I've bought each of the girls a couple things already that I picked up on clearance or on a really great sale.
All that I need to get for Big Ripples is the Vanity that Santa will be bringing. Santa will be shopping at Amazon since there are some good deals and the extra surprise gift that he usually brings will be kids play make up and lip gloss for the Vanity.
And I will also continue to keep my eye out for clearance arts and crafts items.
Little Ripples - I'm pretty much done shopping for Little Ripples. Today I found a great deal on a Vtech Tablet on clearance that came with a case and headphones for $45. It was marked down because it was the 2nd version and they recently came out with a new version. This will be nice for her to have on the 4 1/2 hour plane ride to California. I might buy one of the extra games that are for it and then what ever she asks Santa for.
My goal was to only spend $150 on each of them. I think I'll come in under for Little Ripples and slightly over for Big Ripples because of the Vanity but it should be pretty close.
Mr. Ripples and I usually make each other a list. Christmas presents for each other come out of each of our own personal spending allowances. They are not bought with money from the joint account. I try to buy a few things off his list that I know he needs or wants and then pick up a few surprises along the way. So far I have 3 surprises, all of which I found on clearance but were things that I know he will use. And he picked out cologne when we went on our shopping trip a couple weeks ago. We don't go all out buying for each other and spend less on each other than we do on the kids.
Well so far I haven't really trimmed much from the budget. But our extended family is where that is going to happen mostly.
To Be Continued, Again
I'm in the same place - reviewing each line item in my Christmas budget, & determining where we want to make cuts. We have a very small list each year (we buy for our kids, my two nephews, my best friends two kids, & my grandmother). That said, it still adds up. And, this year we paid $1200 for plane tickets, so that has already crushed our budget.
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