Just a 46-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). Looking in Quicken, Christmas was about $330 spent & $300 to charity. (For us, includes a LOT of birthdays too - I just didn't bother to separate the category).
$75 KIVA G.C.s to the preschool
$15 Target G.C. to Kinder teacher
(BM made cute cards for his favorite aides/teachers)
$30 cash to gardener (figure he's hurting these days - I usually give him $20)
$30 Make-A-Wish for my mom
$100 my donations (from my bonus)
$100 dh's donations (from bonus)
$ 50 to boss's gift (rest of bonus)
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$400 That's most of it.
Other $230:
$100 on dh's family (went in on concert tickets, dinner G.C., and lots of G.C.s for great-grandma - they made out well). Includes $2 for Restaurant.com gift certificate worth $25.
$22 on Hisss games (2) for relatives
$6 almond roca for dad
$10 for super heros for LM from BM (he paid half)
$20 for dh's gift (BM paid $5 of it)
$10 for candy for work gift (stuffed in cute Xmas cookie jar that I had gotten for free)
$20 on my nieces (clothes)
$20 for a Set Cubed game for my dad
$20 bike horns for the kids
& that's that.
Or, $630 total spent - $250 from bonus = $380 cash. We just spread out purchases over a few months.
Oh, and the kids got a ton of toys. Dh had a pile of stuff from Scholastic (paid for with sweat) and a lot of video games and stuff (Legos)bought used, funded from game sales. So we didn't spend much cash on them, but believe me, they had plenty.
For example, he bought this giant pile of Legos for $80, kept what he wanted (TONS) and sold the rest for $80. So they were cheap to buy for this year.
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Christmas Day turned out very nice. Phew! Just very low key. Ate well, and relaxed. Kids had a million toys to play with. They got one or two things from their great-grandma and all their aunts. My parents got them a couple of things, we got them a few things, and MIL got them each a TON of things. So, they just have toys/books/games out their ears.
It's hard to top MIL who is a gift hog (did I mention) but LM's favorite toy of the day was the LEgos. I think he played with them about 12 hours straight Christmas Day.
& my dad got this for BM:
That was the clear winner for the year, except a couple of things dh got him at Scholastic where you build your own things. Those were probably cheaper, but all those were the BEST. I had to share this toy because it was so cool. (It's totally not my thing, but BM got the engineering gene from my dad. So they both played with that all day. LOL).
Dh got a lot of Blu-Rays and video games and books and such. He was not as spoiled as usual, but I think he is getting past it. Christmas is for the kids, not him. He even said so much at some point. (Usually his mom spoils him AND the kids).
I got some lovely ear warmers from BM and dh. It has just been WAY too cold to go outside, but with ear warmers, I may try to get some a.m. bike rides in. So LOVED them.
My mom got me a couple of nice gifts - a cute black cat kitty mug - and a monkey of course. We don't necessarily exchange gifts much these days, so was a nice surprise.
Dh's family got me a nice hair brush and a lot of clothes. They scaled back for me too I guess, which is FINE.
Some NICE clothes from Kohls and some crap from Target. I just do not buy Target anymore - too cheap. The one was cute but was too thin and flimsy and the other stuff was not my thing, so I will take those back.
BM needs clothes so I will probably exchange them for some clothes for BM. It will be a nice gift not to have to come up with the cash!!!
My mom did give me a $10 off at Kohl's thing (just one that came in her mail) so I might treat myself over there in exchange.
Dh's GrandDad sent us $110 - just using it to pay the Xmas bills.
We got the usual $1k from dh's parents. They started this at some point after we had kids, and makes ALL The difference, particularly a few years ago. I was not so sure they would give us that this year - they've had a rougher time of it. Now his dad faces a layoff (wanted to retire in a few years). BUT yeah, we did get that and I just plopped it in our short-term savings. I think we could use it next year as well. After that point, if they are still giving us that check, I think we can just consider more long-term savings.
Last year we were totally spoiled and got about $8k in cash gifts from our parents, which was quite unusual. So, if you didn't believe that was unusual. We usually get $1k for Christmas, and that was that for this year. & that was only even the last few years. We have relied on it a bit more than I would like in recent years, but glad to be moving past that. Actually, I think it was kind of crazy they gave it to us - with their current situation.
& yeah - my boss gave me the usual $250. Sometimes I use it to buy some nice work clothes, etc. This year we just donated it.
Christmas was NICE. Look forward to a relaxing weekend.
December 27th, 2008 at 03:09 pm 1230390562
Glad you had a nice holiday
December 27th, 2008 at 05:49 pm 1230400188
Glad you had a good holiday! Hope your weekend is relaxing!
December 28th, 2008 at 12:12 am 1230423160
Since dh's mom stopped teaching this year and gave us a zillion of her points the last couple of years, we have been able to keep our scholastic fix.
December 28th, 2008 at 01:00 am 1230426030
Thanks for welcoming me to the community. Your blog is one I love to read because we are close in age, your hubby stays home with your two boys, too and I aspire to be where you are in just a couple of years! I look forward to interacting with everyone here! Thanks again.