Last year my wife and I were just married and did not have a whole lot of money. Instead of using credit cards and going into debt to buy gifts, we told our families that we were not going to be able to afford gifts this year. Our families were very understanding and did not want us to buy them anything if we could not afford it. We bought our parents and grandparents gifts, but did not buy our siblings gifts. We have 10 siblings between the two of us. We were focused. We cut up our credit cards long before Christmas came along, but if you have not cut them up already, DO SO NOW! Do not be tempted to use the plastic this holiday season.
With this holiday season, give yourself a gift! Give yourself the gift of Financial Freedom! Do not jeopardize your future for a few gifts that will probably get returned or not used. Enjoy your family and friends. Do a white elephant gift exchange over a carry-in dinner with your friends or family. Enjoy this Thanksgiving and be thankful for the simple things in life! Happy Thanksgiving all!
We are doing this!!! We did it last year too. We told everyone we couldn't afford to buy gifts, so we were just focusing on our kid(s) (last year we only had one). Everyone was very understanding about it, and some still bought us gifts, but we didn't feel guilty about it because they knew in advance that we weren't buying for them, we just accepted them graciously. We bought a few gifts for Ella, then Ella was in a $10 gift exchange with one side of the family and I was in a $30 gift exchange with another side of the family. That was it. We spent less than $100 last year. This year we're doing the same, but we have one more child, so I'm extending our budget a little. Shooting to stay under $120. We don't make any more money in December than we do every other month of the year, so our budget doesn't change much. We don't see the point in spending all year paying down your debt, only to go and undo all your hard work in one month. Not happening in our house this Christmas!
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