Answers to some Christmas questions
When I posted our Christmas pictures on Monday, you guys had a few questions for me about Christmas shopping and kids.
Mrs. Picky Pincher was wondering what our ballpark spending figure is and April was wondering if we do a budget or a particular number of gifts.
For our kids, we usually aim to spend about $100, plus some extra for stocking stuffers.
We're not crazy strict about this, so if we go a little over or under, we don't sweat it.
Of course, the number of gifts our kids get varies a lot. If they've asked for something expensive, then they might only get a gift or two, but if they're wanting a bunch of smaller things, then the $100 can buy a lot more presents.
For stocking stuffers, we usually go with edibles. For instance, Lisey is seriously in love with anything grape, so this year, I went to Five Below (an east cost dollar-type store) and bought all manner of grape stuff. Gum, tic-tacs, Mike&Ikes, grape Fanta...anything grape!
And for Joshua, who prefers things to be less sweet, I bought a variety of dark chocolate bars.
Anyway, the things we put in stockings aren't anything fancy or expensive...just some fun treats that are a little bit out of the ordinary.
Another reader was wondering about how we budget for Christmas.
The answer is that we start budgeting for it right after Christmas each year! Every month, we have an automatic savings deduction that goes right into our Christmas savings account. So, the account gets drained every December and then we start building it right back up again after Christmas.
Even if you can only put $10/week aside, you'll have $520 saved up at the end of the year (which can easily cover 4 kids + stocking stuffers at our spending level!)
I really cannot recommend this highly enough, especially if you typically struggle to come up with Christmas funds each year. You'll hardly miss $10 a week, and you'll be so, so happy to have $500+ when it's time to buy Christmas presents.
(On a related note, 3 Ways to Prepare For Christmas might be helpful to you.)
Oh, and a few years back, I wrote a series about keeping Christmas simple.
It's called Making Christmas Merry (while keeping your sanity and sticking to your budget)
And while I probably should have linked you all to that last month, better late than never, right? Maybe you'd like to read the posts now so you're all prepped for next year. 😉
The Making Christmas Merry posts are indexed right here for you.
If you have other Christmas questions that I missed (or that you didn't ask!), let me know in the comments, and I'll answer right there. 🙂
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P.S. In case you missed it, there's a fresh new Mrs. Meyer's offer available from Grove right now with a super cute white metal caddy.
A lot of banks and/or employers do Christmas clubs where you can automatically have that $10 deducted from your paycheck to a bank account which you can't touch until October I believe. My wife used to take advantage of that before we were married.
Oh and Five Below is a really interesting store. They seem to be the go-to place for otaku snacks like Pocky and Ramune. Back in the 90s that stuff was only available at Asian grocery stores.
Yup, and they have that Asian soda with the little marble you pop out to drink it!
Yup, Ramune.
I was surprised to find Pocky in my local Walmart this weekend! It seemed to be a pretty good price, too, at 97 cents a box.
We usually spend about $80ish per kid (we have 4) and then stocking stuffers, which we try to limit to under $10 each. This year we spent closer to $100 each on the older 3, but that was because they needed new shoes, and so we decided to get them those as Christmas presents (they wanted Converse, which are usually not in my shoe budget, unless we find them at a thrift store, obviously). We also save every month, but we take out cash and put it in an envelope here and there, and if we get any unexpected money, that goes in the Christmas fund as well.
We spent less on Christmas this year, but we still budgeted a little over $200 a person and tried to keep it simpler. I have older peeps who always need money for something, so it was nice to make up their stockings with a few candy treats and some cash. They each got clothes and something big they asked for. I have three car notes on very low interest and was able to Skip-a-pay for December. Plus my employer gave out bonuses, so we are no further behind money-wise. But I didn't plan or shop in advance like I wanted to, so I am already making sure we have the supplies we need for next year - wrapping paper is super cheap right now, and I am looking for personal item gift sets on extreme clearance for my peeps. And lastly, next year I plan on making more handmade gifts!
The gift of bread is so nice! Making bread takes time and effort so it is truly a beautiful and thoughtful gift.
Whoops, I posted the bread comment on the wrong one, lol! I was going to comment here though. I like to buy those reduced gifts sets to give as Valentine's Day surprises to my girls.
I remember my parents' bank used to call that account a Christmas Club. I don't put aside money each week, but I do budget for it by watching my other spending during the year and I set a limit per person. I also try to keep an eye out for ways to get gifts for less throughout the year. A lot of stores make it seem like they are giving you a good deal during the holidays, but that's often not really the case, they mark items up and then claim to give you an extra percentage off. Also, homemade gifts go over big with us, my mom makes the best bread and I'd rather have that than a scarf or piece of jewelry I don't really need. This year she gave us the gift of one loaf a month of our choice. January will be Polish Rye, yum!
I love it! That's a healthy budget for each kiddo, too, and it looks like they got some neat gifts!
We budget for Christmas using credit card rewards. I'm hoping we can get a better rewards system since we only get 1% now. It's also difficult because this way I never know how much we'll have available to spend at the end of the year.
We opted to do DIY gifts for Mr. Picky Pincher's side of the family, and holy moly, it saved a lot of money! Last year we spend a whopping $800 on Christmas, but this year (after credit card rewards) we spent just $50. Our total before the rewards was $350, which still wasn't as bad as last year. It's all about getting better. 🙂
We have the Citi Double Cash Back card. You get 1% on purchases, and 1% on payments. Essentially, it's a 2% card that's really straightforward. You mentioned wanting a better reward system, and this could double your rewards. Using rewards for Christmas is a great idea. 🙂
We spend close to $100 per kid. My oldest daughter is 21 so it seems, for her, she gets only a few gifts since they are typically more expensive. My other two girls are 4 and 8 so I am able to come up with a lot for $100. Luckily for me, they only request that Santa bring them surprises. With an exception of the youngest requesting a whoopie cushion that I gladly purchased for $1! I do spend the entire year picking up stocking stuffers and other gifts that I am sure they will love for not much $. For example, I know my youngest daughter will be in at least a size 5 by next Christmas so I grabbed a pair of pajamas on sale last week to put up for Christmas. Also, after Valentines' Day is the perfect time to pick up a cheap stuffed animal for a birthday or Christmas. Then closer to Christmas, I make bigger purchases of things I have heard them talk about or have shown interest in. If you do buy early, it's very important to have a dedicated hiding place to store everything so you don't forget about things you purchased earlier or you will be wasting money and time. Right after Christmas, I try to think of the things that I always use to save me money for the next year. I will most likely always need wrapping paper so I scour the 90% off racks for this. Certain gifts are timeless, for example, my son in law will always love certain ball teams so picking up collegiate items after the season has died down and they are significantly reduced makes perfect sense. He also loves to hunt and a lot of hunting gear is reduced in price as it gets closer to summer. For my girls, nice boots, gloves and coats go on sale after it gets closer to summer also. These are perfect items to put up for Christmas. Many of the stores have Christmas in July sales so this is a great time to pick up reduced toys when money may not be as tight. This is kinda unrelated but lots of people spring clean and get rid of unwanted items in January so it's the perfect time to find good stuff at thrift stores. I always shop for summer clothes in the winter and vice versa.
I'm not sure how much we spend on each kid for Christmas. I am happy with a few gifts, but hubby likes to buy more, so I go with the flow on this. The thing is that we don't usually buy present during the year (except for birthdays), so it feels ok to spend more on Christmas. But still, I would say under 300$ for both kids. I'm good at finding free or cheap things (used or on sale), mixing it with new stuff.
And we keep it simple for birthdays (we pay for a party with friends (150$?) + cake (20$) + 1 or 2 presents (30-40$)), so about 200$ per birthday for the kids. My daughter's birthday (and mine!) is tomorrow, that's why I'm thinking about it right now, ahah!
Birthday season is approaching at our house too! Start in mid-February, we have 4/6 of our family's birthdays. So, I'm always thinking about birthday stuff post-Christmas like you.
My mom and I share a birthday as well (in March)! Happy birthday tomorrow!
With my husband no longer able to work for the past six years, and the family size increased by more adorable grandchildren, we started cutting back pretty hard on what we spend. However, my kids, who are raising the grandchildren, paying mortgages, etc., also appreciated the scaling back to relieve the pressure on them as well. My lowest limit seems to run about $35 a person, my upper limit about $70 -- I aim for about $50 or less a person. Hand crafting some gifts, watching for killer sales during the year, and using Swagbucks gift cards have all helped me meet my target range this year. I also will start a Christmas savings again this year, something I've neglected since my husband had to quit work. One thing about after Christmas sales -- we are in a very small town with not much more than Walmart and some drugstores for Christmas stuff, and they yank the Christmas stuff out of the stores so fast that I can't get hardly anything on clearance like I used to. Two days after Christmas, Walmart had 95% of their Christmas stuff and gift items gone, and the Valentine's Day candy was being put out.
I'm curious to know how you manage the post-holiday letdown.
Our daughter is two, and December is an avalanche of birthdays (both her cousins, hers, and her Dad's) and Christmas/Hanukkah. Even though it's not all gifts, it's tons of excitement. Crafts and concerts at daycare, birthday parties, candlelighting, later bedtime... getting her back to a regular routine is proving to be a challenge!
Here's another follow-up question. Do you buy gifts for your parents/siblings/nieces and nephews, etc? My husband's family has now started drawing names (thank goodness!), but before that, we just had so many people to buy for! And his family is very gift-oriented, while neither of us are. It made it really difficult for us.
On Mr. FG's side, we mostly just do kid gifts with his siblings (there are 6 grandchildren total). On my side, we don't do gifts at all (there are 16 grandchildren alone!) It's just too many to buy gifts for.
I remember my mom using the Christmas Club option at the bank where she worked when I was a little girl. Maybe that's where I got my ideas about planning ahead and saving for Christmas.
We spent a fair bit but the number is inflated by things they need/want to do anyway anyway. This year each girl received two outfits in their preferred colors, pajamas, and socks (all necessary since outgrown/worn out and purchased on sale/clearance). A fun toy (50% off), art supplies (clearance from back to school), an outing with Daddy and a big family present of season passes to an attraction. Black Friday sales are great for future season activities. We would have purchased the passes this year anyway but the timing means they can be a gift.
I have to admit, holidays are SO much easier now that all the relatives/friends/gift receivers are adults. I have two young nieces (7 and 5), but they're easy peasy.
My siblings and I typically spend around $30 on each other (there are 4 of us), but we're flexible. For example, one of my sisters is really into make-up. If there's a particular kit she has her eye on that's a few bucks over budget, no big deal. OR if there's a gift that's definitely going to cost a little more, we'll go in on it as a group. Same with our parents: either smaller, individual items or a larger, pricier present.
My dog though...the sky's the limit for her :)!
I have a Christmas club account at my credit union and I love it! I try to save enough not only for gifts but for all the little extra expenses of the holidays that don't fit into my regular budget like luncheons and hostess gifts for dinners and an egg nog latte here and there. Last year I upped my weekly contribution because I knew I would need a new tree this year and I wanted a nice one. I don't have children of my own so I just budget for a some family members and few close friends and the children of those friends, and spend anywhere from $10-$50 per present. Also, I find it helpful to lump November, December and early January birthdays into my Christmas budget.
I bought the girls Christmas pajamas and a metal tea set for our daily tea parties. All their other presents are taken care of by grandparents (both sides only have a few grandkids). My husband and I don't do gifts for each other and we discussed with our siblings not buying gifts for each other because it was too much pressure and none of us wanted anything that we couldn't get for ourselves. It worked well. Any money we got went into savings.
Kristen, would you do a mention of your traditional Christmas dinner? I thought about that simple but pleasing meal on more than one occasion that day! Thank you!
This is not at all Christmas related, but it made me think of your girls. I could be mistaken, but I seem to remember one of them enjoying Narwhals. Your family came to mind today when I saw this book advertised. It's supposed to be an adorable read!
https://www.amazon.com/Not-Quite-Narwhal-Jessie-Sima/dp/1481469096
Another way to save toward Christmas 2017 is to buy a gift card each month from stores you shop at and use them to buy your gifts next Christmas.Going to try this and see how it goes.
I find great joy on the being generous to our adult daughters. There was a time in life when we could not afford to do so.. I pick up clearance items throughout the year that are fun, special and unique to their individual tastes . These gifts are a grown up twist on stocking stuffers. Shopping for Christmas 2017 starts... now! This helps the end of year holiday budget.Typically, these items have been purchased before Thanksgiving.
In addition, I save a small amount weekly to cover gifts for each of them , about $300 in total.
The best addition to our Christmas celebration in a pre holiday night in our local Midwest Metro in a nice hotel, dinner, cocktails , dessert and a lovely brunch the following day to conclude our celebration. Such a fun way to catch up with our daughters.
I will gladly go to great efforts in to frugal day to day life for this annual splurge. It is worth the every sacrifice and every penny.
This is really sweet. I love your viewpoint on Christmas.
We have a large family that has grown by 2 more this past year. My husband and I have 4 children, 12 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren. They all gather at our home on Christmas Eve for dinner, games, and our gift exchange. This year we even added 2 boyfriends to the crowd. I start my Christmas list early in the year, usually by August. I hand make as many of the gifts as I can. Two of our grandsons received a set of Harry Potter wands I made. I paid $10 for two sets of 5 chopsticks, the rest of the supplies I had on hand. For my oldest daughter and my daughter in law I made centerpieces for their tables using wine bottles. These were given to me by friend. I bought some embellishments to complete these, but at a minimal cost. They loved them. The little ones received sets of homemade blocks with the letters of their names. Each block either had bells, a squeaky sound or something that rattled. Cost: $0. I had all materials on hand. I make quilts, blankets, pillows, and pictures, depending on what is needed or wanted at the time. This saves lots of money, but I have to plan early so everything can get done.