To only spend £15 on people at Christmas?

[Littlebee76]

I did all my Christmas shopping yesterday online, to get it all out the way. I only have close family to buy for, my parents, grandparents & inlaws but every year in the past I've taken time to carefully select presents yet never seen them being used in fact I bought my mil some expensive perfume and over a year later I'd seen she hadn't even opened it.

So this year I've budgeted myself to spend £15 per person and bought mostly nice scarves. I feel a bit tight and stingy but at least if they don't wear them then I haven't spent a small fortune.
Plus we have IVF bills to pay (4th round!) so it's not as if we have lots of money to spend..

AIBU?

[Toffeelatteplease]

nope very sentitled

I very much like extravagant Christmas' but I very much like sensible frugal ones as well

[Toffeelatteplease]

sensible! stupid autocorrect

[DerelictMyBalls]

YANBU. No-one is keeping track of how much you have spent on them. That would be weird.

[selsigfach]

Absolutely fine! I mostly make fudge and beg people not to give me landfill fodder. Good luck with IVF.

[acasualobserver]

I always set a budget and give the presents I can afford. Now I am retired this is rather less than before but I trust people understand that I simply have less to give.

[Wetcappuccino]

If you keep an eye out you can get fab gifts in your budget. I got a beautiful Stila makeup palette half price for £15 (free delivery) to put away the other week. Have a look at the Christmas bargains thread.

[Mybeardeddragonjustdied2016]

I wish I had your strength!!
But this year WE ARE DEF GONNA STICK TO THE BUDGET!!
Just haven't decided what that will be yet!!

[treaclesoda]

I never spend any more than £15 on anyone other than my husband and children. Although that's easy enough to stick to, because all my family are the same, and my friends and I don't buy for each other. I imagine if you are from a family where people think nothing of spending £100 on each other's present, it is difficult to break the habit.

[dustarr73]

We dont buy for adults or kids.Only his mam and our kids.Its too expensive otherwise.

[ShotsFired]

Some of the best presents I have ever given/received have cost practically pennies. I hate the idea of blowing money on a random "thing" just to show you love them. Eh, what?

I have long found that carefully thinking about/watching (in a non-weird way!) the person over the year will often give great inspiration for the perfect gift; and the delight on their faces when they see you specifically bought xyz thing for them is wonderful.

I think £15 is plenty, although you may find one person gets, say £25 spent, and two others get £10 each, because that's just how much the gifts for that person totted up to.

[AlmaMartyr]

That's pretty much what we always spend per person. I try to put a lot of thought into it.

[MrsHathaway]

I think it's absurd for adults to buy each other anything more than token presents - different for children / teens who can't buy things for themselves.

A nice token like a scarf in a complimentary colour is ideal.

TBH we only spend more than about that on people who are really difficult to buy for BIL. Christmas presents ought to be small or consumable, or preferably both.

And, just to get in ahead of Zed, YABVVVVVU to post here and not in the Christmas topic [ho ho ho]

[StrawberryQuik]

Sounds fine to me, I only really spend more than £20 on DH (and I guess DS in a few years, atm he's a baby so I might just get him some wooden spoons or something :) )

There are lots of thoughtful presents around the £10-£20 mark. E.g. Hardback of favourite novel, Callander with grandchildren on it, pot plants for keen gardeners....

[LittleMoonbuggy]

I think it's fine, and have a similar budget for adult family members myself now.

But, as we all used to spend quite a bit more on each other, I did lightly check that they were all happy to go for a lower spend on each other, to save any awkwardness of one of us spending way more than the rest.

[BlindAssassin1]

I think £15 is actually very generous for a person who has not even opened the present you gave her last year.

Perfume is a hard present to give unless you know for sure the receiver wears it or perhaps the MIL is one of those people that keeps things for 'best' and it never gets used. Either way, all those £15s add up. Plus, Xmas shopping is a thankless chore if you're a thoughtful shopper.

[randomer]

aren't presents weird things? Why do we do it? Baby Jesus and all that?

We agonise over nice prefumes and dream they recipient will light up and be thrilled.

A scarf sounds great to me

[specialsubject]

Spend on adults can be zero - agree a tat ceasefire and.save a lot of time.and money.

I hope they like scarves. For me, perfume, scarves and candles would all be straight to the charity shop.

[Topsy44]

YANBU. I think Christmas has got so out of hand! People often buy stuff that the other person doesn't want and it's such a waste.

I am a lone parent and this year I'm really going to be cutting back. I think £15 is a very reasonable amount for people and I shall be taking your lead. I'd love to receive a scarf!

[Hoppinggreen]

That's all we spend, even though we could afford more. Sometime she I will spend £12 or £17 but £15 is the target.
Sil goes mad and buys my dc3 or 4 presents each which is crazy, especially since they both have December birthdays anyway but I'm not budging.
I spend time finding things people will love, which I think is more important than spending£££

[Notso]

First off, I think perfume is a personal thing, just because it's expensive doesn't mean everyone likes it. Also as PP said a lot of people save it for the special occasions that never happen.

Second, save yourself the hassle and get your husband buying for his parents.

Third, it's up to you how much you spend and how much thought you put into it.

[KitKat1985]

YANBU. If I were you (to avoid the potential awkwardness of others buying you expensive gifts in return) I'd say an e-mail / text around at some point to all of those people who usually buy you gifts and just say, 'hi, just a heads up that this year for Christmas we are on a tight budget so can we agree just to buy each other token gifts this year (max £15)'? If they are anything like me they would just be relived!

[katemess12]

YANBU.

My family has an agreement: presents only to be given to the kids (under 18). Once you're 18, sorry love, you're here for the champagne now.

[Liiinoo]

I would (and have) gone one step further. We only buy for our parents and children and have a fairly relaxed budget of about £15.00 for those gifts. All the adults in our family have agreed on this. The exchange of tat and gift sets that goes on in the name of Christmas is crazy.

Within my close group of friends (about 10 of us) we do a Secret Santa night every year. We get allocated one person and spend £10 -£20 on a gift that is then handed over with much pomp and ceremony on a boozy girls night in. We've been doing it for around 12 years now. It is a great night in, it marks the start of Christmas for us all and saves a lot of expense and waste. Obviously some presents might be duds and will gather dust or be discreetly donated to a charity shop in the new year, but at least that is only one waste of money rather than the 8 or 9 that might have happened otherwise.

[shovetheholly]

I am .

My family don't do Christmas, but we are stuck in a pattern of spending £££ with the inlaws, and we cannot get out because when we try to do less, they do the same amount and it's embarrassing. It's about £120 per person now, and multiple presents are expected, practically a stocking for each person. We can afford it (we are not wealthy but I am good at saving) but it is a BIG hassle.

[PurpleCrazyHorse]

We buy for kids not siblings now all siblings have children. I usually bake and give baked goods to adults though as a token.

We usually spend up to £30 a parent however we both have small families.

YANBU.