Aunt And Her Husband Wants To Spend Less On Her Nieces And Nephews On Christmas, Asks If She’s Penny Pinching

• By Abeera Anwer
• February 24, 2024
• 4 minutes read

Becoming parents changes many things for couples. Their priorities may shift in various aspects of their life e.g. saving money for the better future of their child instead of spending extravagantly or changing their lifestyles to a better one. The same happened with our 28-year-old OP whose pregnancy brought about a shift in her perspective on spending habits, particularly concerning the necessity to buy gifts for their 11 nieces and nephews during Christmas and birthdays. Despite adhering to a $20 budget for each gift, they often found that the items within this limit lacked quality. Consequently, they occasionally exceeded their budget to ensure the children received gifts they would truly enjoy. Even if they managed to adhere to their budget, the couple still found themselves spending $440 annually on children’s gifts. They anticipated that this expenditure would only increase as their other siblings began their own families. Moreover, the lacklustre responses from the older children to their gifts left the woman feeling disheartened, especially considering the effort and money invested in selecting the gifts. So they decided to tell their families of their intention of scaling down the gifts. But the responses were kinda mixed.

Read the complete story below to see what OP and her husband do.

Source: Reddit

1. OP is in a dilemma if she should stop giving gifts to her nieces and nephews to save money for their future child.

2. OP is currently pregnant so she wants to rethink her financial decisions and take them more seriously.

3. OP have found it harder to justify spending money on gifts as the family rapidly grows.

4. Even if she sticks to a budget, they spend a minimum amount of $440 annually.

5. Even spending a hefty amount on gifts, the responses OP get on them are very disappointing.

6. The OP and her husband talked about this with their respective families and received mixed views.

7. Especially OP’s brothers-in-law were not happy regarding this point.

8. OP loves her nieces and nephews but with their increasing numbers it is getting difficult to keep up with the gifting costs.

Now that you have read the story, it’s time for you to see what Redditors had to say about this. Read till the end to see what are other people’s opinions on this. 

9. A Secret Santa-style setup may work.

10. White elephant-type exchange is fun.

11. I hate it but it allows for much cheaper gifts.

12. It is a great way to keep costs lower.

13. Secret Santa is easy, fun and affordable!

14. But there are sooo many solutions.

15. OP says they already do Secret Santa for adults.

16. It is best to manage expectations.

17. OP is NTA!

18. “You can just put the thought into what the gift is.”

19. People complaining are out of line.

20. Why do you even have to discuss your finances with anyone else?

Other Redditors suggested many other ways a more easy, fun and affordable way of gifting while others just told OP to not give gifts to her brother-in-law’s kids as they seemed ungrateful. What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments section below.

Stay tuned for more such stories!