Christmas Spending

[amastewa93]

How much have you all spent on Christmas this year?

[Fishindude77]

Not all that much, I just give the kids some cash.

However ....... the wife has been going at it full tilt, particularly for the new grand child. Seems like there have been new empty UPS & Fed EX shipping boxes on the porch just about every evening when I've come home from work in the last month.

[amastewa93]

However ....... the wife has been going at it full tilt, particularly for the new grand child.

I feel like I have gone "all out" for Christmas this year as well, mostly for my little brothers (ages 11 to 16), but it is the first year that I've been able to spend much money at all.

New grandchildren would be a good reason to spend a little more during the holiday season.

[tripods68]

Our original budget for Christmas including our daughter's b-day is $3000. Because we found great discounts/deals we've spent Cash flow $2400; still gives us little bit of play money for the rest of the year.

Merry XMAS EVERYONE

[Nika]

Biggest Christmas expense is $600 minimum tips to doormen/porters/super in our building.

tree is like $80, gifts for our son maybe $300+.

My mom and other family members not finished yet. Few random small gifts (white elephant, teacher, teacher assistant) less than $100

[kork13]

Nothing too crazy, but we've probably spent about $300-$400 on gifts for various individuals. We've also spent about the same on things for ourselves, but they were planned purchases that we just happened to get at this time of year (hooray online black Friday deals?).... Otherwise, our largest single expense is a 2 week road trip to see my wife's family. In all, we're expecting it to cost $500-600 between gas, meals, overnight hotels (staying with family while we're here), and so on. Best part: it's still cheaper than flying just one of us out here... I love the economy of family road trips!

[LivingAlmostLarge]

$100 per kid = $200 and $75 on DH and $200 on other people probably.

[scfr]

$343 total (gifts, cards, postage, and 3 CDs from the charity thrift store).

[MonkeyMama]

$465 spent (kids, work gifts, in-laws{only people we really exchange with, and they go crazy so we buy them pretty nice gifts}, plus birthdays for pretty much most our family)
+ $300 to charity

That said, we receive more cash for Christmas than we ever spend. So I generally budget $0 for this holiday. We give my Christmas bonus to charity every year.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

About $450. I bought too much food, but at least we can use that.

[creditcardfree]

We budgeted $600. And spent right about that same amount. If I didn't record everything quite right I'm sure we are at least no more than $650. We greatly reduced who we bought gifts for, which helped the most. We also requested that people we weren't buying for also didn't buy us gifts. And they complied pretty well.

[disneysteve]

We don't celebrate Christmas. Not sure what we spent on Chanukah presents for DD. We spent about $40 on gifts for the family. We also had other family over for dinner so that cost about $50. I spent $200 on gifts to my office staff.

[amastewa93]

Not sure what we spent on Chanukah presents for DD. We spent about $40 on gifts for the family.

A friend of ours celebrates Chanukah AND Christmas (his wife is Catholic, he is Jewish). He likes the idea of his kid's knowing both religions and making their own decision, but I imagine it can be costly.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

How about you, amastewa93? Spend any money?

[QuarterMillionMan]

$50 bill to nephew
$50 bill to niece #1
$50 bill to niece #2
$50 bill to niece #3
$100 bill to dad
$100 bill to mom

Total: $400