Your Christmas Budget

sfarrow3 · #1 November 23rd, 2011, 07:40 AM

Do you keep yourself on a budget during the holidays?

If you have multiple kids, do you try to spend about the same amount on each of them or just spend according to their wish list?

Do you tend to pay for gifts more with cash or credit cards?

How much do you see yourself spending on your toddler this year?

Vincent'sMommy · #2 November 23rd, 2011, 08:05 AM

I don't plan on getting anything this year. If I do it will be something small. He will get enough stuff from his grandparents and other people and we don't have any money to spend. It will probably be like that next year too.

shockandawe · #3 November 23rd, 2011, 08:23 AM

I try to keep it within boundaries, but can't say I hold myself to a strict budget.

I try to keep the kids who aren't mine around the $50 mark, and the kids of friends to about a $10 limit. With Maggie, I've probably spent about $150 to $200. With DH it's about $500 this year.

sweetliberty · #4 November 23rd, 2011, 09:31 AM

We don't set a strict budget (haven't needed to yet) but we really like to keep Christmas small (both monetarily and physically). Christmas has always been more about making memories for me than for presents and I really hope to instill that into my kids.

All the parents get roughly the same amount spent on them, and next year when we have two kids they'll get roughly the same amount spent on them as well. We pay cash for everything.

Aaron is getting two toys and some stocking stuffers from us this year. We already bought everything for him and spent around 90 dollars.

sfarrow3 · #5 November 23rd, 2011, 10:57 AM

I really try to keep some type of budget, but not to strict. Well has far as the gifts for Caden and London this year they will get equal number. As they get older though that may change. Like this year we are doing bikes/ride on toys. Caden's bike cost more than London's Cozy Coupe, but hey they won't notice. lol.. So far I have spent about $150- $175 on each give or take a few dollars. I sold alot of thier old toys last month and got about $150 so that helped. We also bought gifts for a little boy that Caden picked from the angel tree. As far as DH I still need to get him something and so does the kids..ohh also Caden and London will be buying sibling gifts for each other.

Ohh we definately pay cash for them.

Alison79 · #6 November 23rd, 2011, 12:22 PM

It just depends on the year and what's on the wishlists. This year the older boys asked for bigger gifts (a saxophone for my oldest and a keyboard to practice piano for my 10 year old). So, DH and I sat down and decided what we would do for the little kids since those two gifts would be about half our budget. We decided to make one wall in our playroom into a magnet board and get each of the younger kids a few magnet sets (dinosaurs, letters, farm animals, etc). For the younger three I know they will have a blast playing with that. All said and done we spend about $100-150 per child if you average it out but often it isn't distributed equally, especially since the younger kids will be happy with a few books or toys.

mommytokem · #7 November 23rd, 2011, 12:26 PM

I try to keep to a budget and spend only cash, but a few things go on the credit card, but that gets paid off right away. For the kids, I make sure that they have the same number of presents and don't pay attention to how much I spend on each one of them. Honestly nieces and nephews I try to find super good deals on stuff and usually only end up spending $15 per kid.

ElizabethS · #8 November 23rd, 2011, 04:30 PM

Do you keep yourself on a budget during the holidays? Yes I try to stay under $350, and with 5 kids, it takes some planning!

If you have multiple kids, do you try to spend about the same amount on each of them or just spend according to their wish list? We used to try to spend the same amount..but at their age they notice more if one child got more presents to open than another (i.e., theirs were cheaper so they got "more"). So we just try for the same # of gifts, and to stay within our budget for all the kids total.

Do you tend to pay for gifts more with cash or credit cards? Don't use credit cards. If we don't have the money in our account, we don't buy it.

How much do you see yourself spending on your toddler this year? I spent about $35 on him. BUT I got a lot of rewards points through the bank I work at and got about $150 worth of gifts for EACH kid on top of what I've spent on them. He's getting a push, turns into trike, a play sports climber activity gym, a poppin musical dino, a racin' car garage, and probably a play cell phone and some dishes for the play kitchen that he'll share with the others. Plus stocking stuffers.

starrsgirl · #9 November 24th, 2011, 11:50 AM

Wow! We are like Scrooges. Haha. Yes, we do a Christmas budget. We have been putting money in it all year. We pay cash for everything. This year, we only are doing $300 total. That's for Emmett, me, DH, my family and DHs family. I strongly believe in a small conservative Christmas. We just bought 2 small toys for E and that's it. I like to focus on family and charity instead.