For those of you who are staying home for the holidays (or are traveling to see family vs. going to WDW or other vacation destination), where do you choose to splurge financially, where do you choose to cut corners or do without, and where do you still "go for it" but try to be frugal?
Do you put money in a Christmas fund or savings account all year? I enjoy hearing about what people value most for their families in this upcoming season and, therefore, make their choices about splurging, economizing etc. based on those values. Do you set a total money figure and all gifts, travel, meals, pet boarding, decorating, cards, special clothing, etc. must come in under that amount?
For me, this is the first year I have funded a special account in my Cap One 360 savings account just for Christmas. It is at $900 right now, and that will suffice for our needs this year. I am not traveling but in hopes of enticing my sister from many states away to come, myself and another sister are offering to split the cost of a spacious AirbnB house for her and her daughter and some other folks in our family to sleep at. We did this last year because my home can't sleep everyone.
Because I didn't help pay for that last year, I bought two big catered meals for everyone over the 3-4 days they were here. I board our dog at New Years when we do travel one state over to hang with friends for 2-3 days.
I have cut down on the huge amount of gift exchanges I did with friend groups for years and years and now just exchange with family members, other than a couple of grab bag exchanges.
I enjoy shopping for my family but always try to hit a sale and have coupons. I did great last week with layering a 15% code with a $10 off of $25 code at Kohl's Veteran day sale which I heard about here on the BB. Yay! I did not pay for delivery but drove the 25 minutes to Kohl's twice to get the many orders. Good savings there. I am not done but I did get a lot bought and it is all picked up now. I hit up Old Navy and BBW a bit with that Veterans Day sale, as well.
I already have a lot of home decorations and wintry candles, so have not been buying any new ones for the last few years. I finally accepted that I mean well with Christmas cards, but I never get them out, so I don't even attempt them anymore. My job is super busy right through the end of December 23rd this year, so I just accept that I can't do everything. And I have never been one to buy new clothes for me, or my daughter since she was an adolescent and no longer into that. When she was little I would get her a new Christmas dress every year for photos, Christmas concerts, church, etc. Loved that!
How about you guys? What do you value and pay for willingly? What do you economize on, and what do you just let fall by the wayside? What are your favorite free, or nearly free, holiday activities, rituals, traditions that you like to do with your family?
And this is related to the debt-dumping board, for me, because everything must be paid for from my savings or my regular monthly budget--but not charged and paid for later on. You may do things differently, though--because some particular thing matters very much and is worth short term debt. I am not judging, for sure.