Who do you buy for and how much do you spend?

TimBear

Mayflower10cat wrote: »

it gets even more ridiculous when the inlaws insisted for years on sending us a cheque for £100 between us and we'd buy them M&S vouchers, each, £50 worth. How daft is that!!!

Mine and my siblings birthdays are within days of each other so we all agreed to no gifts, because mostly we'd give each other money, but really we'd just be passing the money between us back and forth when it was each of our birthdays - we needn't bother we decided!

cazpumpkin

This year i have bought for my OH, 1 DS, 2 DDS & 1 DDs B/F as usual but i have also decided on some changes to everyone else as follows
my family - just 2 brothers left now and both happy to swap cards and no presents

husbands family : not happy about reduced quantity of presents but not my problem

his mother - tin of quality street
husbands brother who lives at home with his mother - tin of quality street
husbands sister (and her husband and 2 grown up children) - a tin of quality street
husbands other sister ( and her husband and 2 grown up children) - a tin of quality street

basically a £5 tin of sweets per household , easier and much cheaper than buying individual gifts and on the label it says to the whole family with love, or to your family from our family .

my best friends, a calender from Age uk which says Friends on it at £3 each and a handy thing to have, some of us swap just cards

any of my childrens friends - a card, no presents at all, unless they buy it from pocket money and i strongly discourage them

any secret santa, schoolfriends, etc - nothing

my ex husband, his girlfriend, his mother , his new child all of whom i used to buy presents for from my eldest girl - nothing at all

so massive changes for me as i used to buy for all and sundry

but now with the exception of my husband, kids, kids partners and possible grandchildren i wont buy for anyone else at all, the only exception would be if it was a single or lonely poor person who doesnt get much or doesnt have much family and then i would shove the boat and treat them , that must come across as very odd of me

but its all gotten out of hand and is ridiculous , i dont like the stress of shopping for millions of people or wrapping endless presents

ive cleaned the house and decorated, the decorations came from poundland

id rather spend the money on xmas food and drink over the xmas period for our family

sincerely ebeneezer scrooge

balletshoes

The only adults I buy for are my mum and my OH, up to £20 for mum and maybe, depending on what I see, up to £30 on my OH. My siblings and I all decided years ago that we wouldn't give christmas pressies to each other, just the kids. My OH's family don't celebrate Christmas at all, so thats nice and easy lol.

My DD, it really depends on what she wants, last year I spent around £50, this year her main pressie is more expensive so possibly around £150.

2 nieces around £25 each, 2 nephews around the same, and an adult nephew and his gf, they get around £10 each spent on them.

we don't do Secret Santa at work and I don't send christmas cards to work colleagues either - I see them every day, I can (and do) say merry christmas to them .

DD has bought little secret diaires for her 3 best friends, they cost 99p each from the Card Factory, and I'll get something out of the stash from my old Bootsing days for her teacher.

MaggieBaking

Our family are very much of the type to "go without" - we all live well within our means (I daresay my husband and I are the "spendiest" of them all.) Our nieces and nephews are not spoilt at all. Buying presents is relatively fun as there are lots of things that I can spoil people with.

Not including birthdays as there are a few around Christmas time our total spend will be around £400. We don't have any children and bar one friend this is all for our large immediate family.

Kantankrus_Mare

Mayflower10cat wrote: »

it gets even more ridiculous when the inlaws insisted for years on sending us a cheque for £100 between us and we'd buy them M&S vouchers, each, £50 worth. How daft is that!!!

I am pleased its not just me.

I am sick and tired of racking my brains every year to think of things for parents and parents in law.

We have decided to forget pressies and go out for slap up meal instead. (With the parents lol not on our own)

They dont NEED anything and neither do we.

Hopefully the meal idea will creat more memories.

ladymarmalade

Hi Everyone

I have been reading this thread with great interest so thought I would post mine too! The amounts on my other half any my parents are higher than previous years as it is the first year I have had a full time job after university and training since the age of 18 (I am not 24 lol). Therefore I want to say thanks for the years when I haven't been able to afford much.

OH - About £180.....£160 on main presents and then £20 on stocking fillers to open in bed
Mum - About £60 - £40 on main pressies pluse £20 on stocking
Dad -about £40 (mum does his stocking as I wouldn't have a clue!)
Brother - £30

We have then bought for all of OH siblings children, rather than the siblings themselves and on average we have spent £10 per child and there are 8 so that's £80

MIL - about £35
MIL partner - £15

grandma - £15
grandma and partner -£15

we have also bought for two of my aunts and uncles at £12 each and then two f our friends at £15 each.

I think that's it...all in all not too bad and it's all already bought and paid for so I can't complain!

jtr2803

Really interesting thread.....

Christmas has always been a HUGE event in my house, when my brother and I were young and mum was a single parent we didn't get much during the year but there were always loads of Xmas presents. After we opened all of them we would run upstairs to mums wardrobe to get all the goodies out - choccies, crisps, nuts, the things that most of us just buy as part of our weekly shop now (I should add, I am 29 so it wasn't that long ago!).

Every year we say we are going to cut down but I am not sure it ever happens although I am finding that as people get older, their presents tend to get more expensive but smaller . My family is very small, just myself, OH, mum, daughter and my brother and his girlfriend. I don't buy for any cousins or aunts/uncles or grandparents.

I have a spreadsheet were I keep tabs on what I have spent and I think this year the gift value is about £480 but actual cost is around £250 as I won some shopping vouchers earlier this year. Rough estimate of split:

Mum £100 - body shop grabbits, PJs, Slippers, Perfume, Make Up
OH £180 - Jimmy Carr Tickets, Cafetiere, Flavoured Coffees, Xbox game, boxers
DD £100 - Wellies, craft sets, books, jewellery, PJs
Brother & Girlfriend £100 - PS3 game, aftershave, nivea set, body shop items, Warner Bros Harry Potter tour tickets.

I try to avoid gifts for the sake of opening them, which is what we were doing. OH and I both have decent jobs and don't 'need' anything and we normally buy the things we really want, I often tell people not to buy me anything and either treat themselves or donate to charity but you would think I just asked them to walk on hot coals .

huxley

Hi all, I was 1 of 4 and we all have families now and there are grandchildren as well, so we book a family meal so we all pay for our dinner and do a secret Santa set at £10. We have a great time together then on Christmas day phone each other and try to guess who your Santa was. Then I just buy for my dad, mil, 2sons,1daughter, daughter in law, grandson (£20 limit for each) and a very close friend and family will get a winter warmer hamper of warm socks, hot water bottles and 2 envelopes made to look like vouchers each containing £15 for extra gas and leccy for the meters to keep them warm over the festivities.

berrybabe

I've nearly finished all my shopping! Out of my family I only buy for my mum and my dad, my mum and dad buy for all the immediate family and usually put my name on it It just gets ridiculous otherwise and they will just end up with tat they don't want anyway.

I had a bit of money saved so I really wanted to spoil my mum and dad (but especially my mum) as she is my best friend and I love her to bits, she is always there for me and I want to show her my appriciation (I know there are other ways except buying things but we are living in a material world and I am a material girl, lol!)

So my mum asked for either pandora stacker rings or this swarovski ring, went up town yesterday and thought stuff it and bought her both, I love christmas and I love buying for other people if I can afford it. So the pandora stacker rings came to £125 (I hope they fit, I was in the shop picking them out for about an hour!) and the swarovski ring was £165. So mum - £290 and I also got her a jodi piccout book as she loves them - so just under 300 in total

I've bought my dad £200 amazon vouchers, don't like buying people vouchers but he's the man that has everything, has an ipad laptop good phone etc, is picky with clothes, and he loves amazon so hopefully he doesn't mind getting vouchers, better than risking getting him something he won't like!

OH I already bought him a Noel Gallager ticket when they went onsale £50, and I've just ordered him a top to open on the day £55

Then 4 of my friends, Friend 1- Lancome perfume set was about £20
Friend 2 and 3 L'occitane gift sets about £20 each
Friend 4 - butterfly photo frame from m&s £15
And I just need to buy for one other friend, probably just get her a little santcury gift set or something about a tenner budget

So about £700 :eek: But I'm happy with what I bought everyone, I love treating people if I have the money to do so and that's me done and dusted and can now enjoy the rest of december watching elf and drinking mulled wine without worrying about braving the crowds up town!! Woo hoo!

PenguinOfDeath

This year I have done hampers for mum, dad, brother and his gf, I have spent between £8-£14 on each. Nothing with a particualr 'theme' just bits I have picked up the last few months that they will like!
I also buy for my two nephews who i dont mind spending a bit more on, think I'm up to about £30 each on them two including stockings full of little toys and sweets/chocolate.
Only really buy for a couple of friends as I just tend to go out for a meal or something with some of them so we just do that instead of buying each other things, I dont participate in the great Christmas Card exchange either!
Spent a bit more on the OH, spent about £60-70 on him plus £15ish on stocking bits (not counting some clothes he asked for but he got me some shoes so we're even ) Hes a big kid (arent all men?!) so lots of silly things for him.

Pleased with myself this year as nothing I have bought was at full price (in true MSE style) so Ive 'saved' more than Ive spent on everything...yes had a spreadsheet running lol . Now for the wrapping :eek: