The ever-dreaded Christmas budget

I’ve been pondering our Christmas budget this year.

This is the first year that both my husband and I have been employed simultaneously with decent jobs. The decent is of course relative, but for us it means each job A) required those expensive pieces of paper we have hanging on our wall, B) provides benefits like dental and/or a pension, and C) pays significantly better than we were making when working retail.

Since this is the case, I’d planned on being more generous with the Christmas spending than we have been in the past whilst starving students.

However, now that we’re pregnant, my priorities have changed. Now I want to maximize our debt repayment and savings because my income will drop when I go on Canada’s (much appreciated) year-long parental leave.

So, it’s with somewhat heavy heart that I’ve budgeted a mere $500 for Christmas shopping. This includes our four parents, three surviving grandparents, a brother, eight friends (six of whom are couples and therefore cheaper/easier to buy for), a niece, two kids belonging to friends, and my father’s and grandmother’s birthdays.

That being said, I won’t be too upset if we go a bit over budget here and there, but I think we can get reasonable gifts for these amounts. I’ll be starting to look online this weekend.

How much are you budgeting this Christmas (or other holiday) season, and how many people are you buying for?