How did we do on our Christmas budget?
In a previous post, I mentioned that we hoped to spend $250 total on Christmas this year. We had $95 dollars left and quite a bit to still get. So in the end, how did things turn out?
- We actually ended up with $105 to spend, since my mom wanted to contribute to the gift certificate for my stepfather (we had budgeted $20, but only spent $10).
- We spent $15 on my brother – we redeemed $20 in gift cards from Amazon, and split the cost of a Wii game with my grandmother.
- We didn’t get my sister-in-law anything. Things have been tough for her this year, and she didn’t want to exchange gifts.
- We spent $48 on the tree, which was $13 more than we expected.
- We spent $20 on a gift card for my sister-in-law’s boyfriend, and $20 on a simple train to put under the tree for the kid. I also spend $5 for some alphabet foam stickers (the kids only request to Santa).
Overall, that put us at $3 over budget for Christmas. I can live with that!
I would highly recommend a Christmas budget for everyone. It really forced us to pick and choose what was most important to us, and as an added bonus, we don’t have a ton of useless crap after Christmas!
Did you follow a budget this year? If so, how did it go?
We did ok even without a budget. My wife and her family agreed that it was only kids presents this year so that helped alot, I think we came in about $250 as well so I consider this Christmas season a success.
Happy Holidays!!!
$3 over? Not shabby at all!
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