Maybe its time to draw names...

At least for my family it was time....

I have 2 sisters, and as of June 11th, they BOTH have husbands and 4 kids. I have a husband, 1 child, and of course mom and dad. So...17 people are my immediate family. Thats a LOT! And it's a lot to buy everyone something but I don't want to JUST the kids stuff. I enjoy shopping for my parents, and my sisters... so I had the idea of drawing names and somehow everyone was on board. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!!? A family of 17 and we all agreed? :) (8 of those are too young to count their vote)

Okay so thats what we did. Each member, including all but 2 kids, we drew names. Or, I drew names. I did the work. I wrote down each family members name on a seperate sheet of paper and balled it up. THEN I took a notebook piece of paper and wrote everyones names down and had a friend randomly pick a name and then I drew a name. That way it wasn't just down the list.

So my family has 3 people to buy for, and then of course we will buy for each other when we celebrate Christmas at home, but all in all I feel good about this!

It's not fun growing up and making sensible decisions. It's hard to make that final decision of deciding to draw names. BUt I knew for EVERYONES financial sake someone had to step up! AND i think it's a good life lesson to take less of the focus on presents and place it on the reason that we celebrate.

So... thinking about the holidays (yes I realize how far away they are but I LOVE CHRISTMAS)... what are you going to do this holiday season to save money and NOT blow your budget? IT's just March... it's the PERFECT time to begin thinking about shopping early and setting limits for yourself.