Christmas budget - what have you spent?

[whereintheworld]

Or what do you predict you'll spend on Christmas 2018?

I'm at about $600 in gifts and anticipate spending another $150 in hosting costs (food, decor, etc.). Need to get some gift cards for daycare and school teachers, probably another $150.

$600 in gifts includes my kids, parents, 3 nieces/nephews and 2 secret santa gifts from H and me for his family Christmas. We don't have many people to buy for.

So I'd guess around $900-1,000.

[wambam]

I am done with my family which was about $650. My H hasn't done anything for his family, but it will probably be another $250 or so. We usually assume it'll be about $1000 after all is said and done.

[konapoppy]

$600 in gifts for team members, daycare providers and cleaners
$200 in donated gifts
$60 in cards
Basically 0 for family, but probably $150 when I order the photo albums

[agnes]

I usually aim for under $500 sometimes it works other times not.

[wildrice]

I don't buy very many gifts. I think I'm at around $165 for presents for my parents, niece, and nephew, and about $25 on cards and postage (I already had some stamps so I only bought 1 book). I still need to get something for my grandma, so maybe another $25-35 will be spent on that plus shipping it to her. I think that's going to be it, honestly. H and I are not exchanging this year, and my parents bought our flights for us to travel to see them.

Oh, I almost forgot cat related stuff actually. We are spending $107 on a cat sitter, plus I bought my cat a stocking for $15 I probably will buy him some kind of present, too, but it won't cost much (maybe $10-15).

We do have misc Christmas related things we are doing - like we spent $15 on dinner last night when we went to local monument lighting. But I count that more as "entertainment" since if we weren't doing Christmas stuff, we'd probably still be doing other stuff this month.

ETA: So that adds up to around $350 total, not including attending Christmas events around town. On our current budget, even that is kind of a lot, honestly!

[picaflora]

I'm sitting at ~$1,100 for H and our families. Plus whatever H has spent/is spending on me. It's a bit higher this year, but we're paying to send my nephew to a day camp for a week so he doesn't sit in him dad's basement all summer. And we've upped the gift amount to my parents, as they've covered a few more dinners for us this year (and it's really the only way we can pay them back).

I've also spent $400 on the two kids we sponsored from work. We provide them all of their Christmas, instead of just buying one or two things for a larger number of families. Technically I could turn in an expense report from work and get some of it back, but I have enough cc reward points to cover it. This has been my favorite company charity event by far. We even have a guy that dresses up like Santa and delivers the gifts in a big dump truck (we're a construction company).

[Deleted]

Hmmm, let me consult my spreadsheet......

Seriously, I'm a numbers geek and keep a spreadsheet LOL

So far I've spent $1,176.54. I anticipate that I'll spend another $500 or so.

H and I aren't exchanging this year. About $1250 of our Christmas budget goes to the kids ($250/each) and then usually another few hundred on various Pollyanna's, tip for the house cleaners, and gifts for our parents. The years that H and I exchange usually adds another $600-$1000 to the budget depending. We pay for Christmas with 100% that we save through the year in a Christmas Club account, but since we had a few lean months earlier this year, there isn't enough for H and I to buy gifts for each other, which is fine, because we usually buy ourselves whatever we want throughout the year, but I am admittedly a little sad that I won't have anything to open on Christmas Eve (when him and I usually exchange).

[TR]

Spending about $200 on H and I’ve spent about $250 on his family maybe? $150 in presents for the kids and another $100 in books for the kids/adults. Then I’ll make donation to a literacy charity, haven’t decided how much. But then we’re going in with SsIL for an outdoor table for the ILs so that’s probably another $300 for our portion.

I’m spending $3,000 on my mom’s trip, but that’s her Christmas, retirement, and 60th birthday present all in one and I’m going, too, so really only $1,500 for her half.

[wambam]

Dec 7, 2018 11:13:46 GMT -5 TR said:

I’m spending $3,000 on my mom’s trip, but that’s her Christmas, retirement, and 60th birthday present all in one and I’m going, too, so really only $1,500 for her half.

Where are you guys going?

[glitzy07]

I was a little nervous to look this number up, but according to my YNAB account, we're right around $1000 so far with several gifts to still buy.

That number does include a $225 mini photo session that was paid for months ago, Christmas cards & stamps, a real tree plus additional lights/stand/ornaments (because it was our first year getting real and we also set up the fake tree in another room), and Christmas PJs for the whole family. So that's definitely not mostly gifts, but all the other random crap associated with Christmas.

ETA: We usually don't get reimbursed for any of our daycare FSA until the end of the year, so that kind of becomes our Christmas account. We'll submit for reimbursement at the end of December and pay the CC bill that we charged all the Christmas stuff on, and then put the rest into savings after the Christmas stuff is paid for.

[pantsparty]

Almost $1,000 including a gift for my H (Bose headphones), some new house lights, gifts for my parents, brothers, SIL and nephew, cards, postage. It's always higher years we go home since I don't normally send my brothers gifts (or I send them something small).

Not included: flights. Fortunately H has hotel points so we're using those when we go home.

H has to buy for his side of the family still but that's his responsibility, just as I always take care of my side of the family.

I set aside money in a savings account every year to cover everything.

[TR]

Dec 7, 2018 11:14:56 GMT -5 wambam said:

Dec 7, 2018 11:13:46 GMT -5 TR said:

I’m spending $3,000 on my mom’s trip, but that’s her Christmas, retirement, and 60th birthday present all in one and I’m going, too, so really only $1,500 for her half.

Where are you guys going?

Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Parks. Staying at hotels in the parks. She’s SO excited, this is a bucket list type trip for her.

[Mrs.flang]

We're keeping it pretty frugal this year with gifts. I budgeted around $750 for gifts and I'm done shopping.

We are planning on hosting each of our families on christmas eve and day so that will be an extra added expense we don't usually incur and I have no idea how much we'll spend on food for that.

[minionkevin]

I’m over $1k ($1200ish) and am not done. I’ve bought like 3 things for my kids (total) so I have a long way to go. I think I’m finally done with my H’s gifts with my latest purchase this morning, except for something for his stocking. We are hosting Christmas so that will be another $150-200 for food, alcohol, etc, and $350 total for the kids’ nanny and our house cleaner. If I come in under $2k for everything, it will be a Christmas miracle.

[itsme]

We're at about $1,150 and based on the anticipated purchases we'll be around $65 over our $1,500 budget. We ended up with $120 worth of unexpected gifts for parties that just came up.  This is gifts only.  I haven't even factored in all the parties and food for those events.

ETA:  A few years back I started saving money from each paycheck for Christmas and it has eased the stress so much.  I hated Christmas because I never felt like I could afford anything.  Granted, we didn't have much back then anyway but even saving the little I did in those days helped.  

[Gato]

My budget is $1100.  I went a little crazy spending on Christmas decorations, so I'm going to go over it, for sure.  It's the first Christmas without my dad; this made me realize how much I've relied on my parents over the years to do all the Christmas things.  So I'm trying to start traditions for my own little family this year.  

[Roc A Bee]

I plan to be right under $400 for gifts. That includes bf, parents, bro, SIl, my niece, and 3 direct reports. I don’t count holiday food because I don’t host, and I have to eat, so it comes out of the regular grocery budget.

[thebreakfastclub]

We do not exchange gifts with any adults, which is my preference & makes the holidays so much better for me.

We spent about $175 on my 5yo son and there's another $100 for teacher gifts, coworker Secret Santa, etc. My mom is coming the weekend before Christmas and we'll take her out to a nice dinner.

That's about it!

[lilypad1126]

About $400 on gifts (H and I have a $150 limit for each other, plus we bought some small things for assorted family members). Then about $1500 for our Christmas vacation (we are going to Vegas). I'm only counting flights and hotel in that; I have no idea what we will spend once we are there, and have no plans to figure that out ahead of time.

[Deleted]

I anticipate being around $1000 currently and I'm not 100% done. So, IDK. I'm afraid to look.

[egishere]

I spent around $500 so far on my three kids. I still need to get my girls each a bike but those will be $60-80 range-nothing fancy. I may need to get them each another gift too because I think I bought DS too much and I try to keep it even. We don't exchange with nieces/nephews. I'll get my parents something small. I would say $900 all in with holiday grocery shopping.

[TR]

Oh and also H bought a ridiculous, but awesome $100 tree stand, lol. I bought a $30 tree collar and the real tree and the garland I got for the mantel were around $100 together, I think.

[followyourarrow]

I've spent $350 on gifts and have another $100 to go.
I've budgeted $500 for Christmas travel and activities.

[melsbels]

$350 total on gifts. That includes everything for both of our kids, my niece and nephew, both of our adult gifts (we do a name draw) and our dayhome provider. I only went back to work part time after mat leave and we have a new child care expense to deal with, so Christmas is pretty lean this year. But that’s ok! The twins will get soooo much from our families, so I’m kind of glad we only got them 3 things to share.

My H and I aren’t exchanging. Instead we bought concert tickets for a show next month which we would have bought anyway, and I booked a hotel downtown that night with airmiles points, so it only cost me $14 in tax haha.

[cjcouple]

Too much!! I average about 2k a year. I don't even know where I am right now. ahhh...

[tripleshot]

This was the first year I saved a little out of each paycheck for Christmas. I saved $800 but I think I’ve spent over $1200 so far. It’s insane. I’ve gotten really great deals on things too so I’m frustrated it doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference. All the nieces/nephews are $20 or less gifts, but with teachers and a higher spend for parents, etc it adds up. I think I’m going to skip sending cards out this year.

[Deleted]

I'm too afraid to add everything up. The main issue is I needed a new laptop so we have $800 in just that. We also have my birthday and my husband's birthday within 5 days of Christmas. It's probably gong to be close to 2k or over, which is a lot for us. I really wish we could stop exchanging presents with parents, and siblings, we don't really need anything from them but idk how to stop doing it lol. It'd save us like $300 if we'd do that, $25 a person adds up very quickly. I spend under $200 for each of my kids, probably $100/150 for each this year.

[eddy]

We budget for $1000.

I have no idea what we have spent because H does all the Xmas shopping. #blessed

[madringal]

My budget is $1700. I spend $250 on each of my 3 kids.  The rest is my IL's, nieces and nephews, a few little cousins, and teachers/coaches.

[mcmel]

Lol $40.17 + whatever 2 gift bags and tissue paper costs us.

We don’t exchange gifts with any adults and only bought H’s nephew a book and an explorer set (compass, binoculars, etc) and his niece 2 books.