We are in the 300-600 catagroy. I include shipping costs into mine, since I have to mail about half the gifts. Hence, this year people getting small, flat, lightweight things, if at all possible.

We have about 40 people to buy for, and around 30 to bake for, though I am considering doing family gifts for a few of the far away people.

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Alice came to a fork in the road. "Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

We were in the $601-900 category; however, we will have to cut back this year.

We are also in the $300-$600 category- and I am unhappy with that. My answer includes everything- what we get for the kids and families, what the kids spend on our family and each other, what me and DH spend on each other. I guesstimate that this year will be around $400 (Which I am hoping I can do it for less!)! Like what kngavl said- when you don't have a lot you have to be careful (thank goodness my $400 estimate is also including the $135 in TRU gift cards I have purchased throughout the year!).

Yeah, I'm at about $100-200 per year, depending on how well the money situation is. I've never had much money. I usually only have 150 or less in a month to spend on household goods and fun things anyway. Then again my household consists of me and my baby so I guess we do alright. I dunno, I don't feel too bad. I just budget things in advance- including any play money. This year I only need to buy gifts for 6 people so it shouldn't be too difficult. My families do dice games for the holiday parties.

We spend a lot...but I've never felt any pressure to spend more than we could afford. I allocate money each month all year round towards my holiday spending and I stick to it. That doesn't include what Dh spends on me though and he does buy me beautiful things. I probably don't spend as much on him but I do often buy him clothing for work, and it gets expensive.

Each year I want to cut down, and each year I find it's very expensive. If you add up all the gifts, wine and food, it can crash a budget in no time.

This year I hope to do better (again )

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Marie - SAHM of DS Benjamin (april 2004) and DD Rose (march 2006).

We spend about $150 each on the kids maybe more if there is something special. (Like year before last they each got a new pc) $50 each for my parents, and it really depends on what we want for each other. Last year we spent about $ 500 each on each other. I do not have a set budget except for when we were exchanging with his parents then that was $50 max.

That is an awesome idea and sounds like the true meaning of Christmas. I would rather spend time with the homeless than most of DH's selfish family. I really do not like going over there for Christmas very much. DH's brothers and dad are pretty nice but his mom and sisters are kind of selfish people. Sorry to go on. I just think it is very commendable for you to do that and it teaches your children and others the importance of giving.

This year is going to be hard on us financially speaking unless I get called to work at one of the jobs I applied for. Other than that it's going to be slim pickings around here. I've always tried to be creative with gift giving and not focus on the amount of money so much as the thought and love put forth on the gift itself.

I always try to match the amount of gifts and price I spend on my two boys tho. This year I want to focus on family fun and not so much on all the gifts. I've kind of been down as far as thinking about how I can make it special for my boys without spending money that we really don't have. So far when I see something on sale and and we have a few extra dollars on hand I buy it. For instance at Wal-Mart the other day they had binders with cartoon characters on them for $1.50 so I got two. I'm going to put some paper in them and then buy them some pencils, pens, crayons, etc. I know that may not seem like much but I've got to get creative and stretch every dollar.

We budget about $900 for the month of Dec. but that includes both of my December babies birthdays. So I guess Christmas would be about $700 since we only spend about $100 per birthday (although, this doesn't include the party. If we have the same kind we had last year, they'll have a joint party at their gymnastics place which adds another $300 in.)

We live away from our family and we only ever buy presents for whichever family we visit/who visits us. Maybe that sounds cheap but we have a MASSIVE family and can't possibly get everyone excellent quality gifts. So that $700 has to cover my mom, dad, sister, brother, brother in law, dh, I and the kids. I worry we didn't budget enough this year but we really don't want it all to be so material-based and we're trying to cut back.

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Vicki
Mama to Princess, 5 and Wild Thing, 3
Progress Since 1/6/09: