Photo Credit: Mike Ransdell, Kansas City Star
The last candle of Chanukah has been lit, and the dreidle has spun its last shin. But before I pack up our chanukiot, I thought I’d take a moment to count our gelt — or rather, how much gelt we spent on gifts.
As a rule, our Chanukah celebrations are modest — both because that’s what seems right from a Jewish perspective and also because its what we can afford to do.
For us, our budget for all gifts was $50. $50 means out of my pocket. If I spent Swagbucks or gift cards, I don’t count that — because it wasn’t money I had to come up with. In fact, if you’re not Swagbucking already, I HIGHLY recommend it as it saves me a bundle when it comes to family gift-giving.
Also, let me just throw in a plug for annual budgeting of family gift expenses. We save a rather modest $15 per month to a separate savings account (we save online at ING — but you could also do a cash envelope, since the interest we’re earning on $180/year is really negligible.) That $180 covers all of our birthdays, Chanukahs, afikomen gifts, etc. for the five of us — plus any presents we buy for extended family members as well.
This year, we bought gifts for my mom, my dad & stepmom, and my inlaws. We also bought gifts for our three kids — for four out of the eight nights. (They received gifts from their grandparents the other four nights.)
So, let’s see how we did. Here is the breakdown gift-by-gift (gift recipients — stop reading!):
Parents / Inlaws
Everyone got photo gifts, purchased through Snapfish with a 30% off code and free shipping (no longer available). The totals below are with the discount, but without the Ebates cash back.
Mom – Photo calendar from Snapfish – $7.53. Plus, my boys gave her a pretty little toiletry bag with a body puff and three travel size containers of body lotion, bath wash and bubble bath. We picked it up at CVS on 90% clearance several weeks ago. It cost $.79.
Dad & Stepmom – Photo calendar from Snapfish – $7.53. Plus, the boys made art projects in school that they gave to them.
In-laws – 100-piece photo puzzle (a picture of them with the kids) — the perfect gift for my mother-in-law, especially, who loves puzzles! – $10.54.
Kids
I realize that next year, we might have to raise our budget — or get more creative — as my daughter will be 2.5 and we probably won’t be able to get away with not giving her gifts on most nights.
Gift #1 – Each kid got a giant bag of pretzel M&Ms. They loved it! Even my 18 month was all, “Me! Me! Me!”. Each bag cost $.25 at Walgreens a few weeks ago.
Gift #2 – DS1 got a Transformer costume, picked up at Target on after-Halloween clearance. It cost $2.90. To say he loves it would be an understatement. DS2 got the ToyStory3 DVD — a gift that truly gave back, as we all enjoyed a wonderful family movie night Motzei Shabbat. It cost us nothing, since my husband “bought” for it with a gift card he won to Best Buy.
Gift #3 – All three kids got photo flip books made at Snapfish. I put together 20 pictures of each kid throughout the year – from the first days of school to Purim to goofing off in the backyard. Each book cost $5.25 including shipping.
Gift #4 – Board games. DS1 got the APBA Pro Baseball Board Game
, which he loves to play with my husband on Shabbat afternoons. It would have cost us $21.02 at Amazon, but with Swagbucks, it was FREE. DS2 got Cooties, which I picked up for $2 at the Toys R Us sale on Hasbro games a few weeks ago.
Total spent for Chanukah 2010/5771: $47.79 – 5.38 =$42.41
Gotta love coming in almost $8 under my $50 budget!
So, how’d you do this Chanukah? Did you stay within your budget? Do you use gift cards, Swagbucks or cash-back sites like Ebates to stretch your savings even further?
P.S. This year my husband and I didn’t exchange Chanukah gifts. My husband did treat himself with a Best Buy gift card he had won some time ago to a BluRay player, which he’s pretty stoked about since we had been watching movies on our very-small screen portable DVD player for the last two years! Since there was nothing I needed — or wanted, I was happy to enjoy giving rather than receiving this year.
When your kids get older that budget isn’t going to work—I could easily stay w/in that budget for four kids when they were 5 or under–maybe even 6. Wait until your kids are in h.s., middle school, even 6th grade….or college. Good luck!!
Naysayers tend to encourage me 😉 If KOAB is still around in 5 years when my oldest is 12.5, please remind me to update this post!
All joking aside, if $50 is what you have to spend on gifts, then $50 is what you spend on gifts. I’m a firm believer in setting the budget first, because your means must dictate the terms and not the other way around.
The budget is the budget- that said more was spent on my nine year old stepson than the rest of the family combined. My husband used to go all out- a HUGE pile of gifts for the four nights he was at our house (we have him half the time). This started before my husband bought a house, we married and had two other children and I was laid off/now am a stay at home parent until the three month old starts school in a few years. We have been slowly ratcheting down the level of gift giving but trying to set a gift budget for the boy was brutal. My husband prefers to think about what a person would like and then figures out the money (new ski boots and a three day ski pass). I look at the money first and then think of what people may like. We can afford it by being careful but I do have issue with 80% of the gift cost going to one person. I would be much happier with $X per person or total and go from there. Even so, the money spent has dropped significantly in the past few years. I know that I am looking ahead to when all three kids want stuff and have two in preschool/full day private K at the same time so it is a work in progress.
Impressive!!! Our cheapest night was the Pretzel M&M night and the night my in-laws gave. I did use the Hallmark $10 coupon for one night, and I always sneak in a night of necessary sweaters using Children’s Place 30% off coupon. Also gave one of the free Picabo photoalbums (only expense was shipping). Maybe I did better than I thought, but I am sure no where as low as you were.
Wait…one more inexpensive and fun idea I incorporate for Hanukah and birthdays is that I make a super special dessert as the night’s ‘present’ to the family. Usually we do this on the Friday night during Hanukah or the Shabbat closest to our child’s bday.
Love it! Such a good idea. Taking the focus off of stuff-stuff-stuff (which apparently was my middle son’s middle name this year!).