How much do you spend on gifts each year?

[lovestolaugh]

Okay, so I used to be the high spending, credit card charging, crazy gift giver in my family! Since joing frugal village I have really cut all of that down! This past Christmas I spent only my budgeted amount and I paid for everything with cash!!!! My kids are both preteen and understand the value of a dollar so they were quite fine with getting less. Actually, it was one of the best Christmas's we ever had! I set a budget at the beginning of each year and then I try to find sale items all year round.

With all this being said, I''m curious how you all handle gift giving through the year? What are your budgets and how do you accomplish meeting these goals? I think the hardest thing for me is waiting for a special occasion to give gifts. I used to run right out and buy things for my kids whenever I wanted to regardless if it was a birthday or not. I have since really changed that behavior although I still have to fight the urge to shop for them! Anyways, I am just curious what y'all do!
Thanks!!!

[nuisance26]

~Last year we spent about $1600. I make alot of gifts so it could have been much worse.~

[eyrehead]

I honestly have no idea how much we spent last year on gifts. I do try to find age appropriate toys and/or clothes on clearance to have on hand for birthdays, etc. I do know that we spent over 3000.00 on Christmas alone!! YIKES!! I must get that under control. We went a little over board on each other, as well as our parents this year. Oddly, we spent less this year on the kids, than we ever have!! Anyway, like I said, we (I) need to get the holiday spending under control!!!

[ZenTherapy]

I spend more for my boyfriend and my mum (about €100 at Xmas, less at birthdays), for my friends I can find some nice gifts for €20-30
Upcoming birthdays: I'm going to buy a Benetton shirt or else at the end-of-season sales for a friend and some organic cosmetics for another.

[Neeley]

As far as children go:
~Christmas: $500-$600 each
~Birthdays: $200-$300 each *We spend that for their party and gift combined. They decide what type of party they want and we go from there. Whatever is not spent on the party goes to their gift(s). At times they have opted for no party if there was a larger/more expensive gift they wanted.
~Easter Basket: $50 each
~Valentine's Gift: $50 each
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Total on each child: $800-$1000 per year/per child
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Gifts for others:
~Christmas: $600-$700
~Kids' friends' birthdays: $20 each and almost always cash (we normally have around 4-5 of these a year so between $80-$100/year)
~Family member's birthdays: Around $300-$400/year (my parents, to nieces, a nephew, step-mom, aunt, cousin, MIL, FIL, etc...)
~My nieces' and nephew's Easter gift and Valentine's day gifts: $20 each for each holiday so $120/year

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Total spent on gifts for others: $1100-$1320
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Added all up we spend $1900 - $2320 on gifts


All of the Christmas gifts are bought using a part of DH's annual bonus he gets in November. All of the other gifts are paid for out of our normal monthly budget. No credit cards, borrowing money or taking it out of savings.

[Mamaof2rugrats]

Under 200 for Christmas/Chanukkah. That's for everyone, family,friends,the kids.
Birthdays I usually spend between 10-15 a piece and a little more for the kids depending on if I can find what I want secondhand in which case it may be less.

[Jskell911]

I have no idea. Haven't purchased any so far this year, so maybe it would be a good time to start tracking.

[Frugal Girl]

I spent over $1500 on gifts. This year, I am making everything for everyone. I'm going to find things in yard sales and on clearance or at dollar only stores and spruce it up a bit with some craftiness.

I'm going to keep track of how much I spend on these crafts and I'll post them as I make them.

[Neeley]

[B][U]

Added all up we spend $1900 - $2320 on gifts

I added wrong. When I totaled I only added enough for one child and we have two. Oops!!!

Should be $2700-$3320.

[Marie78]

I spend around $1,000 at Christmas time: between: gifts for family, friends, co-workers, baking supplies, party snacks, cards, etc... I think the bulk of my spending is on the gifts for family.

The rest of the year: birthdays, Easter flowers/candy, Valentine Greetings, graduation parties/retirement parties, Mother's/Father's Day, Bosses Day, etc... I spend around $800 total for the year.

Total gift spending for the year is around $1,800 give or take.

[monkeywrangler71]

Last year we spent $2082.58 on gifts. About half of that was Christmas.