The holidays are fast approaching and with them, all the gift giving and celebrations. Money will be spent, but it is a matter of how much and on what. Whether what and how you buy are determined by your household financial situation or are a reflection of values (from buying local to possibly paying more for more sustainable products or foregoing products altogether and buying experiences for your loved ones), things likely change from year to year. So, have you given it any thought?
More than I did last year (9.6%)
The same as I did last year (30.4%)
Less than I did last year (52.5%)
I'm not sure (7.6%)
With the cost of food and gas so high, that leaves less for me to spend on things that are not necessary
I'll be shopping the sales. My family members agreed that traveling to be together is what it's all about...not gifts.
I want to try and do more homemade gifts that are meaningful. No one in my family really "needs" anything. Plus, there's only one child so there's not a lot of toys that need to be purchased.
I am going to try and be more creative this year with my gift-giving. Making gifts and hunting for cool gifts that suit the person instead of just buying something overpriced just to give something. Also, we are going to concentrate on giving the kids great gifts instead of trying to give everyone an expensive gift....we all agree that watching the kids have a great time with their gifts is better than getting tons of stuff for ourselves anyway! Also, we are finding that we are always buying stuff for our siblings (and inlaws) just to give them something and it really only ends up being something they don't need and collects dust anyway...so this way we eliminate that and save money at the same time!
We try to buy one big ticket item for our children ($300) and then other stuff to equal about $500 each. Then we buy for family, some close friends and each other. All in all, we spend about $2,000. To me that is a lot, but we haven't decided to trim the costs yet...
I will definitely be spending much less.
With our family that has added 3 grandbabies I will be spending just a little more or about the same I did last year. I go to A full cup and buy off their auction to buy for my 3 daughters.
I would like to say that I would be spending less because of the economical crunch everyone is under these days, but...since everything has increased in price, I may be spending more. My husband and I will most likely forego buying each other a gift and use that money towards our son so he can have a good christmas. We will probably just send photos as gifts for Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles.
My income has changed so less or the same for me.
I am very crafty so I will be making several gifts for family, neighbors and people less fortunate. This doesn't cost us a lot of money. We don't want to go into debt buying a ton of gifts and then get hit with a large heating bill or other type of unexpected expense. Besides, we're trying to teach our children the TRUE meaning of why we celebrate Christmas. It's not about how much money or the number of gifts everyone gets; it's about celebrating the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.