Wondering what people are doing this year to save on gift spending. Do you have special stores or gifts that are awesome deals and you'd like to share? I have 13 nieces & nephews plus my own kids (unfortunately they refuse to draw names). Also need ideas for dad. Has everything, and has no hobbies (no- not even sports!)
Something I've done is cashed in all my credit card points for gift cards. I was pleasantly supprized. I'm using them for teacher gifts.
Thanks everyone.
Well I can tell you what we are doing this year. My husbands side of the family is only doing an adult grab bag, and we are not buying gifts for each other kids, as we came to a consensus that our kids already get too much stuff.
On my side of the family we only buy for the kids, and I buy a gift for my mother and that is it. We do not exchange with siblings.
If you cannot afford to buy for your nieces and nephews, then I would just tell the family that you do not want to exchange gifts for the kids this year.
I am buying one big gift for my 3 kids ( Wii), and a few small ones each, that is more then enough.
Are you into baking? For the 13 nieces and nephews, perhaps you can bake an assortment of cookies and put them in fun boxes or bags. Everyone would get the same thing (trust me, I know how the "what you get for one, you get for all" goes!). Yeah, I know it isn't terribly exciting but honestly, having to gift for 13 kids seems like a lot!
We buy for our own children and that's about it. We have 1 niece and 1 nephew that we will probably buy something for (in the $20-30 range). But we tell ALL other family members that we simply cannot afford gifts (not even for each other). Personally in this economy I cannot imagine a family expecting that many gifts! You could bake homemade treats and make small packs for each child. We've also given photos of our kids to the grandparents, aunts & uncles.... My husband's family is very large and used to exchanging gifts with every member of the family. We told them several years ago when things got hard for us financially that we just would not be doing it.
What about proposing a spending limit or a "theme" like "home-made" or "edible treats" One thing that we do is that everyone buys a gift that says "B" or "G" (boy or girl gift) and all the kids pick a number, so if there are 13 kids, there are 13 numbers. Number 1 chooses, and unwraps. Number 2 can either take number one or choose a wrapped gift. The best number to have is the last one, in this case, 13. That person can choose any of the gifts that other have in their hands, unwrapped or choose the last one. If someone's gift gets taken, they MUST choose a new gift to unwrap. It's fun for the kids. Everyone leaves with a gift, it only costs whatever the set price is "everyone gift must equal 25 dollars"....Hope that helps! Happy Holidays! m
Michelle, You have already received some great ideas. One we started a while ago is only homemade gifts. be that something baked, sewn, glued etc thats what the kids do for each other. one year my older son made "stationary" for each of his aunts and uncles. they have made crafty things like picture frames and ornaments. I would think that with the economy all of your family would understand if it was stopped this year. or each family bring a gift for their own children and be done with it. we have gradually cut out almost all extra people on our list. the only ones still on are our godchildren and grandchildren. thats it no tother outside family
Have you heard of Freecycle? Google it. It's a site where people offer their unwanted items to avoid them being put in a landfill. Depending on the ages of your recipients, maybe they wouldn't care about the newness of the items? I am doing a trade with my local Freecyclers.
I'm also hitting up the local dollar store. My son loves the crafts I find there. Maybe that's something that would work for the older recipients?
As far as anyone older than 18...they're getting homemade candy. I stopped buying Christmas gifts a long time ago because I never knew what to get anyone. Come to find out everyone loves handmade truffles anyway!
Michelle,
I started shopping last week. Every week I pick something up for someone off of the list. As for kids, etoys.com has pretty good deals for toys. Toys r us sent out their big book last week, look it over and see if you could bundle some shopping for those nephews and use the coupon for 10 off of 100.
Good luck,
Latasha
I just made my FIL a picture book with photos of our 4 children from this year. I had a coupon for Walgreens so I did that but other websites like Kodak have them too. The cost w/o coupon would have been $12.15 including shipping etc. It was 20 pages, 5 X 7 with a nice cover. It had over 50 pictures in it, and they were labeled. It takes awhile but the results are impressive.
I have a lot of children to buy for as well, so this year is the "year of the board game" for us. I have found deals for $5-15 per game. Kmart, Walmart, & Toys r Us. The rewards card at toys r us is free and you get great perks, so I don't buy anything unless I have a coupon or reward dollars to spend. PLaydough and Color Wonder items have been pretty inexpensive as well this year, or buy one get one free deals as well. I have also adopted an animal at the Brookfield zoo for my niece and nephew (one for the both of them), then the get updates on their animal and I feel the money is going to a good cause and lasts a year. It is called "share the care" at the Brookfield zoo.
Hi Michelle,
You have some great ideas here. I just wanted to throw out what we do. For several years, to make Christmas more budget-friendly (we have 10 nieces & nephews), we have been buying family gifts. We try to spend about $30-40 per family, and they have been things like game night items, movie night items, or something like that. One year I bought one family a set of popcorn bowls, popcorn, a movie, and a whole bunch of ice cream toppings, for a movie night. My thought has been that I'm trying to give the families something fun to do together vs. giving individual gifts. The family gifts have been a huge hit...while they take thought & creativity, I think we'll keep it up for a while yet. Good luck!
The only other frugal advice I would give is consignment stores. I plan to look for children's gifts there. Toys are often in great shape-be careful about electronic ones though.
They refuse to draw names? Is this your nieces and nephews or your kids? If it's your kids, I'd say draw names or no gifts. If it's nieces and nephews it's harder. I would recommend either drawing or greatly lowering the budget-that might convince them.
Stick to your guns! Everyone needs to be careful with their finances and now's a great time to teach your kids. I'm sorry your family is not supportive, but keep it up, you are doing the right thing!
I also like to spread it out, buying about 2 items per week, depending what's on sale. I always read the sale ads on Sun. and look for the best deals. (If you don't get a Sun. paper, you can buy it at Dollar Tree on Sat. evening.) This week Meier has good deals on Toys. If any of the kids like crafts, you can use the Michaels and Joanne coupons that they have almost every week to buy kids craft items (there are lots of great inexpensive things and you get 40% or 50% off). If they like books, the Scholastic Warehouse is having a big sale in Dec. (more info online or PM me).
For my own kids, I am scaling back on the amount I spend. In the past, we have given our girls each one main gift that cost about $50-$100, plus a bunch of smaller things. This year I have purchased their main gift from Santa already, but spent $30 each. I figured the kids won't know the difference!! And I'm getting really good deals on their smaller gifts. One week JC Penney had a coupon for $10 off any purchase over $10, so I went and got a Disney Princess purse for my 4 year old that was on sale for about $11, so I got it for $1. She'll love it, and I don't have to spend a fortune!
For dad, can you and your boys make something? One year I made my hubby a fleece Bears blanket (no sewing- you just tie knots) with fleece from Joanne. They have a lot of different designs. Or can you frame some of your sons' art? Or make a photo collage that he can take to work? You might get some good ideas at the craft stores.
Good luck, happy shopping, and remember the real meaning of the holidays! It's not about how much we spend!
If I were you, I would definitely cut out all the nieces and nephews individually. maybe do a group thing..that is just too much. years ago, we set price limits on everyone. then, we ended up just trading cash/gift cards and decided it just wasn't worth it. spend some time doing something together instead of trying to find gifts of a certain price just because someone said you should.
I have an idea for all the females on your Christmas list. Garnet Hill has a shopper bag, which they personalize for free, for only $10. It's an adorable bag that comes in lots of colors and designs. I'm ordering one for all the nieces. teachers, etc. I had to look at the web site to make sure the price was right because Garnet Hill is an expensive catalogue. And, no, I don't have an interest in Garnet Hill other than I like to dream about being about to afford the stuff.
Depending on the age of your nieces and nephews- a few things I have done in the past:
Little kiddos: Books -look at big book stores for deals on a setof popular books and then divide them into one or two for each kid, coupled up with a gift card to McDonalds for an icecream cone.
For older kids/teenagers:
Clothing: Look at Old Navy or Penneys for when they have their t-shirts or sweaters for 2 for $20 or often a better deal and stock up. Couple that up with an itunes gift card.
For my own kids: (I have 4!) We do one big gift and accessories that go with it. That seems to satisfy everyone.
I also budget weekly beginning mid October and purchase one kid or group of kids per week, which makes it a little easier on the wallet.
Good Luck!
I hope you can talk them into a gift exchange for extended family!
Check out the "clearance" area of specialty children's sites. I have found great deals at Youngexplorers.com, kazootoys.com, hearthsong.com, discountschoolsupply.com.
I also like the idea of buying a family gift for extended family - board game or Wii game.
Another thought is to talk the extended family into chipping in to make a charitable donation from the whole family this year instead of exchanging gifts. For example, you could buy an animal for a poor family through Heifer.org or oxfam.org. The kids might like helping to choose an animal - the catalogs are pretty child-friendly!
Target usually has a DVD stand with kids DVD's for around $5 a piece. Believe it or not they are decent movies, like Scooby Doo & some of the Barbie movies that kids like. Ross, TJMaxx & Marshalls, you can sometimes find great games at a much lower price than regular stores.
You can do amazing things with duct tape! They come in 20 different colors. You can search the web for ideas. You and your children could make them or just give a roll and some directions to each kid. Wal mart has duct tape for under four dollars. Good luck!
Hi Michelle If they are over 12 years old give them gift cards.(because it's hard to please people these days) To save money try to wait to shop on Christmas Eve or even now. Sales are being advertised already.