i just start REALLY early and spread the spending out over several months - charge it all, and pay on time. i have already bought like 10-15 gifts. i started in august. i have teacher gifts in my amazon cart right now, ready to go. i hate being overwhelmed with it all at once.
I used to be really good about shopping year around, and being done (with everyone) in Octoberish.
For Hannah's birthday (and for Joe's big gift, which I fell into finding and couldn't pass up) we did layaway at Kmart. Makes it easy for me to pay for, and it keeps it out of the house for quite a bit so that I don't have to have it hear tempting me to give it out early.
Even budgeting out months before, we usually end up praying for a big commission check or a Christmas bonus at the 11th hour for our gifts for each other.
We are not the best at this, but I do try to start buying as early as I can. I have some help with this though. For the last few years my side of the family celebrates Christmas at Thanksgiving, so that takes care of Christmas presents ahead of time. I have also started to buy a couple of things for Elizabeth. She seems to like the Calico Critters quite a bit and I have found a couple at TJ Maxx at a good price.
I also have done some cleaning and sorting out and now have a designated area to put "gifts" that I have and will continue to collect. In doing the cleaning I discovered I have teacher gifts and a few other little ones (I don't know who they will work for yet but am trying to keep them in mind when the gift buying really hits the fan).
I have no budget. I buy what I want for Allie and now Mia. I mean we stay within our means. We then do have budgets for extended family. We do a lot of name draws now and I love it. It has cut my shopping in half.
i have a spreadsheet that i use every track gifts (i think i shared that last year - or the year before or the year before. ;))
anyway, i budget a certain amount for friends and extended family. i put ideas on the list and code them red if they haven't been purchased yet. i code them black after they've been purchased.
excel gives me a working total at the bottom and i'm pretty good at staying within $50 or so of that total.
i don't include the kids in that total b/c like melissa, i just sort of buy them what i want without going crazy.
as far as setting aside money, we haven't done that in the past. i suggested an xmas club to matt, but he didn't think it was necessary so i didn't pursue it. my mom ALWAYS used to do that when we were kids. and i would totally do it if matt were on board. i would love to set aside $50 per paycheck and have $1200 in the bank in december!
also, i do as much pre-buying as i can. i track it on the spreadsheet so i don't overbuy for extended family. so far i have gifts for my friend's girls, one for my nephew, one for jammi's son and one for matt's bff's son & daughter. plus i ordered books from scholastic this week for kids. and i think that so far i've spent under $30.
It seems most of our families- nearly all actually- have gone to kids-only for gifts. I will buy something for by brother likely (because he is single and I want him to have a christmas), my mother-in-law who lives too far for us to visit, and maybe my dad and his wife. We will go homemade where we can, and will likely spend under $40 for all of those.
For the kids, we buy throughout the year. My closet looks like the freaking toy store. We especially stock up on the super clearence from Target each fall, and the occasional really good deals in the dollar spot/tree. We also don't have a problem with second hand stuff (70s.80s era Tonka trucks are the sturdiest things ever) and when we find things we know the boys love, we hold onto that too. We leave those unwrapped. My goal this year is to spend $200 total above what is sitting in the closet. That includes everything from gifts to christmas cookies- the only exception being gas money to visit my mom and his dad, and maybe Christmas Eve Dinner (our new tradition is a huge chinese take-out spread.) Well, I guess I could add that in and jump my budget to about $300-$320.
On a side note, I LOVE LOVE LOVE that my work now does a toy exchange instead of what amounts to a junk exchange. We draw names and then pick a toy that we think best matches that person. We meet over cookies and cocoa, have the person open the gift, we explain why (lots of laughter, and sometimes even an occasional tear). After we are done, we take picks with our "gift" and walk them over to the volunteer center to go to local families. No junk to take home, and usually I can "shop" in my toy closet for the perfect gift. Love it.
It seems most of our families- nearly all actually- have gone to kids-only for gifts. I will buy something for by brother likely (because he is single and I want him to have a christmas), my mother-in-law who lives too far for us to visit, and maybe my dad and his wife. We will go homemade where we can, and will likely spend under $40 for all of those.
For the kids, we buy throughout the year. My closet looks like the freaking toy store. We especially stock up on the super clearence from Target each fall, and the occasional really good deals in the dollar spot/tree. We also don't have a problem with second hand stuff (70s.80s era Tonka trucks are the sturdiest things ever) and when we find things we know the boys love, we hold onto that too. We leave those unwrapped. My goal this year is to spend $200 total above what is sitting in the closet. That includes everything from gifts to christmas cookies- the only exception being gas money to visit my mom and his dad, and maybe Christmas Eve Dinner (our new tradition is a huge chinese take-out spread.) Well, I guess I could add that in and jump my budget to about $300-$320.
On a side note, I LOVE LOVE LOVE that my work now does a toy exchange instead of what amounts to a junk exchange. We draw names and then pick a toy that we think best matches that person. We meet over cookies and cocoa, have the person open the gift, we explain why (lots of laughter, and sometimes even an occasional tear). After we are done, we take picks with our "gift" and walk them over to the volunteer center to go to local families. No junk to take home, and usually I can "shop" in my toy closet for the perfect gift. Love it.
As the children get just a little bit older, we are planning to adopt a four present rule under the tree: Something you want, Something you need. Something to share, Something to Read. Maybe not exactly four, but I'm imagining four gift bags with these labels. I could justify a couple books, but if what they want is a game system, that is it in the something they want bag. Make sense?
We just don't spend that much money at Christmas-time. We can't afford to buy stuff for non-immediate family members. My whole family agreed to this arrangement a while back. Several years back, when several people in Glen's family were having job losses/issues, we started exchanging names so each of us adults buys one gift.
We do buy for the children but I've never been one to go crazy with that. My kids get 3 gifts plus one "bigger" item from Santa (and of course stocking stuffers). So far, I've gotten Henry a Yahtzee game ($8), a disposable 35mm camera that double-exposes the pictures so the cast from iCarly are in the pics ($7), and a how-to-draw book ($3.50). The camera may go in his stocking. I also got him 5 cd-rom computer games ($30) so I'm finished with him except for Santa.
I've gotten Mark a couple of Look & Find books ($5 each) that I'll probably wrap together. He likes EVERYTHING so the only problem with him will be narrowing my choices down to 2 more things plus Santa gift.
I get 3 gifts for my nephew--a "My dog ate my homework" t-shirt ($3) that matches one of Henry's and a Search & Find book ($3.50) so far, so I need to get him one more thing. I think he is getting a DS from Santa so I may get him a DS game.
We usually also buy for Glen's cousin's stepson but again, I don't go too crazy. I'll probably get him a Star Wars t-shirt and some kind of non-expensive toy.
And I guess we spread out the money too since I've already started buying stuff.
-- Edited by Robin on Thursday 24th of September 2009 09:22:08 AM
Wehave so many birthdays that we just addthat into our monthly budget. It pretty much never changes,but the two months of the year we haveour own kids as well as everyone else. We usually have at least 2 birthdays every month and the heaviest 2 months have 5 and 8 birthdays. Ironically, December is the onlymonth we have nobirthdays! Thank the Lord for small favors.
Christmas-Itry tobuy things early (I don'thave much this year-sofarI have stocking stuffers for the kids-mostlydone anyway-and a few other gifts for each girl),but Ialways go over budget and the bills hurt come January. So this year, we are going to figure out what is reasonable and I am going to take that out in cash and that isthat. Christmas usually ends up being like $2K, and that needs to be cut back. Idropped myself out ofthe family exchange,which will cut $100, but mostly I needto cut back on Bill and the girls. Bill and I spend too much on each other, considering howmany other people we have to buy for. And as my nieces and nephews get older, their gifts get pricier too. (and we absolutely would not stop buying for them-we would both rather cut back on each other) But Anna and Kate get way too much as it is btwn us and our extended family-it is overwhelming to them.
I am hoping the cash shopping will help me this year!
ETA-I just realized that myestimate ispretty low. We spend at least $800-900 on extended family,and Bill and I usually spend at a good $500 on each other. It really is too much. No wonder we haven'tmoved to a bigger house yet!!!
-- Edited by Supafly on Wednesday 23rd of September 2009 08:12:35 PM
I have a spreadsheet like April (got that from her a couple years ago) that budgets it all out for me.
As far as setting money aside I can't say we really do that. I need to do better but we are just now getting our budget worked out where we are not dipping our hands into savings or putting things on the cc since John has started his day job.
I have cut back alot through the years. We do alot of name draws or even just guy/girl gift exchanges. Kids are about the only consistant that get bought for in each family.
