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As you know, Black Friday is next Thursday-it is traditionally the kick-off for spending for the holidays. Some think it is losing it's luster. A report recently suggested department store retailers were looking for a 5% drop in holiday spending this year. Do you have a specific spending plan/budget for the holidays, and if so, is it smaller or larger than last year? |
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My wife and I each have a gift account set up with ING Direct. We put $100 into each account monthly to take care of birthdays, anniversaries, misc. gifts, Christmas, etc. We have a limit for spending on each holiday so that we do not over spend when it comes to gifts. It works out great because the majority of our gift spending comes at Christmas and we do not feel the financial effect at year end. Our spending for gifts is less this year. After seeing what we spent on gifts last yr. we found places in our gift budget that are unnecessary. |
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We're in the process of creating our holiday spending plan, but both agree that less is going to be spent this year than years past. We already have far more than we need, and far more than most, and hope to use our time/finances/energies to give back and enjoy simplicity rather than extravagance. From others I've talked with, this seems to be a trend that we are not alone in targeting. We haven't figured out specific dollar amounts, but that's the direction we're heading right now. |
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We don't have a holiday spending plan. I don't spend a whole lot on Christmas gifts and the like. Once in a while there will be a special gift I run across but otherwise we have so much stuff that we really don't feel the need to go all-out getting things to put under the tree. |
