If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

I posted a poll to answer.

I guess I am shocked at the amount of co-workers who think it’s strange that Dh and I just don’t exchange since we now have a child. Plus we buy for ourselves during the year.

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

We don't usually exchange gifts, but once in a while I'll find something that I really think she'll like, so I'll get it for her, but not every holiday.

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

We are not exchanging this year...we'd rather spend that money on DD's gifts.

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

We are getting eachother an ornament which is a tradition we started when we first started living together. But that is it. This year we just cant afford it and rather buy gifts for our DD. We may go to AC one night because I have a free room at the Borgata, so we are thinking that will be our gift to eachother.

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

I am going through a divorce now but when we were together before kids we did more gifts for one another (still never very expensive items compared to other people). Then, after kids were born (but still too young to spend a lot on them) it was more of a practical joint gift (like video camera, camera, etc). The last couple of years we soley focused on the kids.

I am still getting STBX a couple of small things this year since he will be coming over xmas morning and I don't want our kids to wonder why he doesn't have anything! I have no idea if he will get me anything.

I've always been shocked both here and elsewhere at the $$ amount that people spend for their SO or even kids on Christmas, I guess we never had THAT much extra money!

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

We always exchanged gifts, even after kids, but we can't afford to this year.

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

I chose other. We usually give gifts, but some years we haven't. I don't get why anyone cares about how or when my DH and I exchange gifts.

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

We usually go on a trip or buy something for the house instead.

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

We would rather spend the money on DD. Christmas is very much about her. There are big things I'd love to have, like an awesome camera...but there is no way we could swing that financially...so to me rather then spending $20 here and there on little things that aren't necessary, we just put it towards DD and the other nieces and nephews! The fun in Christmas, for us, is watching them open their presents, anyway!

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

we spent about $100 on each other. We don't have the finances to spend on each other at all. We need siding, front porch, driveway, kitchen, bathrooms, etc. We have no children but if we did it would all go to them.

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

We can't afford to this year. This makes 3 years in a row since having DS.

If the money was there, we'd exchange. But we also both just celebrated our birthdays in the last 3 weeks, so we make Christmas about our son. Maybe next year...

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

DH & I both tend to buy stuff if we need/want it rather than wait to get it as a gift. So a few years back we decided that instead of going nuts trying to find something for the other that we didn't already have, we'd pick a few charities and make donations instead.

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

I voted 'other'. Some years we exchange, some years we don't. If we have a trip coming up, then we buy little things for each other and put the money toward the trip.

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

this is the first year in a while that we have the money to buy each other stuff. Once we have kids we'll go back to not buying for each other...

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

We are lucky enough that during the year when one of us wants something, we just get it for ourselves.

With that in mind, there aren't really many things that would be on our lists. Anything on our lists are so large that they wouldn't be a surprise holiday gift (new car, trip, etc.)

We say our gifts to one another are the things we do together - concerts, sporting events, vacations, etc. I justified 400 dollars on concert tickets last month this way.

Everyone always says "Oh, how can you go on so many vacations and mini-getaways during the year?" and part of the reason is because we don't spend hundreds of dollars on gifts during the year. At the end, if you add it up, it's a week's worth of vacation if not more.

We'd rather have those types of things instead of just buying and wasting money on random things just because it is a day you are supposed to give a gift.

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

We can't afford it. Whatever little bit we had to spend we made sure the kids got.

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

We just did stocking stuffers. We're starting a new tradition of donating to a charity instead of buying each other gifts.

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

We have our anniversary, DD birthday, holidays and then my birthday all one month after the other. So this year we did big anniversary gifts and had a large party for DD's first bday and baby naming and redecorated a large part of our house. So we decided there wasn't anything either of us really needed. DD didn't get anything either....we just opened up one of the hundred birthday gifts we haven't gotten to yet for hanukkah last night

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

We usually do. This year, things are tight so we decided not to...but we did go out on Thanksgiving night and scored an HP laptop for $248- which we needed, since ours recently died. that's our gift to eachother.

We used to go all out getting gifts for eachother, spending hundreds of dollars...but now that we have DD, we'd rather spend on her.

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

We don't exchange...we're fortunate enough that we are usually able to buy what we want throughout the year so there's nothing left for Christmas. We do fill each others stockings, but that's just with little stuff & treats (like razors & hot cocoa). We used to do 1 big gift for us/the house (like a new a TV), but we're all up-to-date and there's nothing that we really need anymore so it's all about the kiddo! When it comes to ourselves, neither of us are really into gifts so it's all good.

Message edited 12/21/2011 2:09:42 PM.

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

We usually do, but this year we're leaving for a cruise on Xmas day and decided to put that towards our spending and if either if us see something we want, we'll buy it. For us, it's not really an issue of not having money, DH and I both pretty much buy ourselves whatever we want- within reason if course. Plus we bought a new car over the summer and we're going to redo our master bath, so we would rather bu ourselves the every day things and put the big bucks towards big purchases together.

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

Re: If you did not buy gifts for your S/O for the holidays?

We haven't exchanged gifts in years. A little bit of no money & also, if we want something we'll just get it for ourselves. We'd prefer to use the money to do something together - like dinner/night out.