Monday, December 12, 2011

Scary Christmas spending

I just read what the average family spends on Christmas. Forget Halloween and the boogeyman in the closet. This has to be the scariest article ever written. Why? Because it talks about how much the average family spends over the holiday season.

According to the article the average family spends about $800 annually on Christmas gifts. This doesn't count potluck dinners, parties and all those extra little curve balls that the season throws at us. Can you imagine how much the Christmas spending becomes when the extra costs are included? I can and that's where the spending gets even scarier.

Reigning the costs of the holidays is a big deal for us. Not only are we still repairing the car (and trying to get out of debt) but we can't afford an extra $800 for Christmas gifts. We've never gone overboard on gifts and plan to spend about one-third of that amount on all the Christmas expenses.

Don't get me wrong. I love my kids. It that I love them enough to teach them the same money handling habits that I'm just now learning. These lessons should last longer than the electronic gadgets that some people are buying.

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