Christmas - How Much!?

seriousrikk

seriousrikk

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Richard
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I am frequently astounded by how much folk spend on Christmas presents and christmas in general. On here and at work I'm hearing regular reports of £1000+ being spent on a single present, which to me is an astronomical amount for a gift.

For me and my family if we spend £100 it is considered a lot. My wife an I both earn a reasoable wage so it not like we have to be cheap, it just doesn't even occur to use to spend that sort of money on gifts.

This seems to suprise folk I know, possibly more so as they know we could afford more if we wanted to - almost get made to feel scrooge like for not blowing loads of cash :|. Are we really in the minority or are there others out there that choose not to spend masses of money on Christmas?

Richard
(Not scroogelike. Much)
 
We would never spend that amount. Even £100 would be a lot to me. We give our children decent presents and the rest of our family get token gifts at around £5 each. This is an agreement we made with the whole family.

One of my work colleagues was at our American factory recently and it seems that the general rule of thumb there is $1000 per child. That's absolute nonesense to me.

I am also regularly amazed at the thousands of pounds some people spend on holidays.


Steve.
 
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Christmas is just too expensive these daysand alot of parents don't know how to say no to the kids, my kids are 10 and 5 and have been brought up to appreciate things in life, so what they get they are thankful for, I think that way they have values installed in them.
 
I think I'd be inclined to agree with you Richard. At the end of the day, if there's something I need or another member of the family needs, then it gets bought whatever time of year it is (assuming I can afford it, that is). I'm quite happy to buy a gift for Christmas or a birthday, but at the same time I wouldn't throw money away on something expensive just because it's that time of year, if you see what I mean.
 
Due to saving for my first property I don't spend a lot either. Still spent £100+ on the girlfriend, and not quite as much on family.

My girlfriends flatmate bought her boyfriend a Chanel watch (I've looked on the net and cheapest one I can see is in the region of a couple of K), she's only 19. Wish I could afford to buy one for me, nevermind for someone else.
 
£1000 on a single gift no, but large items for my daughter are always left till xmas/birthdays(game consoles,TV,hi-fi,netbook etc). For family members £25 ish and my wife and I a few hundred each, we enjoy giving gifts at christmas but don't spend for the sake of spending.

thehitmen said:
Some people can't show emotions, so gifts do it for them....

People who need to spend £1000 have problems...
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:shrug:


if you can afford to spend £xxxx on a gift then why not, you earn it you spend it.
 
I agree if you have the money and want to spend it why not?

My son has a fortune spent on him and why cause i can.
 
I'm glad it's not just me - been feeling a bit like the odd one out here this year with the folk buying the 'biggies' and the others who spend buy 10+ presents for their other half of £15-20 or more each. My wife and I decided this year we are going to lump what we spend on each other in with some nectar points we have and buy a nice DVD recorder.

Don't get me wrong, if folk want to spend that much, that's their choice. I guess the constant media bombardment with the multi hundred 'perfect for christmas' adverts don't help either.
 
I agree though, if you have the cash then spend it, its your choice.

But I do think kids are spoilt these days. All they will ever know, is that they get what they want. Bu they should learn that in life you don't always get.
 
steve172 said:
I agree though, if you have the cash then spend it, its your choice.

But I do think kids are spoilt these days. All they will ever know, is that they get what they want. Bu they should learn that in life you don't always get.
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I agree.

When I was a kid it was a case of 'what do you want for christmas' and I would say one thing that wasn't overly expensive. Most I ever got was a new bike but I was happy with that. I looked after my bike because I knew it was not cheap and if I didn't look after it I wouldn't be getting another one.

Then again, I wasn't really referring to kids in my post, Hadn't occurred to me and I have no real interest or experience in that respect.
 
Well, I don't spend much I confess, maybe around £50 ish on the family. This year, what I decided, for my brothers birthday, me, parents and gran are clubbing together to get him a DSLR/Hybrid for birthday/xmas. Not a D3, perhaps 300D/Fuji or something! Instead of spending around a £10 each on the plasticy rubbish you can get for a 8yr old, get one nice prezzie that'll last and be enjoyed for more than a day! ;)
 
lawrenceots said:
Well, I don't spend much I confess, maybe around £50 ish on the family. This year, what I decided, for my brothers birthday, me, parents and gran are clubbing together to get him a DSLR/Hybrid for birthday/xmas. Not a D3, perhaps 300D/Fuji or something! Instead of spending around a £10 each on the plasticy rubbish you can get for a 8yr old, get one nice prezzie that'll last and be enjoyed for more than a day! ;)
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That's a great idea! Something real nice to learn about and look after (y)
 
Nowt special being bought for me this Christmas nor have I bought anything special for my better half, I am good to her all the year round and she to me:)

A box of lindoors chocs and I am happy bunny:D
 
Every year my two sons and wife give me a list of what they want. If I can afford it without the need to borrow money, they get it. If I can't afford it they get some of it.
Me personally I don't want anything, I usually buy everything I want anyway. :)
 
I love Christmas and I love giving presents, especially to my grandkids. I know they are spoilt but it doesnt stop me getting each of them something nice. I love buying dolls for my little granddaughter as I only had sons.I would rather buy stuff for the family then spend money on myself.Next month I'll be paying off the overdraft.:)
 
Last week I forked out £2000 for a Chanel handbag for my other half. We are getting married next month. :love:
 
grumpybadger said:
Sue and I have set a limit of £10 each way this Christmas. In many ways, it is harder to find a thoughtful gift with a lower budget!
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You got that right. I did a similar thing and it was a right headache. Find out on Friday how well it went down.

henryf4 said:
Last week I forked out £2000 for a Chanel handbag for my other half. We are getting married next month. :love:
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:puke:
 
:DI spent over a grand this year on a gift...... I bought myself a 7d... Ok .. I'm From Aberdeenshire! The wife will get slippers as usual!
 
I have no set limit. I work hard and have a well paid job, so it all depends on what my OH hints at throughout the year. We intentionally don't have kids (unless you count the cats :LOL: ). This year, he got his Xmas pressie a little early - a Bengal kitten. (This was a long - planned purchase too before anyone chirps in that animals shouldn't be bought for Xmas!).

If you can afford it, then why not? It's the thought that counts, not how much it cost. I certainly wouldn't make myself broke or put myself into debt for Xmas.
 
We spend around £200 per child (ish) as we tend to not just buy them stuff throughout the year "just because we can". However, when it comes to me and the Mrs, we hardly spend a bean on each other, as we buy what we want (or need) as and when we want or need it. This year, as the kids never had anything "big" on their lists, they've still had more or less the same amount spent on things they've said they wanted.

Massive difference this year is that it's all been done without using the Credit Card so I won't still be paying for it all in June !!!
 
In my case, whenever I fancy buying something for myself during the year, whether it's a Sigma lens for my D40, or a little netbook, that would be my early/late Christmas present for myself.
I've spent about £25 for the actual big day, and that was on food goodies (choc and fizzy pop). Speaking as a single guy getting by on the barest minimum farmer's wages I just can't afford to splurge out on presents for everyone "just because it's Christmas", especially when at this time of the year I'm on basic wages (I earn more - almost twice as much - in the summer picking season, a time when I could be more generous!).
I've told my family not to bother with getting me anything, then that way I won't need to worry about getting them anything, it's something I've done in the past few years now.
I'm pretty sure that if I'm "well loaded" then I could afford to show off by buying presents for every man and their dog "just because I can", but having said that I think the context of the true meaning of Christmas has been so twisted by the commercialism of it all that it's now become a p*nis thing as everyone try and outdo each other on the buying presents part.
But that's really an another discussion for an another day, for now, I just want to enjoy Christmas in my own little quiet manner where I am in the fortunate situation to be able to keep things as simple as possible. :)
 
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we11ingon said:
:DI spent over a grand this year on a gift...... I bought myself a 7d... Ok .. I'm From Aberdeenshire! The wife will get slippers as usual!
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Dress it up how you like, but that's not really a gift is it...? ;) Otherwise I could be accused of spending hundreds too :thinking:


Ian, you speak a lot of sense as always (y)
 
henryf4 said:
Last week I forked out £2000 for a Chanel handbag for my other half. We are getting married next month. :love:
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Sounds like a she's going to be a high maintenance wife , if I spent £2000 on a handbag for her my wife would batter me :LOL:
 
If you have the money to be able to spend higher amounts on gifts then why not? But i think the real issue from the past decade has been people spending money that they do not have. This year alot of people have had to have the reality check and pull in the purse strings.

Personally me and the OH have set a limit of £100 (ish). We also have a rule that we do not buy anything personally during november or december. If we want something, not need, in these months then we tell one another and it gets added to xmas the list.

I don't buy for the extended family either. We prefer to make contact during the year with out the forced xmas happiness.
 
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I've gone a little nuts on the amount of gifts this year (I always do) but in truth I buy from January (sometimes before!) so that we can buy for our brothers and sisters and the sprogs. TBH that's all we do buy for though, our closest family and 2 of our best mates. I have a box that we put things in all year and some people get photo gifts, some homemade gifts etc so all in all it doesn't work out as expensive as it seems.
 
I go with about £50 each on the parents, £20 - £40 on brother / sister and their OH's and £20 or so each on my two neices and one nephew. Token gifts for Aunts / Uncles / Grandparents etc.

Then we get to my OH... where I may go a bit overboard :D
In total I've probably spent about £500 on him with two "proper" presents and "stocking" presents too. The thing is my OH's family is a bit complicated which means he has had some absolutely miserable christmas's in the past. He missed out on lots of presents under the tree and a happy family day when he was a kid and in a way I'd like to make up for that. We don't buy ourselves much throughout the year and I enjoy spoiling him on birthdays and at christmas... so I do!
 
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I am tight to it pretty much ends up £30 each for parents & sister. £10ish for mates. No other half so nice big saving there :D
 
My side of the family were never really big into gifts except for the kids (I do spoil my sister's 2 boys though - hey my Uncle spoiled me rotten, so it's only right I do it to my nephews too :)). My wife's family we spend a fair amount on, but they usually spend far too much money on us too - and all her family's in the US, so just the shipping costs probably total up to more than what I spend on my family or what they spend on us.

I get over the top presents for the wife though, and she spends far too much money on me (between Birthday & Christmas this year, she got me a Sigma 10-20mm, an Nikon 70-200mm VR and a D300s + Grip).
 
A few years ago we gave up buying each other presents and to use the money on a week's holiday instead. Something that we can enjoy together and without out the hassle of the Metrocentre.

Now we've retired in Spain we don't need to do that. Instead, if there's something either of us wants during the year, and we've got the money, we buy it.

This year I've been 'bought' a tripod, a camera bag, a macro lens and a speedlite and a netbook. :D
 
If it was my choice it would be nothing, but other half says we have to buy presents, total bill this year is £180 thats for 7 *** and 8 bottles of wine for the grown ups. We dont buy each other anything for xmas although g/f normally gets me a CD or something small as its my birthday on xmas day.
 
Call me boring old f or scrooge whatever.

Up until recently we have been going away for Christmas and/or New Year and during that time have never bought each other presents.

We buy my Mother in law something and, upto this year, my nephews - now turned 18.

We generally buy what we want, when we want.

Tomorrow we are going down the pub for Christmas lunch and the only other thing we've bought is a few other 'luxuries' - a few extra cheeses and a couple of small boxes of choccies, a bottle of vintage port and a half bottle of dessert wine.

That about sums it up.

Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
 
i dont earn a big wage, and the wife earns at least double my wage, so i dont have a lot, but we spend roughly £400 on youngest (9) £200 on eldest (21 next) even though he earns a big wage, our biggest spend is summer holidays anywhere from £4000 to £5000 and NON of it is credit all cash, we save hard all year, this is why i cant afford NEW camera equipment, but i think we enjoy our hols better than xmas!!, anyway happy xmas to all and enjoy.
 
I don't think I went mad this year. The child is nearly 18 now so hopefully I might not be spending as much on her in the future?:shrug:

My husband is quite easily pleased. I bought him some gifts and he was absolutely over the moon with his £60 worth of old fashioned sweets form a website someone on here recommended. He really liked that.

As long as I get a decent present, that's all that matters I guess....:LOL::LOL::LOL:

Lisa
 
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