Well, since it's May now, I think it's time for me to wrap this series up! Yes, we did manage to stay in the $100 budget and no we did not give everyone $1 or some random junk.
This is how it all worked out...
-T. our 4 year old nephew got a Lego set. Chris and I decided long ago that we are going to build him a giant Lego collection so we work on that as his birthday and Christmas gifts. I think it was about $25 (yikes!) but we bought it before I heard about the challenge
-Z. our teen aged nephew got a rubber band gun ($.50 at a garage sale) and a Wii game ($7 at a garage sale
-C. our collage aged nephew got a gift certificate. This is where I learned the hard way that you cannot give a gift certificate from Amazon with credit applied to your accout. So that came out of the cash budget. Another $25.
- Doodlebug got a computer and desk that I picked up at Goodwill and a bunch of toys in his stocking that I got for free. I put a piece of chocolate in his stocking that I bought on sale and added in another couple of small garage sale finds. I think he came in under $7.
-Cudabear got a computer picked up at Goodwill too. I bought him some really cute socks for his stocking and stuck some bath toys in there too for good measure. He came in under $5 I think.
-My parents got the Shutterfly calendar, pictures of the kids on a CD (we had the CD laying around and these are just pictures we took), the infamous leg lamp (it was a gift we got them last year that they regifted back to us so they got it back again-tee hee hee!) and some bargain priced chocolates.
-The remainder of the funds went to small gifts my husband and I put in each other's stockings. I finished my shopping early and told him how much was left to spend on my gifts and he worked in that budget. One of the reasons I love him so!
And here is the really astonishing part, we did it!!! I don't think anyone felt deprived or left out. If they did, they didn't tell me about it. Our budget was in tact, and we gave gifts people really wanted or could use. We missed a lot of the hustle and bustle of having to run all over the place in December, which was a good thing since I was pretty sleep deprived that month!
We are so doing this again for Christmas 2011.
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