Gifts for his family.......$$ issues!!!
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| Wed, 12-10-2003 - 9:45am |
Just wanted to drop a note here to see how everyone handles Christmas spending.......my BF and I have been living together for almost a year now. Things have been pretty tight financially speaking.....we are unfortunately in a position where after all the bills are paid, we are pretty broke.
Sooo....my BF is from another part of the country and has many aunts and uncles, etc. that he does not see on a regular basis. However, they tend to buy for one another at Christmas time (i.e. he has about 15-20 people to buy for - as he also has a teenage son from a previous marriage). In my case, I come from a divorced family with no extended family (well some - but none that we really see, or buy for at Christmas).
Soo...you can probably see where this is going. We both work full time and I am getting resentful that we are using any of our (very little) extra $$ to buy presents for all his extended family. We've fought a couple of times over it and I feel like a total witch for bringing it up.....but last night I wanted to spend $18 on myself and he nearly flipped....saying "we don't have the $$". In the meantime, we spent $100-$200 on the week-end for presents for his family. Arrgghhh!!! I'm not one of those people who really like Christmas!! Too much!!
How do you all split up your "Christmas spending"??

I totally understand the "need" to buy for a lot of people - I come from a big family too. When things have been tight financially, I cut way back - still get gifts for people, but small things in the $5-10 range like Christmas ornaments or something OR I call my mom and tell her I am broke and can she put my name on the presents she is giving. I did this a lot in college.
Maybe you guys can come up with some traditions you do together for Christmas to make it special for you too.
well I don't celebrate christmas cause I'm jewish lol... but of course the principle is the same for any holidays. there are two issues here ----