How Much to Spend

[Mausey]

Let's see if I can start a poll here all by myself or will I have to yell for help. :D

How much do you spend on gifts this time of year? Does your family have an upper and lower limit of the amount spent for gifts or is it a free for all.

[Jax]

I put $25 or less, wish I could spend more but when you only have a part time job... :roll:
Sometimes I splurge on something that's more but it's not usual :D

[Tony]

Depends who it's for....
Usually under $25 (US) but if Barbs seen something special she wants then whatever it comes to.
HEY!!! I know what side my breads buttered! ;)

[Dawn]

I usually spend around $30 per person. Sometimes a little more, sometimes less. It's hard to stick to that with my nephews and niece though. :heartbeat

[Faren]

Depends..it's hard to spend under $25 dollars when ONE Gameboy game is over $30. :eek: I did end up buying a lot of CDs this year though. :ok:

[Rho]

For our own kids we try to stick to around US$75, for other children (niece/nephews/friends) it is about US$20.

[JayEgo]

It's difficult. There're so many people to buy for and so many things I'd like to buy them... Generally, I try to spend what i can afford but will splash out a little more for the perfect gift perhaps!

Ja¥son xx

[Scott]

generally <$50 for me but then im a student with a small income :D

[lccorp2]

$0.

Never gave/got gifts as far back as i can remember. :noface:

[Xhack]

Around $75 each for Douglas, Sara and Gillean (kiddliwinks); around $40 for their partners and $20 for sundry nieces and nephews (cash is what they want!). The rest of the family came to a Christmas_Card_Only deal some years ago.

[Beisla]

I don't think of it in terms of how much per gift, I think of it in terms of how much for the gifts for a certain person.

That's usually 20-30€ for family members, a bit less for friends. This year my gifts for 5 people cost around 115€. (There are a couple of gifts for the entire family)

[Emmy]

Between my sisters and our partners we hold a secret santa with a $35 minimum price. I'll then spend approx. $40 on my niece, and we all put in around $30 towards our parents pressies. Next year Mum and Dad plan to go in the Secret Santa too - currently they spend $75 on each of us, and the same on our partners, so it's a much cheaper option for them.

[wulfin]

i generally spend about $20-$30 each.. of course this year my brother and sister-in-law are getting something that cost me about $50, but then my parents are getting somethign that cost me $5 in total (but about 80 hours of time!!!)

[C_ris]

I spend about £10-15 per gift. ($20-30)

[Mausey]

I forgot to put what we do. :D Our family went to a draw, one name, one present and it's about $50. Makes sense for us, instead of trying to find 8 or so gifts, now it's just one.

[jjmouse]

Well, how much I spend depends on what I am buying and who I am buying it for. Generally speaking, I get what I want for whomever I want, and worrying not about the cost. And no. I am NOT made of money.

[zankoku]

Fortunately I have only one gift to buy for Christmas and that is for my wife. (She takes care of the kids and grandkids.)

Unfortunately, her birthday is on teh 29th of December and there is no way I will combine the two days into one gift. (That would be suicidal).

I don't put a limit on what I buy. It depends on the gift, which right now I have no idea on what to get her this year.

:banghead: Brain dead at this time of year.

One rule we have in our family. WE DON'T USE CREDIT CARDS. Debit cards are ok as that is the same as cash.

Jim

[granath]

20 € for my sister, 10 € for her fiancé, plus this year I'm buying them a special gift to commemorate their 10th engagement anniversary, about 10 € (they announced their engagement on Christmas Eve 1994). 30 € for each of my parents, 10 € for my godson, and about 30 € altogether on Christmas cards. Say, about 140 €.

[Sharon]

Basically in my family, we're most just buying gifts for the younger (minor) children. Each gift $25 or under, but I don't necessarily limit it to just one gift per child.

[woollymouse]

Depends on who the gift is for and what I fancy.

[Shazza]

It tends to depend on what I find. I have upper limits of a sort but I tend to shop all year so it isn't difficult to wind up give the kids a couple of hundred dollars worth of pressies.

Also depends on what they are into. Patrick is scooter and bike jump made. Found a scooter and a bike jump both $50 each. Darn fine bargain. On the other hand, Sandra is getting a DVD player which was worth about $70 but on the other hand her cheapest gift was $10. Can't tell you what yet in case she wanders in and sees. Tell ya after the weekend.

Btw we celebrate Xmas whenever we want to. Primarily because my step-son's mother is a mean spirited bword and will do everything she can to make sure we don't see him on the 25th of December. So about 4 years ago we decided she could shove the 25th where the sun don't shine and now we pick a day and make THAT xmas day. Hehe we didn't tell her though and so she thinks she is getting petty pleasure thinking she is denying us and here we are not giving a damn. Life is sweet.

So this year in the Faulkner household Xmas day with be the 18th of December.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

[Royalmaiden]

I put $25 or less per gift, but I like to get my nephews & niece several gifts :roll:

[AnnMarie]

So far, I can't think of too many single items that I've gotten for anyone over 25$US....and I could afford them if I found them. :cry: That said, I am another one of those people that tends to start shopping December 26th for the following Christmas... so Meriah, at least, ends up getting pretty spoiled. aAnd she is the only one I really worry about. AS long as I have SOMETHING for my mother, brother, hubby and inlaws (usually something they can share), I can relax.

My brother, on the other hand... he is single, lives with our widowed mother, and has a far better head for money than I do. I think the last time any of us fot something from him that was less than 25$ was long before I got married!

[Kater]

I put $50 (US) or less. Depends who it's for. Sometimes we spend more. If we find a perfect gift for someone and it isn't totally outragous we will get it.

[Bob12]

I didn't vote because it varies from year to year. For several reasons, it's a bit higher this year than others.

[prekharper]

Most gifts $25 and under, but I tend to give multiple gifts to most persons.

[Nagetier]

I don't celebrate any gift-giving holidays within my family besides birthdays -- we have very strict views against organized religion and it's even worse against consumerism -- and on birthdays, we tend to buy very strange items as presents, or make them. Expensive doesn't bode well in my family.

And gifts for friends for their religious holiday of choice and birthdays? I usually crochet something, write something (I wrote my best friend a book -- 40,000 words -- as a sweet sixteen present!) or purchase something very inexpensive that's still a happy-fun-present (usually relating to an inside joke) because I also have no source of income, and the parents don't share.

[Dux]

I didn't check off any choice. We don't set a limit and what we spend varies. One year my Sister and I chipped in to get a computer for our Mom, this year Mom is got various yummy treats. We tend to choose by gift instead of price.

[Lady Wolf]

I tend to limit myself to upper limit of £10-15 but if I see something that is just right for someone I will get it if it's not too expensive - anything over £50 is out of the question though. :eek:

[Elisabetha]

We don't give gifts with CHristmas, but we do celebrate Sinterklaas in the NEtherlands. For that my family (father, mother, brother and his girlfriend) and my in laws (father, mother, brother and sister) get together. We all draw a person and buy a gift or gifts for that one person. The gift then gets wrapped up in a surprise package that usually reminds them of something weird they did in the last year and has a story in rhyme added to it. We make it a nice evening, with a big meal and then the gift giving. We try to keep it a secret who made what for whom and usually have lots of fun reading the poems and unwrapping the packages.
The price for the gifts is usually around 15 euro's, so nobaody has to spend a lot of money, it is more about having fun then about huge gifts. Also on when drawing the piece of paper to find out who whe have to buy something for this year, we add a small list of things we would like to receive on the piece of paper. So you usually receive something you can use and / or really like.

:bouncy: :bouncy: :bouncy:

[Selene]

As little as possible. We do only buy gifts for small children in our family. And they do not get the most expensive toys. :) But always books.

[bisb]

We stay under $25.00 because I have one brother who would go nuts spending otherwise.

[Calaedros]

Hmm, I tend to spend less than $50 on family (actually, usually up to about $40). On my girlfriend it depends, but usually less than $100 - depending also on how long I've been with that particular one :)

Cal

[Dux]

We don't give gifts with CHristmas, but we do celebrate Sinterklaas in the NEtherlands. For that my family (father, mother, brother and his girlfriend) and my in laws (father, mother, brother and sister) get together. We all draw a person and buy a gift or gifts for that one person. The gift then gets wrapped up in a surprise package that usually reminds them of something weird they did in the last year and has a story in rhyme added to it. We make it a nice evening, with a big meal and then the gift giving. We try to keep it a secret who made what for whom and usually have lots of fun reading the poems and unwrapping the packages.
The price for the gifts is usually around 15 euro's, so nobaody has to spend a lot of money, it is more about having fun then about huge gifts. Also on when drawing the piece of paper to find out who whe have to buy something for this year, we add a small list of things we would like to receive on the piece of paper. So you usually receive something you can use and / or really like.

:bouncy: :bouncy: :bouncy:

I have a girlfriend whose family has a similar tradition. Each gift is wrapped special and the tag has a rhyme on it that you have to figure out to guess what is inside the package. It is always somehting very individual to the person receiving the gift.

Hmmm, I wonder where her family is originally from. Her maiden name was Praus, I always thought it was German...

[JayEgo]

I spend about £10-15 per gift. ($20-30)If I worked on that basis, I'd spend a minimum of £200 or thereabouts on buying just one present for each person.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, however you look at it, I have a lot of folk to buy for so I have to be more frugal...

Shopping early on also helps... the moe I can get earlier in the year, the easier it is come December!

Ja¥son xx

[Hans]

Think even $25 is relatively high. I tend to buy one more expensive and lots of inexpensive things :)

[Shadow*]

I couldn't vote as none of them apply :( prices vary even when I buy for just one member of the family. e.g. My parental type .... cheapest £1.99 to £49.95 dearest ($3.80/$95.71).
I tend to buy multiple gifts for a person, a main pressie and several silly fun ones. I only know precisely what I have bought, and how much I have spent, when it comes to wrapping up time. I have a 'total' budget (yeah right ;) ) but not a specific one per person.

And I never put anything on the old plastic! So the PMD doesn't get a vote either.
I save hard well in advance of the festive season, and I am far from swimming in money.