How to realistically budget for Christmas
Or how to tell your family “I can’t afford the expensive stuff you want”.
Again, not an answer, but a question. I’m already dreading Christmas shopping. My in-laws have expensive tastes and will expect the gifts they ask for, which will be probably $50 or more (depending on how many I buy each of them) per person. They are very generous and buy my spouse and kids and me all sorts of amazing things, but at the same time, I’d forgo all the expensive gifts if I didn’t have to buy them for them. In a heartbeat.
And as we’ve had kids and they keep buying things for the kids as well, I feel it is only right to get them gifts from the kids as well…. argh. With my parents, I can give them low cost heartfelt creative things (usually featuring a picture or pictures of the kids) and keep the costs down. But my in-laws give us lists filled with goodies from the LL Bean catalog.
And I guess on the flip side, I don’t want to appear cheap. Especially to the family that I married in to.
I honestly am not sure what to do. My spouse gets an “extra” paycheck twice a year (he gets paid biweekly, so two months out of the year he gets three paychecks) and I usually just sacrifice the one near the end of the year to Christmas shopping. But I don’t want to this year. I don’t.
Maybe I am cheap.
I tried last year asking for no presents at all and I still got a bunch anyway. As I said, they are generous people. They just lead a different lifestyle than we do.
:sigh:
I’m already dreading figuring out what to do.
~J
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January 30th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Yeah, I am in the same boat…Except that I feel too guilty buying nice gifts for 1 set of parents and giving more creative, heartfelt (cheaper) gifts to the other. Although, the parents receiving the heartfelt gifts don’t really care and are appreciative, actually they don’t expect anything, I KNOW the difference. I feel guilty that their gifts aren’t as nice, and, really, they deserve nice things, too. I have decided to spend equally on both sets of parents even though I don’t want to spend that much.
One thing I have learned is that January and February are the times to buy gifts. All those fancy stores have most of their items on clearance. I also try stocking up on gifts for birthdays. After Valentines Day I’ll buy my husband gifts for next years Valentine’s Day and so on. I just put a piece of tape on each gift marking who I am giving it to so I don’t forget, and put it away in the closet. I found a $70 toaster oven online at Macy’s marked down to $19.99.
I am still trying to navigate the balance between getting out of debt, being true to myself, and meeting family expectations. I want to give nice gifts but I am not in a financial position to do so. Good luck!