OK, let's come clean on how much we spent on the holidays this year (in my case, Christmas). Here are my numbers:
2016 Christmas Spending
$25.00 - used train set/tracks/table for son
$9.21 - book set for son (Amazon)
$29.99 - joint gift for niece and nephew (Amazon toy)
$13.85 - joint gift for other niece and nephew (Amazon toy)
$79.44 - gifts for family abroad (they send us a really generous package every year and we never reciprocate, until this year)
$100.00 - cash gift for secretary (standard practice in my industry/law firm envronment)
$10.44 - set of 25 holiday cards and small cookie tins for additional secretaries I work with
$134.00 - 50 customized photo (paper) holiday cards and postage (mostly to older family members and friends)
$23.81 - 200 e-holiday cards for the rest of our list (mostly younger)
$48.09 - Costco groceries for Christmas dinner (we hosted)
$6.99 - DVD of one of our favorite holiday movies that wasn't available streaming anywhere (on sale on Amazon)
$54.37 - 3 custom photo albums for grandparents and nanny
$200.00 - charitable donations (we did this in lieu of gifts with in-law side of family)
$500.00 - bonus for nanny
Grand total: $1,235.19
The good: Spent zero on decorations (reused artificial tree and hand me down decorations), reduced xmas card spending by sending mostly e-cards, limited number of gifts we bought for family members (skipped all presents for the adults, including DH), skipped office gift exchange, economized on Christmas meal groceries, bought mostly used gifts for our son.
The bad: Still spent too much in total; could have been creative and saved money on secretary gift (spending less than $50 instead of $100, with some more advance planning), could have given smaller charitable donations (but don't mind this as much because it hits two birds with one stone - we would have done some charitable giving anyway); overspent on gifts for family abroad - could have bought fewer things and done more homemade gifts with advance planning; overspent on gifts for nieces/nephews - next year will agree to do smaller gifts, like books or one small toy each.
How much did you spend on the holidays this year? Ideas for ways to reduce this next year?