it depends on our financial situation at the time.
This year it will be a lot tighter than most, ive asked my parents, and my brother & his DF if we can do a KK so thta way everyone gets 1 nice gift. As we're the only ones with kids im not comfortable with kids only as we'd have no one to buy for.
But yeah if we go all seperately it will be $30 or so each.
I have IL's, my parents, my grandparents, DD's Godparents to buy for. $25 is about my max for each couple. Then I have work Secret Santa ($20)... it can get so expensive!
Xmas can get ridiculously expensive, I've been on mat leave all year so money is getting bit tighter. I've told my family kids only this year. We used to do a KK with the adults on DFs side but its silly cause we all spend $50 and everyone ends up buying a voucher so I think whats the point.
I have 3 neices/ nephews to buy for, 2 very good friends kids and my own 2, thats enough, will prolly spend $30 family, $20 on the friends kids.
On my side family we came up with funny "crap KK" idea. The point is to spend only few $$ and find some really crappy gift and we all have such a laugh opening them. OP shop is great to find stuff. Trophy that is engraved with someone elses name, hideous pair coke bottle glasses....
we dont buy for sibling or for my IL's nephews I spend around $40 each I have 4 same for neice sometimes more sometimes less its tends to even out though
I do buy for my mum as for $$ depends on what I get whether Iget lots of little things or something big IYKWIM!!!!!!!!
this year I gave my sister the money for her 3 boys she put it towards a big gift from them us and mum , doing same for neice she is getting a bike fromt hem so I am getting the helmet
I start shopping on boxing day for the following year. I have a list of people to buy for in my diary & I keep an eye out for things that are on sale that would suit someone on my list, for example for my 12 year old cousin I got a massive make-up set in a carry bag reduced from $55 to $10 because there was only 2 left.
Then at this time of year I only have to get 1 or 2 presents & Im done.
Ive been doing this for 5 or 6 year when I was an apprentice & renting, so I had no money at Christmas & I had to spread it out or some people wouldnt get anything
I have 5 younger brothers and USED to spend $50 each on them.
1 of them now has 3 kids so i spend around $25 each per kid, then $50 on my other brothers.
We now have DD and a bub on the way and so far have put $160 worth of stuff on lay-by for her and will prob only add maybe some clothes or books to that.
We then have DP's niece and nephew who normally get $50 - $70 spent on them and his cousins 2 kids (were very close to) and the price varies on what we find at the time.
That said this year i think for EVERYONE we might be cutting back to $25 each and we def wont be doing adult presents, the only adult we do is DP's Nan (86yrs old) and prob just photos for grandparents on behalf of DD.
The best part is DD likes drawing and painting now so a cheap canvas or picture on some paper goes in with the pressies and even the kids love it!
$25 each is not cheap, especially if you have a lot to buy for and my rule is if you have kids you forfeit your $25 to them... lol
we do KK with both families, mine we spend $75 and DH's family its $50 so $250 all up for family, we spend what ever on the kids, though its not much, we do quality over quantity for the girls, we dont usually get each other anything as we get what we want throughout the year.
We usually keep it to $50 max, unless there is something that they really need then we would get it regardless of cost usually (within reason though!) We have a small family though so it's manageable. My only gripe is DH's brother and his wife as they spend $1000's on her family as it is so huge and money is no object when it comes to them, but they either regift for DH and I or buy us something from the $2 shop - I kid you not! So I am not buying them anything this year LOL but that's a whole other thread
As for kids it's a $20 limit for BIL's 2 boys, but I will spend a bit more on my niece (my sisters DD) because I only see her about once a year and if she lived closer I would probably spoil her a lot more.
Both DH and I have massive families so we do a KK thing for the adults ($100 his side $50 my side) and then we spend $20 on each niece/nephew as DH's sister hasn't wanted to do a KK thing for the kids as she was the only one with kids. Now she has to buy for nieces/nephews too she wants to do a KK so she doesn't have to buy as many presents! Gotta love the christmas spirit sometimes!
I don't think you are being cheap at all. i would love to be able to lower our Christmas costs. I'm going to start shopping through out the year next year to try and ease the pressure at christmas time. I'm going to do it with some of the foods as well.
we only have a small group of people to buy for - my parents, bro/sil (plus three kids) and my aunt (intellectual disability - she doesnt' get it when there are no presents). we decided this year to start doing KK as it was becoming ridiculous trying to help my aunt buy for the adults on $10 per person which is all she could afford. so, we are doing KK, 7 adults, we spend $60 for our target person. means C gets to spend the same amount, but there is one decent present.
with the kids, we talked about what to do - and no one wanted to not be able to buy for the kids themselves. i used to spend whatever on bro's kids -they were the only kids, so i just grabbed what we wanted through the year. never really exxy stuff, but i had no set budget. this year, i have decided to get my nephew a skateboard helmet - and whatever that costs, i'll spend similar on the girls too. with DD - she is getting clothes (yes, i'm a boring santa lol) and maybe a shell pool thing, which is only about $30 - she was going to get the clothes anyway, so why not put them under the tree lol. we can't afford much more - plus she has been getting stuff during the year - i'm not going to be a parent that won't give her stuff during the year just so the tree looks fuller at Christmas.
my aunt is spending $30 per kid - her choice
my bro and sil - no idea - they did mention getting E some wooden blocks, so probably around the same
my parents spent a bit more - but not a lot - and they always spoil the grandkids! lol
Both DH and I have big families (each have five siblings), on his side we have about 14 neices and nefews and 4kids to a couple of those neices and nephews. We have a rule, we only buy presents for the people we actually see on christmas day. Which generally only means some of my family who live near us (I refuse to travel for christmas).
I set a budget of approx $20-30 per person (but if I buy some thing on special, so it costs less, but is worth more I just go with that cost). For kids (I only have one nephew here to worry about) I spend between $10-20 - or even less. When DH and I were poorer, we had an absolute limit of $20 per person.
This excludes our own imediate family (ie, me, dh, and the kids) we don't really have a budget for us, as I tend to buy the kids pressies throughout the year (or layby them).
Our family is spread around Australia and one overseas. So our rule it that we only buy for those we are seeing around Christmas and we don't expect anything for ourselves, just something for the kids. Christmas is the time of year I get some of the nicer photos printed for Grandparents and great Grandparents, I also pop in one of the better kids paintings.
If we are seeing family, then I budget anywhere from $30-$100 for the person, just really depends on what is the better present for them.
I have a $50 limit on DH's side. He's not really happy with this nad doesn't know that often I spend much less, but they spend what they like on each other and get us crappy crappy pressies so why should we bother?
On my side we have a KK at $100-$200 per person. I spent a bit more on mine cos I wanted to get them what they loved.
I'm just lucky we can afford it this year....next year will be a different story, but I'll be back to revisit this thread then I guess
We have a SS coz of the sheer size of my family. 12 adults and 25 kids. We'd all need a loan to buy presents if we didnt. At one point we toyed with the spending amount idea - $50 per person. It was a logistical nightmare in the end. Some people couldnt afford it and others found the most perfect present - for like $70. So we all ignore it, lmao. Its about what you get them in the end, not the cost. The way DH and I end up doing it is we work out how much we have to spend on it, then consider who we are buying for and what kind of thing will mean the most to them. its easier when you dont make it a per person deal because you find that for one person something for $20 is perfect, and for another, something for 30 is perfect. When you truly consider the person and what they really want - the amount of thought put into it shows so much that you could leave the price tag on the gift and they wont notice.
How much do you spend on family at Christmas?
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