Christmas

[sakigt]

Ive got some money set aside for next week. Ill be visiting DC and Philadelphia so Ill be on the lookout for unique gifts for my mom and brother. Its always better to find unique gifts than splurge on really expensive ones, imo.

[Ima saver]

We each managed to find each other a gift for christmas, when we were in gatlinburg. It is so hard to buy, when you have everything you need.

[LuxLiving]

Went to the clothes resale shop a minute a go with the dudes. I bought them their pick of clothes for Christmas - to put away till then - 3 pairs of jeans each, 2 shirts apiece, and each a pair of dress shoes. So for six jeans, four shirts and 2 pairs of shoes I paid 90.87 total or 7.57 per item average. Not bad. They will be styling come the New Year and will have forgotten by Christmas what we bought! NICE to have that out of the way. This was budgeted gift money we spent, so nothing to wank the budget out of alignment! YEAH!! Only thing left to buy for them is to fill their stocking...which usually has candy, batteries, shaving cream, shaving lotion, music CD, paperback and cologne in it...most of which can be taken care of inexpensively w/clearance, coupons, sales, or BOGOs!

[Ima saver]

I found a few small items I would like for christmas and ordered them from a catalog. My dh works so much he never has time to shop, so I try and help him out by buying things I like. Then I try and forget it.

[JanH]

Restaurant gift cards to their favorite one is a great gift for college kids, too. Then they can pig out. We did that last year. We exchange small gifts (limit $15) with my brother and SIL--makes you get real creative. And buy mainly for our parents and the kids--now teenagers and young adults--in the family. The presents we buy for each others kids have a price limit. Another thing teenagers seem to love these days is movies on DVD. Easy to find. My hubby's parents are very well off and have no needs so finding them fun things usually works like really really hard jigsaw puzzles that drive them crazy. (They actually sent us one intact that they finally finished)
We find those ahead of time. The hardest is my husband. He doesn't spend money on himself, so he never has anything he wants. And we recycle bags also. Got tons of good wrapping paper when all the kids were in band. They sell that stuff for fund raising every year so I used to kill two birds with one stone.