Ask me anything: I did all my Christmas presents for under $75- for 14

[cali]

Granted, I made a lot of stuff and I started in August, but I love giving gifts and I don't have practically any discretionary income.

I finished yesterday with a trip to this fantastic 2nd hand/antique place with lots of different dealers where the prices were astonishingly cheap. lots of cool stuff for only a buck or 2.

[tridim]

1. Beautiful! I finished my gifts yesterday..

Six scratch St. Louis gooey butter cakes. I'm digging homemade Christmas!

I had a ball making them, unlike previous years where I felt like a dope shopping for crap gifts at Target. I can almost guarantee my family will like these more than freaking iPod gift certificates.

[cbdo2007]

2. Good job! I spend all year buying my presents on sale and at garage sales/thrift stores

and typically spend very little for some really nice things.

[cali]

4. I love doing it that way

I made baskets with homemade goodies like preserves, truffles and pancake mix. I crocheted scarves and hats. I bought some wonderful old silk scarves and funky jewelry and some great used books. garage sales and 2nd hand stores rock.

[cbdo2007]

5. Yep and "homemade goodies" food items are always welcome in my house as gifts.

I probably won't wear the watch my grandma gets for me or play the wii game very much I'm sure my brother in law will get me this year....but damn, you can never go wrong with food on my gift list! :)

[mzmolly]

3. You rock!

That is all. ;)

[TwilightGardener]

6. You can either give people what they want, or you save money.

Can't do both. I'd love to give people stuff from thrift stores and make them pound cakes and peanut brittle, but my teenage sons want XBox and Playstation games and new jeans, my nephews want cash, my nieces want Abercrombie gift cards, etc. Welcome to my world. Either spend $$$ or disappoint and look cheap and anger your family.

[cali]

8. well that's your family.

My 23 year old son (out in CO, being a ski bum this winter) will totally dig the Afghan I made him and the basket of goodies, as well as the cool vintage Pendleton wool shirt jacket. I have two young women on my list (19 and 21) and 24 year old guy and I have no doubt that they'll genuinely love what I got/made for them. Same with the adults.

[Luminous Animal]

9. That's too bad.

If my teenage daughter demanded anything from me gift-wise, she would get nothing. This year, all she asked is that I pay to have her cowboy boots resoled. No problem. We got her a few other stocking stuffers and one small surprise but that is it.

[TwilightGardener]

16. In my extended family, we limit gifts to just kids and the grandparents--

I don't get my brothers anything, they don't get me or my husband anything. But we get our nieces/nephews and parents/in-laws gifts. Usually we all stick pretty close to certain limits--$20-25 for nieces/nephews, $40-50 for our parents. Of course I will spend some money on my children and my husband, too--I like to buy them presents, love to see their faces Christmas morning. Does it pinch a little financially? Yeah. But they're all growing up, our parents are elderly, life changes--this won't last forever. It's the "cost of doing business", as they say.

[cbdo2007]

20. This reminds me of a good story. I once gave my cousin a card with $5 in it for Christmas

because it was all I could afford. He tore open the top of the envelope and just opened it enough to get the money out and threw the card to the side still in the envelope. Then in front of everyone he goes "$5 that's it?" and went on to the next present. I don't even think he knew it was from me. Now he just gets a card.

[TwilightGardener]

25. LOL--I don't blame you--what an ungrateful brat.

For what it's worth, my sons and nephews and nieces are polite and really do seem to appreciate what they get. And my boys ALWAYS thank relatives for both the card and the money--that's something you teach them.

[sandnsea]

7. I did 8 grandkids for that price

and was pretty damn proud of it. But 14 at $75? Impressive.

[My Good Babushka]

I can sympathize with TwilightGarnder

My children are small now, and I think we spent about $300 altogether, but with older kids and their expensive gadgets, you can spend that on one gift. If my children want an expensive gift when they are older, they better be prepared to have just that one gift. And then I'm dragging them out to do charity work, so they can see how lucky they still are- even if they had no gifts under the tree.

[lies and propaganda]

10. Im an artist and Im sure my family is tired of my stuff ;p0

But that doesnt change the fact that they are getting more this year, and every year after ;p

[My Good Babushka]

11. me too

I've done all kinds of portraits for presents. Maybe I'll do portraits of their pets next year!

[lies and propaganda]

33. how cute that would be!

I work with glass, so they all have jewelry or plates to match anything and everything ;p

[tblue37]

26. I teach college, but I am an adjunct professor, and we don't make a lot of money.

Following my divorce I also had a professional tailoring/dressmaking business (I have many skills). For Christmas I used to make special garments for my brothers and sisters--garments that, including the cost of materials and labor, would have been worth about $300-$500 each, because I was not a "cheap" seamstress. My work was, if I say so myself, beautiful.

Well, one year in the 1980s my youngest sister was at home visiting when the family were opening their Christmas gifts, so she ended up telling me how everyone reacted to my gifts. My mother asked my other sister what she had gotten from me. As she pulled out a gorgeous plum-colored velour robe I had made her (an imitation of a very expensive robe I had spotted in Macy's), she said, "Oh, it's just another one of her homemade presents."

That was the last year I ever gave anyone other than my own kids and my daycare kids a Christmas present. I don't do Christmas at all any more. It was mainly for the kids anyway, and now they are grown up--and they rather hate the whole Christmas hullabaloo, too. I send each of my two kids a nice check at Christmas, though I could just as easily do it at any time. I just use Christmas as an excuse to send them a little extra money, especially since I know they are pinched having to buy gifts for their dad, his current wife, and their three half-siblings.

I am very glad to be off the insane Christmas train. To me it's just a nice day off from having to work.

[lies and propaganda]

32. awful!

i cherish the fact that most of my F&F understand the true value behind handmade and craftsmanship!
I just hope you didnt stop creating, period!

[goclark]

12. I've done mine for about $50

Take a friend to lunch
Gift Card $10

and some of my friends have agreed that WE are EACH OTHERS GIFT of Friendship all through the year.

We don't give each other gifts anymore.

[MiniMe]

13. Did you stay at Holiday Inn Express last night?

:rofl: Sorry, had to ask.

[FreakinDJ]

14. Craig's List and Ebay mostly

saved lots

[eilen]

15. We bought giftcards by redeeming reward points on my dh's

mastercard. It took less than 30 minutes. I spent about $10 on holiday cards to put them in (couldn't locate my surplus from lat year) and regular postage stamps to mail out. Last year I bought Christmas fabric on sale and made gift bags so I didn't buy any giftwrap--this was the second year using them. We have an artificial tree. I plan to make more fabric/felt gift tags-- I usually just put the recipient's name on them. For sales this year I will be looking for candles for the 12 days of Yuletide and cut price holiday cards.

I usually sew gifts for my family but did not have the time this year. For my nieces and nephews I usually purchase a savings bond in addition to their gift under the tree.

The most money I spent would be on some games for my son and the food.

[rd_kent]

17. I did it for ZERO dollars...

by not feeling obligated to buy shit for people.

If I want to get something for someone, I will get it THEN, not wait until December when we are supposed to feel obligated to be generous.

[cali]

22. well, that's nice, but I love Christmas and all the ritual associated with it

I'm pretty much estranged from my birth family but I've been "adopted" by the most wonderful and quirky family it's ever been my pleasure to know. This will be the 12th Christmas I've spent with them and I really dig all the stuff that's part of it. Tomorrow night we'll do a Smorgasbord up the road and drink aquavit and make corny toasts. Then we'll go out caroling. On Christmas Day, all 15 of us will get together in the late morning at the home of the matriarch. There will be piles of presents under the home grown Christmas tree and it will take hours for all the unwrapping. We'll have Manhattans for cocktails and after dinner we'll play Charades and darts. On Saturday we'll celebrate Boxing Day by cleaning up and after dark we'll have a bonfire and fireworks.

There will be lots of goodwill and love and interesting conversation. And yeah, the gift exchanging is part of all of that.

[Yuugal]

24. pffft

Damn Vermonters, there oughta be a law..... :)

[shireen]

30. LOL! me too!

i stopped buying Christmas presents a few years ago, and asked my friends to stop getting me stuff. It's my war against clutter and over-spending. I give things to friends, things that i know they can use or things they want, like extra plants or useful tools, during the rest of the year when the need arises. If I could afford to get Christmas presents for everyone, it would be donations in their name to a cause they like.

Sometimes, when i look around my apartment where i live alone, all the stuff i have really freaks me out. And this is after getting rid of some things while working with a personal organizer.

[GliderGuider]

18. I'm writing a haiku for each family member, describing what I feel is best about them.

I've chosen an image as a background for each haiku that expresses the feeling of the poem visually. Then I'm printing them and putting them in Dollar Store document frames.

Total cost for 18 gifts, about $35. Total value? We'll see on Christmas day.

[Echo In Light]

19. Well done, Cali

[cali]

21. Thanks, Echo

it was fun. There's something really satisfying about putting this much time and effort into it- and the people I love.

[Echo In Light]

23. I unfortunately can't say the xmas efforts of my wife and I were as down to earthy

Tough to do w/a pre-teen daughter ... although she's pretty reasonable re that sort of thing

[KatyMan]

27. We don't give gifts to our adult friends/relatives

Only to the various neices/nephews, and our own kids. That said, my wife was thinking about making jewelry to give as gifts but unfortunately ran out of time.

[knitter4democracy]

28. I spent more than that, but it's been a lean year.

I was making up for birthdays and such a bit with the money from the new job helping out.

It's been a rough, rough year. The teachers got mint tea and sage from the garden, as will others, and my boyfriend's getting a knitted neckwarmer. Thank God for Aldi, too--that place has saved me hundreds this year.

[TK421]

29. That is impressive...my family decided that we're not exchanging gifts this year

since everyone here seems to agree that money is a big issue..hopefully next year will be different

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

31. Quite an accomplishment.

I shopped at the Congregational church and the local no kill animal shelter's holiday fairs. They put together great gift baskets with donated items - complete with bows and all. I made rum/bourbon balls for my co-workers. I did splurge and order toys and a wagon for my 8 month old grandson. Oh yeah and a nice check for my son. Not sure how much I spent in total.