Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

is it set, across the board...or do you have different amounts for different people?

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

Yup - I even have an excel spreadsheet that I use every year. I track the amount and the items & sizes...it helps when I plan to look back at the previous year.

As far as amounts...I pretty much have different amounts for different people...but at the same time I try to keep it fair...for the neices and nephews I have the same $ amount and also try to have the same number of gifts.

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

no set limit on DH, i just basically buy what he hints for.

my nieces and nephews i have a $40 cap on each gift cause theres so many of them!

my parents and IL's theres no cap, but we make sure we spend the same amount on each so its fair and its never like we favor one set more than the other.

my sisters and i do a secret santa kinda thing and cap it at $30...we feel Christmas is more for the kids now and dont really need anything big now that we're adults.

SIL and BIL we spend about $50 on each...FBIL i pick up whatever sweater i see on sale.

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

nope

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

yep
for family its 40 a person. (for sisters, brothers, inlaws, niece)
I usually spend al ittle more on my parents bc they are my parents

DH is $500
He would spend more but I dont let him

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

I used to...but that's when money was a big concern for me. Budget this year?? Totally blown

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

Yes....We have to or it gets out of control and with the growth of families, forget it!!

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

Different amounts for different people...but it does get out of hand

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

I have an "approximate" limit per person (which varies), but no overall budget.

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

This year I am doing one standard gift for everyone within the family (one per family will be distributed). It's one of those recipes in a jar.

And then depending on the person they will get an additional side gift set at a predetermined value.

For example our siblings will get an additional gift valued at $30 or less.

Parents: $50 or less

Grandparents: $30 or less.

Cousins, Aunts/Uncles, and In-laws will not get anything additional.

And so on.

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

We try to set a limit. We don't buy for the adults in the family unless parents. It is all about the kids now....

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

I have a set limit that I'm willing to spend ($$ that's been put aside all year) and I work w/ that. I try to spend the same on my parents & his, and the same amount on nieces/nephews.

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

I don't have a set amount, but I lay the groundwork early.

I'll tell my family, it's a one gift year. Everyone pretty much follows it. My dad breaks the rules all of the time though.

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

This year it's a pretty set amount for each person. I set this amount myself. Normally I don't set limits, but we're so strapped for cash with the wedding coming up next year...

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

We have an overall budget and then buget amounts for people.

We are each from large families so for siblings everyone picks a name out of a hat (otherwise we'd all buy for 10 siblings and spouces) we set a certain amount for ourselves, parents, nieces/nephews and DS - DS always gets the biggest chunck of the pie

Message edited 11/5/2007 12:40:30 PM.

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

I set a max budget of $5K....and then it's a grading scale - family, close friends, other from highest to lowest.

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

Different amounts for different people - and we try to spend the same on the parents. For each other though, there really is no set limit.

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

i try REALLY hard to get couple gifts and the limit for each couple in my family is $40 (siblings and cousins)
$20 for my friends
$100 for each kid
usually about $1000 for FH but this year will be $500 bc of the wedding.

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

no limit or budget, but w/ my side of the family, we do a kris kringle and set a limit to that so that its fair across the board.

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

YES and NO. I have no limits for DH same for me with him. We are however only buying stocking stuffers for each other this year. We cap the kids of the family, normally at 25-30 per kid. We only buy for the kids(there are so many of them) no adults, it gets to crazy and there are way to many of them. this year I think I already blew the cap, and it is one of our nieces first Xmas so I have no limits for baby things. We always go a bit more for both our moms. We dont buy for our fathers because neither one of speak to either of them.

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

Unfortunately, not being made of money, we have to shop on a budget. This year we're going to try to make things, but it depends on supplies.

I tend to spend more on the kids, esp since a lot of their things are expensive. For the adults I don't spend as much, and if I can save per person and get "couple" gifts then I do that too. I'd love to spend the world on Kevin but with shared monies we often decide to just buy ourselves something for "us" and say that's our gift to each other.

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

$25 on nieces & nephews (there are 9 of them).

$50 on secret santa for the adults on DH's side ( so x2)

I wanted to do a $100 limit for me & DH but I do't think it's going to happen.

I spend whatever I want on my mom. And since my brother is on hard times, we'll probably give him $100 Stop & Shop or gasoline gift card.

Re: Do you set a holiday gift shopping spending limit?

My family has tried everything to limit holiday spending on gifts, but whatever "rules" get set, they seem to be broken just as easily and quickly.

This year with a new house and a new baby (due 12/9) - everyone will be lucky if they get anything at all.