Try This Gifting Strategy To Stay On Budget Without Being Scrooge
December 05, 2017I was so excited the first Christmas when my daughter was about 1 year old. I scoured the ads to find the latest “must haves” for the toddler in your life — it was the year of Elmo. I carefully mapped out all the stores that carried the exclusive Elmo gift; I was determined to get her that toy, no matter how many other desperate parents I had to mow over.
After finally getting the Elmo (I only knocked over one parent and she already had one Elmo doll — greedy!) and other presents for her, I spent 20 minutes on YouTube learning how to create award-winning gift wrapping designs and carefully put my awesomely wrapped gifts for her under the tree. I was so excited.
When Christmas came, I had the camera ready to take pictures of her anticipated excitement over the gifts. When she saw the wrapped Elmo, she clapped her hands and started playing with the bows — it took me a second to realize that she thought the box was the gift. Understandable, I guess, for someone’s first Christmas. So I helped her unwrap the gift and showed her the Elmo doll.
She held Elmo for a second, then literally threw it at her dad and climbed in the box, laughing with glee over her newfound toy. As I watched her happily play with the box, I learned very quickly the value of taking the time to think through gift-giving.
Mapping out a strategy
Now that I’m older, much more seasoned, and living on a budget, we sit down months before Christmas to map out a gift giving strategy. First is our budget — we decide exactly how much we are going to spend overall on gifts for everyone (friends and family). We create a budget for the kids and how much my husband and I will spend on each other. When my husband and I were on a “debt- payoff mission” we even decided not to give each other Christmas gifts those years.
Next we decide how many gifts each child gets (we typically give 3-4 per child) and decide on the type of gift we will give our kids. The younger the child, the smaller the budget. (Boxes are pretty cheap!)
One article I read had a great idea to not only limit the number of gifts to your kids to 4, but to have the following strategy for the types of gifts:
- Something they want
- Something they need
- Something to wear
- Something to read
Brilliant! A tweak to this can be if your child is a tween or older. If there is an expensive gift on their want list (as long as it’s within your budget), talk to your teen about receiving less gifts so they can have their one big “want” gift — a powerful way to help them understand the need for trade-offs in life.
Creating gratitude
A few of my friends have mentioned a struggle to reduce the number of gifts when their kids are so used to receiving several. I’ve found that the greatest way to help your kids appreciate the gifts they do receive is to engage them in an act of service. My family donates our time to homeless shelters with children and donates gifts to the families. Over time, our kids have begun to ask for less gifts and are far more appreciative of the gifts they do receive.
Having a budget and a gift giving strategy can make the holidays a lot less stressful. And sticking to the plan makes the January aftermath much less painful.
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