It’s been an expensive holiday season!

Posted by Tricia in Tuesday, December 29th 2009   
16 Comments

I’m so glad that the holidays are almost over! It’s been expensive for us! Expensive at a time when we can’t afford to spend one extra cent. Arghhh!

Chris is on a two week lay-off from work. He’ll be off again for a further two weeks each in March and June thanks to the hospital where he works being over budget and temporarily doing rolling lay offs to make up for their lack of money.

So money is tighter than ever … perfect time of year for it. Yes I’m being sarcastic.

Even though we’ve been trying to not spend much money it feels like we spent more this year than last. Every time we go in a store we seem to come out with more than we planned to buy … ie groceries for Christmas day and house guests this week etc. I just stare as the barcode scanner adds up our total and hope it’s less than I think it’s going to be. LOL

Have you had an expensive holiday season as well? Are you happy that it’s almost over because you’ll stop spending all that extra money soon? And … are you dreading January’s credit card bill? LOL

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16 users responded to this post

Jean-Luc Picard said in December 30th, 2009 at 3:41 pm    

Hardly the time to have sales…no one has any money!

sandy said in January 1st, 2010 at 10:30 am    

We spent less than normal. Several years ago our family did what I believe more should do; we stopped exchanging gifts. I have 2 brothers, their wives, 3 nephews and their wives and some kids in the mix. It got to be pretty silly. I buy you a sweater and you buy me one. Worse yet, I buy you a Best Buy Gift Card and you buy one from Target. Again silly. People were just exchanging $ for no real purpose. We still get together, Christmas Eve as we always have. The kids get a gift; but we adults have stopped. We enjoy our time together, we spend less and are less stressed.

You might suggest it for next year for your family.

Happy New Years

Cat said in January 1st, 2010 at 1:43 pm    

We did the “family dinner” thing and focused on the children as well. Although, my parents did stay generous and gave me and my brother items we had no idea we’d get, it was a very non-stress situation and I’m really happy we kept the focus on giving a little and spending quality time with each other, rather than trying to buy tons.

It’s always fun to buy for others, I feel, if it’s in budget. But, like anyone, we’re human and we sometimes get carried away! I know I do at times.

I hope you’re having a wonderful first day of 2010!

Jason Hommel said in January 1st, 2010 at 12:56 pm    

I’m sorry to hear about the “lay-offs”. I hope things will work out soon. Yes, it’s been an expensive holiday season. But fortunately for me and my family, it’s all worth it!

Tricia said in January 1st, 2010 at 2:22 pm    

Sandy we’re just like your family. Several years ago – perhaps most of this last decade, the adults haven’t really exchanged gifts at all … it’s just the kids that get gifts and now most of the nephews and nieces in the family are in their 20’s so they don’t usually get gifts either.

When I said it’s been expensive it was because we had three rounds of house guests, a big Christmas dinner to prepare for and my nieces wedding on the 30th. We normally only have one round of house guests for two days or so … but we had guests on and off for a two week period for the holiday and wedding. I had to buy clothes for the wedding as I didn’t have shoes or a dress that was truly appropriate for a winter wedding, plus shower and wedding gifts. I think those are the things that count for me as most of our “extra” expenses this holiday season.

This year wasn’t the best for us money wise and we just couldn’t spare to spend one extra dime … yet we ended up spending more than we usually do in order to keep things going for all of our guests for the last two weeks.

Happy New Year to you as well! I hope it’s a good one!

Tricia said in January 1st, 2010 at 2:25 pm    

Jason, yes the holidays are always worth it if you’re able to get together with the people you love. :)

Tricia said in January 1st, 2010 at 2:31 pm    

Cat it’s been ages since I’ve talked with you. I hope that you’re doing well. It sounds like you had a great Christmas with the family.

Yes, I agree that it’s more important to spend quality time with family and friends at this time of year. Presents are nice of course, but I think most people, once they’re out on their own and have their own home and family usually have most everything they need.

This was a special Christmas and holiday season for us because, thanks to my nieces wedding, my three brothers and my sister and I were all together during the holidays ( well from the 29th to the 31st for the most part) and we haven’t all gotten together at the same time for a couple of years, and certainly not at this time of year so it was very special. My nieces wedding was fabulous as well – a very touching and intimate ceremony.

Happy New Year Cat!

Grace said in January 1st, 2010 at 7:13 pm    

Hi. True, Holiday celebrations are expensive. But it only happens once a year.
I did my best to make our Christmas and New Year the happiest because I was out of the country on Christmas 2008. That was the loneliest for my kids.
Happy New Year!

michael said in January 1st, 2010 at 10:31 pm    

it is tough an my employer put a For Rent sign in front of the building. maybe the land is worth more than the business? terrifying times. however, seeing the kids go nuts with joy and laughter is worth so much worse. i would give anything to keep them so happy.

Mr Compost said in January 5th, 2010 at 6:35 am    

I know it sounds a little weird but I’m glad holidays are almost over too!

So much I can do now that things are open and running (or maybe thats just because I live in a country town in Australia! lol)

Thanks for the post ;)

Mike said in January 8th, 2010 at 4:17 pm    

Ya, my credit card is maxed And the grocery total almost always end up costing more then I expect

Sheila said in January 11th, 2010 at 8:26 am    

For years now I have been shopping year round and keeping the treasurers in a designated closet. This year I shopped at Savers used and new store at their 50% off sale after Thanksgiving and found quite a few great outfits for the grandchildren that still had NEW tags in place. Cute CARS and Curious George , for example. I also bought new unopenned toys from Craigslist throughout the year at gonga prices. I have tried putting “extra” cash and change in jar but this didn’t work for me as I always seemed to “borrow” from the stash during tight months. For me, hard economic times means thinking out of the box and not waiting for the end of the year to buy presents.

James Lee, Photographer said in January 12th, 2010 at 9:37 am    

I’m noticing that as January progresses, I’m spending money on NOTHING optional. Plenty of stuff I need to purchase, but the cash flow is staying as limited as possible.

movewithmika said in January 12th, 2010 at 9:20 pm    

Our family also stopped buying eachother gifts, and now focus on buying gifts for the kids only. This year I did books! It was cost-effective, and shipping out Media Mail saved lots on the cost for shipping and the presents arrived in plenty of time for Christmas.
Great stories, thanks for writing!
mika

Matt said in January 13th, 2010 at 8:55 am    

I think everyone has felt the effects of the current economic climate in one way or another but we were determined to enjoy the holiday without going broke! It was not so tough buying gifts for friends and partner but most of our holiday budget was eaten up by childrens toys. Children are targeted by clever advertising on tv and can be very persuasive when it comes to the lastest wii games! Great posts, made me smile

HealthyEatingTips said in January 13th, 2010 at 12:16 pm    

The holidays are always an expensive time of year.

Unfortunately we went a little above our budget this year.

We budget $500 for gifts and $300 for entertaining and even though we were real good about the gifts (only spent $487) our entertaining was way over the limit at $653 due to unexpected having to host the family Christmas eve dinner this year.

Hopefully some extra overtime in January will take care of that overage fairly quickly.

Hope the rest of the new year goes more according to plan! Yeah right!

Eric

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