By: Anonymous
Instead of buying gifts for each other for Christmas, my girlfriend and I each set aside some money toward going somewhere together. It keeps us from blowing money on something the other doesn’t really...
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Good stuff, Matt! My husband likes to open lots and lots of gifts Christmas morning. So I buy and individually wrap the ‘luxury’ foods that he eats during the year as part of his Christmas stuff. Six...
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If you have to go the traditional route I suggest converting your credit card reward points to gift cards then use the gift cards to do your shopping. It’s like shopping with found money – you are not...
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The biggest thing we do is simply limit the amount of people we purchase gifts for. We buy for our parents and nephews / nieces only. We don’t even exchange gifts with our siblings. I think the gift...
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We’ve found that the first year of cutting back on gifts is the hardest – some friends still got us gifts, even though we told them we didn’t want to exhange presents. The second year was much easier....
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It’s difficult to save and spend during the holiday season so the best plan should be to save a little before the holiday season planning out a general idea of what presents costs.
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We only give gifts to the children in our family – no adult gifts whatsoever. In terms of ideas for giving coupons for services, I would LOVE to get a babysitting coupon – way more than any sweater or...
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Buying stuff online (and early) can also save you a lot of money. Look on eBay for deals, or Craigslist to find the perfect gift that is cheaper than a store price. Also, every week in the Sunday paper...
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I’m a little older now, 35, but I’ve never spent much at Christmas. When my husband was my boyfriend and we had no money – we didn’t buy much for each other – we spent less than $50 and we probably...
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I have often given coupons for services (usually babysitting for folks with small kids) and they have never been redeemed. Not once. My husband and I buy for each other out of our “fun money” accounts...
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I usually don’t do a lot of gift giving for the holidays and my family doesn’t expect it. My grandparents had a lot of kids and last count there were something like 90 grandchildren so within each...
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By: Anonymous
So many great comments... I particularly like this one from Noadi: <blockquote><em>"...if itâ€s not enjoyable to give then itâ€s not really a gift is it?"</em></blockquote> That...
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I’m right with you, Matt, especially on No. 2. Most of my friends and family don’t need or want anything, but they want to feel appreciated and loved. I think thoughtful homemade gifts, “time together”...
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My sister and I stopped giving gifts to each other for any holiday. Saved us extra money also since we don’t have to spend on shipping fees as well. I do have one gift that I give to all of my friends...
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@Bargain Babe (Julia): The coolest word on this entire webpage is “ginormous.” Here & I thought I was the only one who used it. 🙂 @George: Great idea… that falls under “spending quality time” and I...
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Reading others’ comments reminds me… I use MyPoints to buy gift cards for obligatory folk (i.e. parents, who don’t appreciate really anything). I save up points through the year and spend them now-ish....
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Interesting post considering I just started an automatic withdrawal into my savings account for this very subject. I always overspend on Christmas and really enjoy myself but shouldn’t be spending like...
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I solved this problem 2 years ago. I don’t buy anyone gifts anymore. I do however bake goodies to bring over. I figure that’s good enough.
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We didn’t do it this year but now with a kid we will be doing it in the future. We plan to have a christmas fund. $5 a week out of each check or whatever we can afford at the time and set it aside for...
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This year, for the first time, my partner is coming to my family Christmas instead of me going to his. I’m hoping the example of a Christmas where you just hang out together for a few days and eat a...
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It gonna be family gathering as usual during Christmas. Just stay near to home and be cozy with everyone home, is the way to enjoy Christmas with less spending.
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Fantastic piece. Harkens back to when I was a kid and I’d give my parents a book of coupons of my services. Maybe I’ll try that again this Christmas.
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Last Christmas my family tried something new. We still got new presents for the little kids (there are 5 between my 4 sibs; my kids are grown) but the rest of us exchanged used gifts we found at...
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We’ve had to go the same route with Christmas in our extended families. On one side we’ve eliminated gifts for adults (but kids still get them from everyone), and on the other we’ve imposed a limit of...
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By: Anonymous
Weâ€ve had to go the same route with Christmas in our extended families. On one side weâ€ve eliminated gifts for adults
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What do you do when your family and your in-laws refuse to respect your wishes for gift-giving? My parents insist on getting me lots of gifts that I don’t need, and my in-laws continue to do the...
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@Meg: Keep working on your husband Meg. Make sure you let him know that you are a beauty that needs rescuing from this type of modern day Christmas, and that you would love to return to habits that...
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Yeah, I’m curious about whether or not people ACTUALLY redeem coupons for “services” given as gifts. Has anyone dome this successfully?
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