December spending challenge

[Blackdog Lin]

OK, Fidgiegirl, you mentioned in your Financial thread about a spending challenge for December. I am in. I need the challenge.

We are all different, with different incomes and family expectations and societal doings and what-all. But we can all agree on the need to simplify our Holiday doings, and spend less money doing so. Maybe on the need to focus more on the meaning of the season, and not so much on the spending of the season?

So, for me: I challenge myself to keep Christmas spending under $250.00. I think a normal holiday season for us would be about $350.00, so that's my challenge to myself, to save the $100.00. This includes gifts (to others, DH and I don't really do gifts), decorations (I SO don't need to spend money on new decorations), clothing (ditto: why in the world would I think I need new outfits to do the basically nothing I do every Holiday season?) , and foodstuffs (my downfall: we do food goodies instead of gifts. Fanestil ham, anyone? Need to focus on more homemade goodie cooking rather than spending money on storebought stuff.)

K. I'm in for saving $100.00 in December.

Y'all may have much larger Christmas budgets: that's okay. How might you save oh, say, %30 of your Christmas budget this year. In for a challenge?

[Tradd]

I spent $35 at Target yesterday for Christmas gifts for my goddaughter and her sibs (arts and craft supplies). This is for both Christmas and St. Nicholas Day (Dec. 6). I might add a few more things. Small candle for her mom, and a $10 gift card for Starbucks, too.

$15 for a box of 40 nice Christmas cards at Target. Bought a few decorations for around my place - $25.

I might spend another $50 or so.

My Christmases are usually around $150 or so. I'll save a bundle by not buying any gifts for the department, although I might get a small candle for my manager (she loves them). I will spend on some holiday foods, but since I don't host a holiday dinner or gathering, it won't be a huge amount.

By not buying for coworkers, etc., I probably save at least $50 if not more.

[Tussiemussies]

This is the first year we won't be spending on Christmas. I just love giving gifts and artistically wrapping them, so it all adds up. Will really miss it all this year. DH and I usually treat each other to a lot of gifts. We might be giving some money to the four nephews though...:)

[fidgiegirl]

It's funny, Blackdog Lin, I meant a challenge about cleaning up paperwork in December, but went back to the thread and saw that I was extremely unclear about that! I'm thinking about if a spending challenge would be a good thing for me or not. We're pretty in control about Xmas spending, but can always use a little nudge in the general spending area, plus we tend to go overboard on the "experience gifts" that would be just as valued by the recipients even if they weren't as expensive.

Let's all try to keep this thread in mind as December approaches . . . since it's still a ways away, it might be forgotten.

[try2bfrugal]

We mostly exchange gift cards with the relatives so Christmas tends to be break even for us, except for the kids. They get a set amount to spend as they wish with a few surprises and a goodie bag with things like treats and discount movie tickets. For each other we usually just do some small, thinking of you gifts like a calendar for the new year, books, wine and chocolates. Everyone else, if I need other gifts, usually gets wine, discount movie passes or candy from Costco. Then if I don't use up the other gifts we can always use that stuff up ourselves.

[Rosemary]

I am going back to basics on spending, asking myself before every purchase if it is something we need, and if we need it now or if the store can be the storage location until we do actually need it. I am also doing other things to limit time in stores, and consolidating all errands to minimize driving and total time in stores. Some of these things I generally do as a habit anyway, but I am being more mindful about it now. I have nearly all of our holiday gifts already, so I can avoid the December craziness.

[lucas]

Hi there Blackdog Lin,

Sounds like a great idea... I want to run a tight ship this December too... in the past Christmas has always be like a license to go nuts, and I wind up wasting a ton of money... I remember seeing an academic study about the proportion of Christmas gifts that were unwanted, and being horrified at the level of waste... Christmas has really become like a frenzy of collective wastefulness (or maybe collective insanity)... It's difficult to just not buy gifts for others, of course, but I think this year I'm going to suggest to a few family members that we make a donation to charity rather than buying gifts for each other (in truth any gifts I receive just wind up collecting dust anyway!)...