I only planned on giving certain gifts this year long before I lost my job. I just got the LAST Christmas gift taken care of so I am done with the shopping this year.
I did not give expensive gifts but I think the recipients will love what they got because my gifts are very personalized and are things that those people want.
The money for those gifts came out of the Splurge Fund in ING where I had been budgeting and saving money all year round in order to be ready for Christmas.
I got THE BEST early Christmas gift from my best friend so I am good til the next set of gift giving time rolls around.
I actually ended up spending LESS on gifts than what was in the Splurge Fund so that little extra will go into my every day living expenses and I will start rebuilding the Splurge Fund when I have a steady income next year.
How are you faring with the Christmas shopping?
Congrats for finishing off your Christmas shopping so early. Shame on me – I didn’t even start yet. But, I still have 10 days. Ideally, I would like to get most of my Christmas shopping done this weekend. Also, this year we decided to keep it simply and to buy only small things like books or CD’s – only the kids get a bit more.
A splurge fund is a great idea on how to survive christmas without going into debt! I love how ING allows you to easily open up different accounts and name them whatever you want.
I think we’re all finished with our shopping for this yr. It doesn’t amount to much, since we keep it mainly among the three of us and then we give something to each of our three nieces.
What I’ve started doing is taking a portion of what we have leftover from the previous yr’s budget – we usually have a nice chunk b/c we are both frugal – and make that the gift fund (birthdays, guest preachers at church, Christmas, etc.) for the year.
Every time we buy/give something that falls within our gift guidelines, I write it down and subtract it from the total.
I wish there were only three in my family, i have 3 kids of my sisters, her and her husband, my brother mother and father, and a handful of friends. But I not too far from being done.
Great job at being finished. I wish I could say the same for myself.
I managed to get done with my shopping at the last moment as usual, with just a couple days to spare. I managed to meet my budget and got some presents that were well received!
-Jean