I am a girl who loves (loves, loves) giving gifts. I think about the perfect sentiment to show how much I love someone for weeks, even months leading up to their event. I (way) overspend on holidays, particularly Christmas. And as my first year with a husband, I am becoming aware of how much of a problem my gift giving is.
In our family, I pay the bills. It was set up that way before we got married and it just stayed. I also am more likely to remember to pay the bills, so this is just how it is in our house. But because of that, I have very little money left over for incidentals. Like GIFTS! So my lovely, wonderful husband, Josh, gets to pay for the little things that accumulate each month, like dinners out, movies, etc. And this year, he is also paying for Christmas gifts for an extensive list of family members. Let me break it down for you.
I have 4 parents, 4 siblings, 1 niece and 1 nephew. Josh has 3 parents, 2 siblings, and a very important grandmother (my grandparents, obviously not important). That means gifts for 16 people. Not counting friends and each other. Now, of course, I could refrain from giving gifts this year. We don’t make a lot of money and we have a lot of debt. And as adorable, crafty people like to point out: “You can always MAKE something!” But there are two problems with that solution. First, I can’t make anything. Well, not anything people would actually want to have. I’m not crafty and cute. Second, if you missed the point, I LOVE giving people gifts. So that’s out.
But Josh is at his wit’s end. My poor, poor husband. All he wants to do is give his credit card a rest. But we’re not even halfway done. We have made progress though. And, I caved. We are making a few little things for people, including each other. And he convinced me not EVERYONE needs a $100 gift (that would be $1600, which is CRAZY! Even I know that). So, I’m not a total lost cause. But there are still 31 shopping days until Christmas (which is why I shop online).
Megan Pratz 