I know there unreasonable but £30 is insane!

But it’s the OP who has corrected themself………

This ^^^

That's more than I spend on my mum and dad (£20 is each) and our siblings secret santa...no way would I spend that on a colleague

Yep knowing my luck I’d get a Dove body wash and puff gift set. No thanks! I’ll keep my £30 for myself.

JFC £30! She is bonkers. There was uproar last year at our max going to £10. A few spent more (their choice) but most spent less

I think that’s a ridiculous amount of money. I would refuse to have anything to do with the secret Santa. Let the person who asked you, to arrange it herself.

Utterly ridiculous I work in finance everyone earns way more. Our secret Santa has a £10 limit. I’d suggest you ask your boss if he/she thinks £10 an appropriate limit and then put that and you can tell Dawn they told you to. She’s not going to go and debate with them is she?

I would have nothing to do with this, organising or contributing. It's tone deaf. Secret Santa is a naff thing anyway. Nobody enjoys it being hoist on them.

Where I worked did a pound shop secret santa - you had to buy the funniest/best thing for £1 and it was a lot more entertaining.

In Germany they do a different version which is everyone brings in an item from their home they don't like and gives it to someone else.

Or everyone brings in something to eat and you have a table of food to share.

£30 on someone is madness, they are just going to buy a more expensive version of what they were going to buy, like wine or socks, and it's pointless.

Back when I worked in a school we changed Secret Santa to supporting a local council initiative to provide presents for disadvantaged children.

Staff were invited (no pressure!) to bring in a gift bag with gifts for a set age range (you could pick the sex/age range from a list yourself). Gifts were not to be wrapped as they had to be checked for suitability by people centrally organising it all at the council. Including a roll of wrapping paper was appreciated to allow volunteers to wrap gifts after checking. No minimum spend. You could literally donate just a selection box or anything else deemed appropriate for children in the age range you selected.

No one was pressured to participate. Names were not marked off so people knew who did/did not get involved with it as we were aware that everyone has different financial circumstances which are none of our business.

Way too much. I came up with a good idea for my parents this year that will cost £40 and am splitting it with my brothers!!

Only my children get more than that spent on them.

£30 is way too high for a works secret Santa

To be fair they can't MAKE you spend £30, nothing is to stop you buying something for £5. Its 'within budget.

I found people always bloody ignored the rules anyway. I found in my experience women would always swap to their best or close friend and go way over (both in amount of stuff and price) and the men never put in any effort at all often spending under on a last minute £1 gift or not bringing anything at all.

Nothing as awkward as a part time than sitting like a spare part while the cliquey full time girls spends 20 minutes opening 10-15 presents each with cries of 'I know I shouldn't but I just couldn't choose only one'. Then right at the end being handed a unwrapped gift of a mini Toblerone by Dave while John looks at the person left empty handed and announces with surprise (despite watching it all for the last 45 minutes) 'oh, is that today, yeah I forgot'.

I hate secret santa - such a waste of money on landfill crap. With my neighbours we went out to dinner, each threw in a tenner and the one whose name was drawn out of the hat picked the charity it all went to. £100 to MS Research rather than £100 of tat no-one needed.

I do it with a small group of good friends - £10 limit. Not everyone has lots of family around so it's more of a deal for some people than others. And they're GOOD friends, not just work colleagues.

I loathe it at work - enforced jollity. I've pulled my own name out twice and not owned up (I work in a school) so just bought something I knew I'd like. £30 is madness and unnecessary.

Then send it out quickly before she can tell you not to put her name on it!

Eg. you can say "I have been told that the budget is £30".

I think this is the safest route to take. You'll not have mentioned her, and you'll have made it clear that it's not your idea.

We also do a family SS, budget is €50 but that is to get the recipient something that they really want and wouldn't necessarily buy themselves.
It's great because you can get something decent while sticking to a budget, and also don't have to spend €10 on each person buying six different crappy presents.
For work colleagues I wouldn't like it to be more than a tenner, surely the idea is it's fun not a special Christmas present.

With the cost of living impacting many of our spending habits, it seems that Over 50% of Brits will be on a budget of £10 and under this year. An admirable quarter of us are willing to spend between £10 and £20 but only 12% would be willing to spend more than £20.

Secret Santa 2023: Cost of Living and UK Office Workers Confessions (instantprint.co.uk)

This sounds brilliant, imagination and fun rather than a lot of money.

She's the office manager? Not getting how that is so much 'higher' than PA to the Head that you can't just say no.

But if so- put her name to the budget, set up an Elfster then wash your hands of the whole thing.

That's really high for a work secret Santa. It's only supposed to be a bit of fun, not expensive gifts. Our friends secret Santa is €15 and our family one is €40 (and that's the only adult you buy for in the family)

Any at work are usually €10.

£10 is enough.

Even better, donate the money to a local charity. So wasteful buying a load of pointless tat.

People will opt in if they want to do it - no one will opt in and it’ll fall flat.
then you can put your smug face on !

I would put £10 and tell Dawn it was a typo.

£30 is our family Secret Santa, we can all buy what we need and it's really just to have something to give/receive on Christmas Day. I certainly wouldn't want to spend it on someone I only work with!