What kind of budget do you set for Christmas shopping? I usually set a budget of a couple hundred dollars for the kids and then a budget of about $20 for everyone else in the family. How about you?
Actually most of the times I cant meet the budget, it always exceeds the budget so this time I have not fixed anything yet.
My total budget for Christmas shopping specifically for gifts is 1 month of my salary. For expenses other than gifts, it's about half a month of my salary. It's a good thing that our company gives us 2 months salary for bonus. At least I have money to spend for my Christmas shopping. It is really a fortune that I spend but if I don't give gifts, so many people will be disappointed because they know of my generosity during Christmas.
My budget is relatively small at the moment. I don't have any children and as a family we tend not to really give presents any more to each other, aside to my nieces. Beyond them, my girlfriend and my godson, I'm pretty much covered. That would total a couple of hundred dollars I guess. I know I should plan it more constructively, given that I have a background in finance, but given that the number of people is small I don't really budget any more.
My budget is just small because I don't really give gifts to people unless they gave me a gift, lol. So per person my budget is only around $15 to $20.
Next year I am hoping to have a much higher Christmas budget because I am watching what I spend this year and I am going to save all of my online earnings. I am hoping to bank about $400 just for Christmas presents in the coming year and then whatever else I can afford to put away.
It all depends how much extra money I make throughout the year through surveys, but primarily about $200 for my bf, and about $100 for my parents. Of course I pick up cheap gifts throughout the year also which helps a ton.
Oh man, I have a huge family so it's always hard to even try to budget. In the past few years, though, I really focused on saving money so my budget ended up being about $100 in all. This was possible because all of my gifts were handmade or baked. So the cash I spent were basically on material and ingredients. I budget about a week of my time, consecutively, on gifts. It's so festive too, especially when it's near the holidays (after Halloween, pretty much) and you can listen to Christmas music all day.
For me it changes every year depending on my mood or my financial state on any particular time but on average I just set aside $300 for everyone and if I can I'd also maybe work in some gifts for myself in that budget whether it be clothes or just little items I can spend for myself. Bulk of that budget usually just goes to the kids because I know they are the ones that need to have great gifts the most so they can enjoy the holidays as much as possible.
I don't usually set a budget for Christmas shopping. I prefer to buy stuff throughout the year because when I see something that really suits a person I think that will make the best present and I buy it then and there. Of course I don't just spend infinite amounts of money either, haha, it's all within reason. Christmas shopping this way leaves much less stress come December too.
