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?
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Spending quality holiday time with family – fun and frugal ideas
Christmas is going to be so much fun this year. Our little one is almost 3 years old, and he’s going nuts with all the Christmas lights around town. He’s been asking about a “Kees-mas tee” all week long, and today is the big day!
Since all of our Christmas shopping is done, it’s going to be a very relaxing holiday season. Here are some of the things we plan on doing as a family this year. Some do cost money, but we feel they are well worth it!
1. Cut your own Christmas tree – Yes, we are buying a real tree again this year. However, we planned ahead and included this cost in our holiday budget. There is a wonderful tree farm near our house – we take the dog and make it into a big event. There is a petting zoo, and you can print coupons for free hot chocolate online. As an added benefit, we always get some of our best holiday pictures on this day!
After the holidays, we cut off a small piece of the trunk and woodburn the year on it. After placing a small hook in it, we have a great holiday ornament!
2. Go see the lights! – Consider both going by foot and by car. I would also recommend seeing if there are any local light displays. For example, we travel to Baltimore each year to see Hampden’s Miracle on 34th Street, where every house is decorated. While many homes here could be considered just “over-the-top” with lights, there is also local art on display, including our favorite Hubcap Tree by Jim Pollock. Luckily, we have friends on 33rd Street, so we get parking earlier in the day and have made a tradition of visiting our friends and taking cider on our walk.
3. Bake some of your holiday gifts – It does cost money for ingredients, but I pick one or two recipes and scale them up to keep things simple. The kid always gets a special job, and after all the cooking is done, we have presents in a pinch. Besides, it’s nice to turn on some Christmas music and smell cookies in the oven!
4. Make holiday crafts together – It doesn’t have to be complicated! This year, for example, we are making construction paper rings for our tree garland. The fun is in the creative process itself – the end product is just an added benefit!
What are some of the fun and frugal things you like to do over the holidays?
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I just finished the fun Christmas shopping
As you may know from some previous posts, we have a $250 self-imposed budget for Christmas this year. We had a budget left of $227, and I have definitely made a dent in it. Here’s the breakdown:
$41 – the Christmas shopping for all of our little friends. We have three little ones that are like family to us, and I combined this with two birthday gifts for kids (the total order was $69) to get free shipping. All of the gifts are made from sustainable wood and are earth-friendly. I had budgeted $15/kid for Christmas, so I came under budget by a few bucks. But now I am sad since all the fun gifts have been purchased!
$2 – stocking stuffer for our kid. This was an impulse purchase at the craft store – I got him 2 sticker books with stickers.
$20 – gift certificate for the stepfather. We get him the same thing every year. Whatever.
$46 – Crap from Bath and Body Works. They kept giving me coupons for $13 in free stuff when I spent $10. I am not a big fan of this store, but my sister loves it. With the coupons, I took care of my sister, her boyfriend, my sister-in-law, and our niece. Each of them is getting basically $20 – $22 worth of stuff for $10-$12. I am glad that I found this deal because all of the people mentioned above are hard to shop for.
$23 – a clearance truck for the kid from Little Tikes. The box is damaged, and the batteries may need to be replaced (I can handle that!). This is one of those really big trucks that he can push around and play with in the yard. We like the fact that Little Tikes toys are made in the USA, and this truck got great reviews for being durable.
This leaves us with $95. We expect to spend $25 on my brother (we’re going in on a video game with my grandmother), $25 on my sister-in-law (gift card), and $20 for my sister-in-law’s boyfriend. That will leave us with $35 for the tree, and nothing else for the kid. I’m not sure that this is going to work, as we would like to get a couple more things for the kid; I want to at least spend a little money on yarn so that I can make him some more stuff.
I’ll have to show the numbers to the husband so that we can make a decision. I am thinking that another $50 might be reasonable, but I don’t want to go overboard. Any thoughts?
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An unexpected Christmas gift – should we accept?
I was talking to my mom the other day, and she had mentioned how she had no idea what to get my brother for Christmas. My brother has Down’s Syndrome, and spends a lot of his free time playing music and video games. He also loves wrestling.
I was asking if there were any new video games that he might like, and she couldn’t think of any, but mentioned that she was thinking of picking up a Wii for him, since she was at her local Walmart the day before and they looked “kind of cool.”
I had never thought of a Wii for my brother for Christmas, only because I didn’t expect there to be any available. I expressed to my mom how that would be a great gift, since he would have to get up and move around to play the games (he participates in Special Olympics, but has a fairly sedentary job and doesn’t do much when there aren’t Special Olympic practices taking place).
I added that there was a pretty good chance that there weren’t any more available, since she had seen them at the store the day before. I promised that I would try to hunt one down for her if she wanted me to, and that was the end of the conversation.
Yesterday, she told me that she was able to pick up a Wii for my brother! I was really excited for him, since I think that he will like it a lot. Then she said, “I got one for you guys for Christmas too, if you want it.” She went on to say that she could return it to the store, but that she wanted to get us something fun this year, since “you guys always want practical things and that’s so boring!”
I am not sure what I was more shocked by – the fact that my mom dropped some major cash on a Wii for us, or that she had just called us boring.
So here’s the question: Should we accept? I’ve wanted a Wii for awhile, but never really considered getting one until they went down in price. I would really love to get a Wii fit to try to learn some yoga. I think that we would have fun as a family playing together, and if I had to choose a video game system for my son when he gets older, this would be the one.
On the other hand, it’s not practical at all! I had mentioned that a gift card to Lowe’s would be a nice gift, since we need to replace the fixtures in our bathroom. I’m guessing that this falls into the category of boring to my mom…
So if you were me, what would you do?
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