her.
then I have my five daycare children - I have three big bags of various toys - all bought on clearances, I try to stay generic boy or girl - so I dont have to buy any toys this year for them.
I will bake cookies with my granddaughter, watch her favorite christmas cartoon episodes, go look at the lights, take her out in the snow - they live with us so it is easy !!

 

[Lana]

mrspaul, sounds like you are really doing good.

 

[caitsmum]

I will bake cookies with my granddaughter, watch her favorite christmas cartoon episodes, go look at the lights, take her out in the snow - they live with us so it is easy !!

And what's the betting these are the gifts that she remembers the most!

(I also bet Mum will love you for being teh one to play out in the snow! I know I would!)
AM

 

[AuntJamelle]

We have recently had a reality check at our house as well. A recent job change for DH has cut his income by quite a bit.

Among other things, we've had difficulty selling an old RV (we're talking 1980 here folks) to pay off the loan on the new "old" RV and thus are stuck with a payment each month we hadn't planned on - plus still have to pay to have the old one fixed

(Ebay auction winner didn't listen and turned on the cab a/c before final test drive - which DH didn't notice - and the darn thing ended up broken down on the side of the road...cost of towing and some repair work was not cheap and still more to fix...but I digress!)

Then there was the recent incident with 1 of the dogs getting ahold of mouse poison which racked up a nice chunck at the vet and Emergency Vet - I could go on...{sigh}

So we are really watching our money right now. It is very important to us to save for DS's college too.

But you know what? I don't mind that Christmas gifts will be scaled back this year. DH buys too much for me every year anyway! DS is so little, he will be happy with whatever we give him and will probably only want to play with the boxes anyway. lol

We have a few other close friends and some family on our list - but I have most of the shopping done already. $ left to spend is minimal.

DH and I will set a budget for each other's presents this year and stick to it!

I also made a huge decision about Christmas Cookies this year. Wait for it...wait for it...GASP!...I am not making any for gifting this year! Can you believe it?

I had to take a moment myself when I first had the thought. I ALWAYS bake cookies. I ship tins and I take in platters to work and send platters to DH's work.

I just don't have the time, energy or funds this year to do the same.

Instead I will make 1 (maaayyyybe 2) batches of PW Cinnamon Rolls and give those away locally. I can make and bake and freeze them ahead of time so it isn't hectic at the last minute.

I'll make DH's favorite cookies sometime during the holidays as a treat for him - but that is it.

I've also cut my Christmas Card list way down. I've trimmed the folks who never send a card back (excluding elderly relatives) and that has helped alot with the amount of postage I had budgeted. $0.44 a card adds up quick!!!

I am also not purchasing ANY decorations, gift wrap, ribbon, etc. this year! I have TONS!

DH's crawling has presented me with a situation where I temporarily eliminate the big tree in the dining room so I am going to use all those lights, ornaments, etc. to decorate the kitchen this year. In general, I'm just going to use the stuff I've got in different rooms than normal and in different ways - it will be FUN!

DH and I are looking forward to doing Christmassy activities with DS too! Although he is so little there may be a limit to what he really "gets" - but it will be great just to spend time as a family!

 

[Minta]

We are actually spending around same this year, maybe a little more then last year. We do not buy toys through out the year so do splurge at Christmas if we can and this year things have picked up for us. I also have been shopping deals all year so that helped too.

We are doing a few extra christmassy activities with the kids (current digital camera is acting up so need to get a new one to be able to take pictures.)

We did cut back with the extended family and now just shop for the our parents and the neices. The siblings will get a basket of home made goodies.

Instead of buying gifts for DD's teachers and bus driver - she will be making each of them an ornament and chocolate dipped pretzels.

We do need to buy some new outdoor decorations as some favorites broke last year due to the weather so we will be replacing them this year.

 

[aggy]

Conniemac and Mrspaul you ladies are doing great with your budgets.

My actual spending on gifts are always much less than I budget for so this year I lowered my budget some to see how I'd do. So far I am doing really good. I have half of my gifts bought and have spent only a third of what I had planned for gifts. If all continues to go well this year, I will be lowering my budget again.

 

[jampss]

Everything I've read is an inspriration.

A year and a half ago, DH position was cut back to three days a week, from five. The Lord has been faithful and we've have managed on the less salary for a family of four .... couponing for groceries was a BIG help.

This year, as well as last Christmas I scaled back on how many cards I sent out, less cookies made, got nice present items at Good Will or other thrift stores, got a pre-lit tree from a local Freecycle.org site I am on (saved $60 some dollars on a cut tree!), didn't buy anything new decorations. I didn't put up lights outside to save on electric bill ... I just put up the plastic candy canes and the greenery with red ribbons on the porch fence. Simple and nice.

 

[jody664]

Years ago when I was in college, my roommate and I were both broke but still wanted to give each other something for Christmas. She (being the naturally cheap one) came up with an "game." We had a $25 limit BUT.......we had to buy a minimum of 3 gifts with that $25. It was such fun coming up with inexpensive "extravagances" that totaled about $5-10.

Since she loves to hand write letters, I bought a $10 set of wax embossers (those things that they used years ago to seal an envelope with your initials). The kit came with 3 wax "sticks" in gold, red and black, but the instructions said any wax would work, even Crayons. So I also bought her one of those 128-color boxes of Crayons for less than $5 as her second gift. She loved it and still uses it to this day (although 20 years later, I'm assuming she bought herself a new box of Crayons).

I don't remember what else I got her or what she got me, but I do remember that Christmas being one of my favorites.

It truly is the thought that counts.

 

[jampss]

Love that story, jody664!

 

[Snowey]

Great story Jody

 

[Christmaslvr]

I love your story Jody! it truly is the thought that counts!

 

[jackfrosty]

Thanks for sharing that jody! That's uplifting! Gives me some hope.
I wish I could convince DH's family to do a Dirty Santa(yankee swap) on boxing day-we all get together anyway!I think it would be great fun...