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Post by Die Bullen on Nov 20, 2021 2:42:48 GMT
How's the Christmas shopping going?
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Post by infant on Nov 20, 2021 3:15:08 GMT
We’ve decided to give money this year. Our nieces and nephews have 8 kids between them all and my wife used to rack her brains trying to pick up toys for them all. Now 7 of them are between 9 and 18 so they are getting money. The youngest one turns 4 on the 23rd of Dec and so she gets toys for both her birthday and Christmas and we’ve already bought them. Our nieces and nephews get bottles of wine. We don’t exchange with our sisters and BIL’s. Our own kids will get money, as they can use it. As for my wife and I, we keep telling each other not to buy anything for ourselves but we both go out and buy some small things just to have something to open. We don’t really need anything and if we want something, we just go and buy it when we need it. But really, Christmas is for the kids.
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Post by george on Nov 20, 2021 3:24:52 GMT
It’ll be gifts of booze and money this year most of it directed to myself.
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Post by johnreardon on Nov 20, 2021 9:39:19 GMT
How's the Christmas shopping going? We tend to do all of ours online these days. Most of it is is for our youngest granddaughter. We only buy the odd thing for each other, in fact I've already given the wife her little gift. She wanted the DVD of a documentary about Frankie Dettori, the jockey. She likes watching horse racing on TV. God knows why as she never bets
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Post by northernboy on Nov 20, 2021 13:44:03 GMT
Money and gift cards, unless one of my siblings buys gifts for someone and asks me to go in on it with her (give her money).
I really don't know what to buy people anyway, and going out to crowded stores isn't my cup of tea to begin with, let alone with the Covid numbers on the rise again.
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Post by infant on Nov 20, 2021 14:12:54 GMT
Yup, I hate Christmas shopping. Last year we did most of it online. The thing is that my kids ask me what I want and I have no idea what they can get me. This year, I’m gonna tell them to just give me either a Golf Town, Home Depot or Long and McQuade gift card. I can always use golf balls or shoes from Golf Town, I have a collection of cordless Ryobi tools from HD and I’m always adding more tools as I need them and as for L&M, I’ll find something that I can use there, be it strings, pedals or cables. I just don’t know what I want right now and I don’t expect them to go and spend a lot of money on something that I’m not gonna use because I know that they don’t have a lot of it.
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Post by Die Bullen on Nov 20, 2021 14:37:11 GMT
It’ll be gifts of booze and money this year most of it directed to myself. Atta boy!
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Post by Die Bullen on Nov 20, 2021 14:45:30 GMT
Personally I'm a big fan of Christmas. As a baby my parents had money but by the time I was 8-9 things were not good due to many factors. When they got divorced they had nothing and when my kids were born I resolved that none of that would happen to me and I promised a big Christmas that the kids would always remember.
This year I am buying each member of the immediate family one larger gift (like $100) and the rest will be smaller gifts, as practical as possible and a few snack items. I probably won't spend nearly what I do in a typical Christmas season
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Post by northernboy on Nov 20, 2021 18:54:04 GMT
Personally I'm a big fan of Christmas. As a baby my parents had money but by the time I was 8-9 things were not good due to many factors. When they got divorced they had nothing and when my kids were born I resolved that none of that would happen to me and I promised a big Christmas that the kids would always remember. This year I am buying each member of the immediate family one larger gift (like $100) and the rest will be smaller gifts, as practical as possible and a few snack items. I probably won't spend nearly what I do in a typical Christmas season Oh, I like Christmas. I just don't know what to buy for people.
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Post by infant on Nov 20, 2021 20:01:20 GMT
On our own kids, we would spend up to $500 each on big gifts and stocking stuffers but that’s when I was working a couple of years ago. We may just give them $250-300 cash now and some small things in their stockings. Our Christmases used to get out of hand with a credit card bill of over $3000 in January by the time we bought for everyone in the family. My wife would spend like $100+ on each of the little ones. This year the young nieces and nephews are getting a Christmas chocolate and $50 each.
I just told my wife that we can’t go crazy anymore because we are getting half of what we used to get when we both worked. She agrees, but it doesn’t mean she’ll heed my advice!
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Post by Die Bullen on Nov 20, 2021 21:12:17 GMT
On our own kids, we would spend up to $500 each on big gifts and stocking stuffers but that’s when I was working a couple of years ago. We may just give them $250-300 cash now and some small things in their stockings. Our Christmases used to get out of hand with a credit card bill of over $3000 in January by the time we bought for everyone in the family. My wife would spend like $100+ on each of the little ones. This year the young nieces and nephews are getting a Christmas chocolate and $50 each. I just told my wife that we can’t go crazy anymore because we are getting half of what we used to get when we both worked. She agrees, but it doesn’t mean she’ll heed my advice! $3000 is right around where that normal January credit card bill for me is too, and I probably also buy around $500 each in presents for the wife and kids. I usually use Christmas as an excuse to refresh things like tablets and laptops but I think this year the kids don't reallyneed anything big. We'll see, I might wind up spending a lot after all anyway, but I'm kind of thinking that I'm still going to spend less this year
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Post by Die Bullen on Nov 20, 2021 21:18:09 GMT
Personally I'm a big fan of Christmas. As a baby my parents had money but by the time I was 8-9 things were not good due to many factors. When they got divorced they had nothing and when my kids were born I resolved that none of that would happen to me and I promised a big Christmas that the kids would always remember. This year I am buying each member of the immediate family one larger gift (like $100) and the rest will be smaller gifts, as practical as possible and a few snack items. I probably won't spend nearly what I do in a typical Christmas season Oh, I like Christmas. I just don't know what to buy for people. When it comes to other people's kids I am completely lost and often I will buy a stack of $25 Amazon gift cards just in case. Worst case I simply load them to my account if I don't need them. Frankly other than my direct family I really don't need to buy much anyway. I'll buy a case of red wine and wrap them as presents for adults- that's an easy one
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Post by zontar on Nov 20, 2021 21:50:38 GMT
We keep cutting down on gifts--because we want to live within our means--but still be generous.
Difficult balance at times.
But we don't go overboard on gifts for each other. It's paid for from there same source.
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Post by infant on Nov 20, 2021 23:27:26 GMT
My wife has always gone overboard, even after we agree with family that we won’t exchange, she’ll buy my sister and her sister a nice flower arrangement and the BILs get some brandy or scotch. Then the others get pissed because they feel like shit for not reciprocating. This is what I don’t like about Christmas. Set some rules and abide by them.
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Post by Die Bullen on Nov 21, 2021 1:22:08 GMT
We keep cutting down on gifts--because we want to live within our means--but still be generous.Difficult balance at times. But we don't go overboard on gifts for each other. It's paid for from there same source. Yeah. The older my kids get the less big Christmas wishes they have. A lot of time when I'm out shopping with my daughter and she likes something small I will just buy it and wrap it if she can wait. My son really doesn't need anything, he's always happy with some refresh of his clothes. The youngest daughter? She's the one who wants expensive or hard to find items. Of course she's also the one who isn't earning money
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Post by zontar on Nov 21, 2021 2:02:29 GMT
We keep cutting down on gifts--because we want to live within our means--but still be generous.Difficult balance at times. But we don't go overboard on gifts for each other. It's paid for from there same source. Yeah. The older my kids get the less big Christmas wishes they have. A lot of time when I'm out shopping with my daughter and she likes something small I will just buy it and wrap it if she can wait. My son really doesn't need anything, he's always happy with some refresh of his clothes. The youngest daughter? She's the one who wants expensive or hard to find items. Of course she's also the one who isn't earning money Most of our gift buying is for kids in the extended families.
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Post by Die Bullen on Nov 21, 2021 12:49:34 GMT
Yeah. The older my kids get the less big Christmas wishes they have. A lot of time when I'm out shopping with my daughter and she likes something small I will just buy it and wrap it if she can wait. My son really doesn't need anything, he's always happy with some refresh of his clothes. The youngest daughter? She's the one who wants expensive or hard to find items. Of course she's also the one who isn't earning money Most of our gift buying is for kids in the extended families. Interestingly we don't really have any of that anymore either. If we were in Germany we'd have a lot more to buy because of my wife's family. It just isn't practical getting late of presents and sending there
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Post by zontar on Nov 22, 2021 2:46:12 GMT
Most of our gift buying is for kids in the extended families. Interestingly we don't really have any of that anymore either. If we were in Germany we'd have a lot more to buy because of my wife's family. It just isn't practical getting late of presents and sending there Well right now the number of kids that way is small (As are the kids...) We could see an increase over the next 5 years or so, but mostly the ones who would make sense to have kids aren't into having them at this time--which is cool. I'm not sure most of them are ready to have kids yet.
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Post by Die Bullen on Nov 22, 2021 13:13:33 GMT
Today probably marks the first day I start doing some of the broader online purchases for Christmas. Cabela's always has good Black Friday Week deals and Walgreens (yes Walgreens) has nice little gift sets that are a win. Getting each of the kids a new razor gift set is always welcome as the old ones get kind of gross, a few beauty items and soaps for the girls.
My wife already bought herself something for Christmas for me to wrap up and that is always appreciated, as I know she will like it.
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Post by johnreardon on Nov 22, 2021 13:18:14 GMT
Today probably marks the first day I start doing some of the broader online purchases for Christmas. Cabela's always has good Black Friday Week deals and Walgreens (yes Walgreens) has nice little gift sets that are a win. Getting each of the kids a new razor gift set is always welcome as the old ones get kind of gross, a few beauty items and soaps for the girls. My wife already bought herself something for Christmas for me to wrap up and that is always appreciated, as I know she will like it. ‘Black Friday’ seems to have developed into a ‘Black Friday Month’ over here. Yet another American import most of us Brits detest😄😄😄
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Post by Die Bullen on Nov 22, 2021 13:52:30 GMT
Today probably marks the first day I start doing some of the broader online purchases for Christmas. Cabela's always has good Black Friday Week deals and Walgreens (yes Walgreens) has nice little gift sets that are a win. Getting each of the kids a new razor gift set is always welcome as the old ones get kind of gross, a few beauty items and soaps for the girls. My wife already bought herself something for Christmas for me to wrap up and that is always appreciated, as I know she will like it. ‘Black Friday’ seems to have developed into a ‘Black Friday Month’ over here. Yet another American import most of us Brits detest😄😄😄 Ha ha, well someone over there must like it or they wouldn't do it! Although I must say I am glad that stores have extended their Black Friday sales- the old model of people going to shops at 3:00 and stabbing each other or getting trampled for TV sets was simply terrible
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Post by johnreardon on Nov 22, 2021 14:32:33 GMT
‘Black Friday’ seems to have developed into a ‘Black Friday Month’ over here. Yet another American import most of us Brits detest😄😄😄 Ha ha, well someone over there must like it or they wouldn't do it! Although I must say I am glad that stores have extended their Black Friday sales- the old model of people going to shops at 3:00 and stabbing each other or getting trampled for TV sets was simply terrible When it first started, it was only one day and people were gullible enough to think they were getting a bargain. Then as they realised the ‘deals’ weren’t that good, they stopped buying. Organisations, then extended the period to try and improve dwindling sales. The real stupid thing is we don’t have a concept of ‘thanksgiving’, so why on earth do we have ‘Black Friday’?😄
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Post by Die Bullen on Nov 22, 2021 18:13:38 GMT
Ha ha, well someone over there must like it or they wouldn't do it! Although I must say I am glad that stores have extended their Black Friday sales- the old model of people going to shops at 3:00 and stabbing each other or getting trampled for TV sets was simply terrible When it first started, it was only one day and people were gullible enough to think they were getting a bargain. Then as they realised the ‘deals’ weren’t that good, they stopped buying. Organisations, then extended the period to try and improve dwindling sales. The real stupid thing is we don’t have a concept of ‘thanksgiving’, so why on earth do we have ‘Black Friday’?😄 Yep, well that's the way of the world! Over here sometimes there are actual Black Friday deals and sometimes it is just creating a buzz. Nowadays I'd estimate that 90% or more of my Christmas shopping is done online anyway because I know what I want and just order it, rather than fighting with crowds. Although once in awhile I do like to root around the stores to see if something jumps out at me.
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Post by infant on Nov 22, 2021 18:24:30 GMT
When it first started, it was only one day and people were gullible enough to think they were getting a bargain. Then as they realised the ‘deals’ weren’t that good, they stopped buying. Organisations, then extended the period to try and improve dwindling sales. The real stupid thing is we don’t have a concept of ‘thanksgiving’, so why on earth do we have ‘Black Friday’?😄 Yep, well that's the way of the world! Over here sometimes there are actual Black Friday deals and sometimes it is just creating a buzz. Nowadays I'd estimate that 90% or more of my Christmas shopping is done online anyway because I know what I want and just order it, rather than fighting with crowds. Although once in awhile I do like to root around the stores to see if something jumps out at me. Well, after Black Friday, we get Cyber Monday for online sales. Black Friday was never a big deal in Canada until about 10 yrs ago. Then, finding out that many Canadians were crossing over the border to spend their money on the American side, merchants in Canada decided to offer deals here to keep the money in our own country. I’ve never gone over to the US on Black Friday as big crowds are not my thing.
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Post by Die Bullen on Nov 23, 2021 2:04:38 GMT
Yep, well that's the way of the world! Over here sometimes there are actual Black Friday deals and sometimes it is just creating a buzz. Nowadays I'd estimate that 90% or more of my Christmas shopping is done online anyway because I know what I want and just order it, rather than fighting with crowds. Although once in awhile I do like to root around the stores to see if something jumps out at me. Well, after Black Friday, we get Cyber Monday for online sales. Black Friday was never a big deal in Canada until about 10 yrs ago. Then, finding out that many Canadians were crossing over the border to spend their money on the American side, merchants in Canada decided to offer deals here to keep the money in our own country. I’ve never gone over to the US on Black Friday as big crowds are not my thing. Honestly even on this side of the border the crowds aren't like they were 10 years ago. Spreading it out over numerous days probably saves lives and generates more sales
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Post by zontar on Nov 28, 2021 1:19:27 GMT
I tend to avoid those kinds of sales--too crazy--and I have to ask if the experience is worth any savings (If there is any saving) Especially if it wasn't something I was looking at getting.
Many stores have online Black Friday as well.
There were local music stores with sales--but nothing I am looking was really on sale...
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