Sunday, November 15, 2009

The People List

These are the people (and ages of children) for whom we normally buy. Aside from the "Just Us" and "Exchange" categories, we typically limit our spending to $20-$25 per person or couple, which comes out to $420-$525 spent (WOW! I've never added it all up before). We don't budget for "Just Us" (yikes) and we always do a $10 family exchange with my aunt/uncle/cousins on one side.

This list is more for my own benefit, so I can check mark who gets what and keep track. I recommend making a list for yourself & keeping it with you if you are trying to stay on a budget - it really helps keep costs down when you shop and limits the "oh-why-not?" purchases.

Just Us:
  • Husband
  • Me
  • Monsoon
My Immediate Family:
  • Mom
  • Dad
  • Exchange (sister, brother OR BIL) - from me
  • Exchange (sister, brother OR BIL) - from husband
  • Nephew (12)
  • Niece (2)
  • Nephew (1)
The In Laws:
  • MIL & FIL (combined gift)
  • Nephew (1.5)
  • Nephew (7)
  • Nephew (9)
Grands:
  • Grandmother
  • Grandmother
  • Grandfather
Extended Family:
  • Cousin (5)
  • Cousin (11)
  • Cousin (3)
  • Aunt & Uncle (usually a combined gift)
Exchanges:
  • $10 limit, family - from me
  • $10 limit, family - from husband

I would like to stick with the $20 per person allowance, as far as worth, but I'm not sure how that's going to fly since some of the items will be purchased w/ money from the stuff we sell and some items will be literally free - because I won them.

As far as "Just Us" goes, we've agreed to stick with a $100 budget for Monsoon, and only purchasing gifts for each other if we have extra money after everyone else has a gift.

Grand Total: $540

I'll post tomorrow with the items I already have, who they are for, and where our monetary budget lands afterward.

This is really a lot of fun.

1 comment:

Call Me Cate said...

You've got a lot of folks. We have:
me, Joe, 2 kitties (it's not Christmas without catnip)

My side:
Mom, Dad, bro/SIL, sis/BIL/nephew (1.5), Gramma

Joe's side:
Dad, Mom, BIL/wife/nephew(10)/niece (8), Auntie

Usually we do a smallish gift for my bro, one for my sis, and a combined (gift card) for bro/SIL, sis/BIL. His family, we set a budget and I let him at it. We prob do about $25/person, a little more for the kids. And some people are so hard to buy for, we just go over if we have to in order to call it "done". Yeah, giving for all the right reasons...

I'd love to make donations to charity in all their names this year. Preferably to liberal democratic charities. Falalabwaha!