I will be playing the role of "Scrooge McDuck" this year.
Seriously ~ with a baby coming AT Christmas, a toddler to provide for & a house with one income ~ I'm cancelling Christmas for anyone that I haven't given birth to.
I told MIL & my Mom to take our names out of the family hats, don't get us anything - but especially don't expect anything from us this year. We are too broke to be buying presents for adults with their own checkbooks who make more than we do & I refuse to pull out the last of my credit cards just so that they can feel loved. If you don't already feel it ... well bite me, I'm too busy to kiss your tail!
This year is all about scaling back expectations ~ for ourselves, our families and (gulp) our daughter(s). Baby New Year will be getting diapers ... and the bassinet, new (BPA free) bottles, pacis and a stuffed puppy. Basically things she'll need to survive in our house once she arrives. The Princess will be getting a toy vacuum cleaner, fridge magnets, a new bath toy, and a Little Einsteins movie for her stocking stuffer. All but the Little Einstein movie were purchases I made last year & put away for this Christmas when I realized how overboard we went on her at one year old .... ya' know, back when we had money.
Oh, Santa is bringing her an Elmo Live & Baby New Year will be bringing her a Cabbage Patch Doll.
Please tell me this sounds like a respectable showing for a 2 year old ... keep in mind this doesn't include the clothes, kitchen center & play table that her grandparents are getting her as well as any presents that my parents send for her. I may be Scrooge this year, but my kid doesn't need to see that side of me until she's at least 9. Maybe 8.
Hubs & I have decided that while Santa may not love us this year, maybe the tax man will. Since we know that we should be getting a decent tax return this year (thank you my extra little write off!!) we will use part of that money to get a family Wii.
We put our Christmas on hiatus and cancelled on everyone else .... is that selfish?
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4 comments:
Not selfish - smart and responsible. Too many of us go overboard and put ourselves into financial problems (I have done it myself). And when the kids are that young it is much easier to cut back than when they get older.
Not selfish. Not at all. DH and I are doing the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover (have you ever heard of that?) and we completely set ourselves a budget for Christmas this year. We're limiting ourselves to 25 per person (outside of ourselves, and that's it. And actually, I don't even think we're going to use that money on them. We're going ultra-cheap and I'm making DVDs of the photo slideshows I've put together of my kids. That's what everyone's getting this year.
IMHO, I think your DD is getting plenty! For our DD's second Christmas we gave her a Little People set and a rocking horse. That was it. She never even noticed that we didn't get anything else for her. Kids usually don't, until they're older and they've come to expect Christmas to be an overload each year.
Good luck, and good for you to looking out for yourselves.
That sounds like a nice Christmas for a 2-year-old, and it sounds like a reasonable plan for everyone else.
Sounds like a good plan to me. We canceled Christmas for everyone but our nieces and nephews. We're making a nice meal here together. That's it. It's partially about the craziness, but it's also about the money.
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