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Christmas Budget

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stinger
LIF Adult

Member since 11/11

4971 total posts

Name:

Christmas Budget

How do you explain to your child that there is limit to what they can get on Christmas? My 8 yo DD knows that we are buying the presents but the other day after I told her that we have to limit the presents she said "what?! but there is no limit on Christmas!".

My 5yo thinks it's Santa and is a little clueless. Money is tight. In the past years I have gone a *little* crazy with gifts (not 1 big thing, lots of smaller/medium priced gifts), maybe $200-250 per kid after stockings and everything. Plus, I rarely buy them toys during the year, aside from their birthdays. This year I prefer to get them 1 or 2 big things and that's it. I honestly hate the pressure of Christmas shopping and spending money :(

Message edited 11/14/2011 10:02:30 AM.

Posted 11/14/11 10:01 AM
 

GoldenRod
10 years on LIF!

Member since 11/06

26792 total posts

Name:
Shawn

Re: Christmas Budget

An 8yo should understand money and budgets to a degree. DS is 8, and he knows that there are budgets, costs, and we need to have enough money to buy things, and sometimes we can't buy stuff because we don't have the money for it.

DD is 5, and she doesn't understand money and budgets yet, so she'll just have to accept that whatever she gets is what she gets.... Luckily for us, she doesn't believe in Santa (or at least she realizes that Mommy and Daddy buy the presents), so we don't have to worry about Santa's unlimited budget to deal with.

Posted 11/14/11 10:08 AM
 

stinger
LIF Adult

Member since 11/11

4971 total posts

Name:

Re: Christmas Budget

Posted by GoldenRod

An 8yo should understand money and budgets to a degree. DS is 8, and he knows that there are budgets, costs, and we need to have enough money to buy things, and sometimes we can't buy stuff because we don't have the money for it.

DD is 5, and she doesn't understand money and budgets yet, so she'll just have to accept that whatever she gets is what she gets.... Luckily for us, she doesn't believe in Santa (or at least she realizes that Mommy and Daddy buy the presents), so we don't have to worry about Santa's unlimited budget to deal with.



That's the thing, I do explain money, budgets and how I spend $ to my 8 yo, so I was surprised when she said that. I was thinking where did this child come from, because we are not rich and she is not spoiled by any means! I think the hype in general over Christmas is what got her thinking that way.

Posted 11/14/11 10:17 AM
 

rojerono
Happiest.

Member since 8/06

13803 total posts

Name:
Jeannie

Re: Christmas Budget

My younger son believes in Santa. We are both out of work. We told him that Christmas this year would be a little different and that Santa would probably be bringing less gifts. He asked why and we just said that for some reason more parents will need Santa's help this year and the elves can't keep up.

Robbie knows the deal about Santa. He also understands that we are not working and gets that we don't have a lot of money for extras.

Posted 11/14/11 5:34 PM
 

CouponKT
Our family is complete

Member since 6/06

16494 total posts

Name:
K

Re: Christmas Budget

for little kids, it's not about what each item costs, it's the amount of gifts they see and can open under the tree. If you are tight on money, hit the dollar store and buy little things and wrap everything individually. They will love just opening things!

Posted 11/14/11 7:32 PM
 
 

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