Christmas shopping is done, and under budget!
This is the first time I, or my fiance, have ever tried to set a budget for Christmas. We had a somewhat budget last year, but I don't know if we truly followed it. I'm half to blame because I like to buy her nice things, and nice things are often expensive. She also likes to make people happy and will spend to do so.
This year was different because we really had to stick to a budget... we just don't have that much extra money to spend. For that reason we basically decided that we would do $25 to each family member, except for her siblings, which we spent $50 for each family. For each other, we said $100 for my birthday (we said the same for her's in November, and I told her not to get me anything, but she did anyway), and $150 each for Christmas. It wasn't easy, but we both spent to budget or under for each other, and because we decided to not get presents for some family members (mutual agreement), we spent even less. Plus we under spent on the others (without the lack of thought). We also did spend more than out budget for our parents, but it all evened out. We tried to be as creative as possible, and although none of our gifts for each other we think are really great, we put a lot of thought into them, and I actually think I did better this year than last.
Overall, I think we did well.
This year was different because we really had to stick to a budget... we just don't have that much extra money to spend. For that reason we basically decided that we would do $25 to each family member, except for her siblings, which we spent $50 for each family. For each other, we said $100 for my birthday (we said the same for her's in November, and I told her not to get me anything, but she did anyway), and $150 each for Christmas. It wasn't easy, but we both spent to budget or under for each other, and because we decided to not get presents for some family members (mutual agreement), we spent even less. Plus we under spent on the others (without the lack of thought). We also did spend more than out budget for our parents, but it all evened out. We tried to be as creative as possible, and although none of our gifts for each other we think are really great, we put a lot of thought into them, and I actually think I did better this year than last.
Overall, I think we did well.
posted by MoneyFwd @ 10:48 AM
5 Comments:
At 1:07 PM,
Maria said…
Great job sticking to your budget. It is not easy!
At 9:01 AM,
MoneyFwd said…
It really wasn't.. I tend to think things are cheaper than I expect.
At 2:14 PM,
Anonymous said…
Cool...congrats on getting over with it. I read in one of your previous posts that you are getting married in a couple of weeks...that must have meant a few extra members for "gift-giving" :)..may be only for "political" reasons
At 2:42 PM,
MoneyFwd said…
Hah, ya, we had to add a few extras on there. We still have to make people happy before the wedding.
Also, we had to buy gifts for the wedding party which was an additional cost that I never thought of until about a month ago. We stayed close budget for that. The necklaces the bridesmaids are getting cost a bit more than we expected.
At 6:28 PM,
Revanche said…
Yikes, the politics of weddings! I didn't actually think about the increased gift list, I just assumed that you'd add your name to the gifts on the current list.
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