A family of 4 could spend a lot of money if they all have to buy gifts for relatives. With friends one can make exceptions but when buying gifts for relatives to save money a family could buy gifts for the different relatives they like and send each of them a "family gift." Have any of you done this? Buy gifts as family to save some money?
I've done this before with hampers. We all buy or make some bits and pieces to put into the hamper and give that as a gift. That usually works out well as we can all bulk buy what we add so we can all save a little on the gift as a whole and all contribute as well.
This is what we usually do, we give gifts that are from the entire family. For instance, if there's a new baby in the family, instead of my husband and me giving a separate gift, we just put all our names in the card including my son's name. And this can also save us some money and time as well instead of going our separate ways to buy gifts for different family members. Other times, we just give them cash or gift cards, which we just enclose in an envelope. We tag the card with all our names as well. If we're the godfather or the godmother though, it's essential to have different or separate gifts for the person. That's just the custom here from where I am. So say my husband has already given them money, then I'll be the one who buys the gift.
I give family gifts also to the couple and each child in the family gets a gift just for them. It can save a lot of money to only give gifts to a few people and one large gift but some times that large gift is more expensive than giving individual gifts.
You don't have to buy a large gift. Just buy a gift which the entire family can find useful. Or you could opt not to buy them something and instead send them a gift card. That way the family will decide whether they'll get themselves a cheap gift for everyone, get something for the youngest child or . . . whatever they choose.
Sometimes I send only one gift for a whole family and it just make sure that they will all get use out of it so items that can be used for traveling are one of the better examples of this. If the family has kids then I will probably put in some additional smaller gifts like toys for them since I know kids don't appreciate utilitarian items as gifts all that much and it isn't fun not getting one of your own and instead just being lumped in with the whole family.
We do this for weddings and for baby showers. I think the recipient enjoys one great gift than four small gifts that are not as great. My family doesn't mind because we are huge and we know that every month there is some party going on for someone. It doesn't offend anyone in my family either.
Don't take this as a complaint, just saying maybe. In the office, gifts are common because our department has more than 500 employees. Can you imagine that almost every week there is an occasion of a birthday, wedding, anniversary and any other celebration needing gifts. And to save on expenses, I sometimes enjoin my staff to pool our money and buy just 1 gift... to be signed by our section. At least that saves us not only money but also the effort of buying individual gifts. With the family gift, it is always like that - just one gift coming from us.
Yes, we always give one gift from the whole family to other family members. Also, it is likely to be something like a photo album or similar, which would mean a lot to them but wouldn't cost a whole load of money. I know that effort can often mean a lot more than the amount of money that goes into a gift, so this is something that I enjoy doing. You can save a lot of money on gifts if you have a good plan in place for it.
This can be a great way to save money, especially if they have similar interests. You can buy a game or something that everyone can play, or a restaurant gift card so they can all go out to dinner together on you. There are lots of different choices of things to give as a family gift. Also, when we do buy a gift for each person, it's from all of us. We don't generally buy each person a separate gift from every family member. Of course, that started when the kids were little. With four kids that's six people total. We couldn't afford six gifts for every single person. Besides, like Steph said, it's better to get one nice gift than a bunch of little stuff.
