how low can you really go?

[foosh]

Family (cousins, aunts, uncles etc) is trying to agree on a spending limit for christmas presents this year. I agree that the spending at Christmas is out of control and i hardly want to buy everyone cashmere jumpers but at the same time I think that if you set the limit too low then it's very difficult to buy something nice and we'll all end up with about 8 simple photo frames or 8 things that we really don't need and will just throw out in January.

So I'm curious -- what do you think is a reasonable limit for adult family member gifts - a limit that allows you to buy a decent gift?

(oh, and i've suggested organizing it so that we each buy a gift for only 1 other family-member but that got rejected)

We're going for a £5 limit this year for just about everyone. Is hard though!!

For grandparents I am doing a few nice baby photo's - tied in a ribbon theycan then choose the frame & a christmas decoration that dd is going to help me decorate

What about a secret santa so everyone buys just one present for one person and you can then spend a decent amount and get them something special. Saves money and the hassle of buying for everyone.

Buy adults a couple of bottles of wine each, find case deals or half price offers. At least you won't be cluttering thier houses with stuff they don't need or want.

I stick to £5.00 for family. But I do double up eg a couple can get a £10 present between them, or last year, my brother and his wife and their thousands of children got one big family present rather than lots of little ones.

We have binned pressies for adults in my family now, there are too many of us (i have 7 siblings plus step-parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews and on and on ....) so we have a big family party a week before Xmas (the one time we all get together - on xmas day we are scattered all over the place!) and spend the money instead on lovely food and drink. We buy pressies for the children only - and agreed roughly £5 per child to make sure it's manageable for us all. I still do ok for pressies out of dp his side of the family and to be honest don't feel that i'm missing out. In fact it's a relief not to have to do all that shopping and wrapping and pretending to be pleased with yet another pot of cystitis-inducing bath salts. Makes me feel that we are doing something to counter the excessive consumption of it all.

we ditched presents for adults a few years ago when DC numbers were rising in the family, I would much rather the money was spent on the kids and not me