I suppose “Black Friday” is the appropriate venue to discuss holiday gifts on a budget. My wife and I are blessed, and cursed at the same time, with a large “nuclear” family. Between us we have 7 parents, 3 siblings, one brother-in-law, one serious girlfriend, two nieces and 4 grandparents. And that’s immediate family only.
In past years, holiday shopping has been spendy – even if you keep the price down on any one gift, it adds up, quickly. This year however, I don’t have the luxury of a good sized budget for gifts. What I do have is $225, or roughly $12 to spend on each person (including my wife).
So this year it will be about the personal gifts, thinking outside the box, and all that jazz. My nieces, both 5 and under, will still get store-bought gifts, but everyone else will not.
Part of me is looking forward to this challenge; what can we do that is unique to my wife and I, and still “gifty” when received by family? We have some ideas already, but there is still a lot of planning to be done.
The exercise also helps me think about things I need, vs things I want. When you plan to not spend much money on gifts, it is hard to ask for anything from people. So when they ask what you want for the holidays and your birthday, one’s mind quickly removes the frivolous things that are unnecessary in the current state of our lives.
Would I like a pasta press? Sure I would. But it is not as important as other things. So my goal is if people still wish to get me stuff, to make sure it is things that fit into overall goals I may have right now – and use those gifts as a way to improve my life in quantifiable measures, or at least more then $225 would have bought me otherwise.
