My husband and I don't have kids and don't plan on having any. I have three siblings with kids and between them we have 8 nieces and nephews. Every Christmas, we end up spending a decent amount on gifts and it feels like the expectations keep getting higher every year.
A few years ago, we stopped exchanging gifts with the adults because everyone complained about how expensive Christmas was getting. I thought we were all on the same page about keeping things reasonable.
Last year we spent almost $700 on gifts for all the kids. We followed their parents' wish lists to avoid buying things they already had but there were still complaints because some gifts weren't exactly what they wanted.
This year I suggested setting a $50 limit per child. I thought that was pretty fair especially since we also have my husband's family to shop for.
My sister said $50 barely covers anything decent and my mom said that since we don't have kids we should be more generous because we supposedly have more money to spend.
The worst part is that one of my brothers admitted he'd been counting on us to buy some expensive gifts for his kids without even asking us first.
My husband thinks we should drop the budget to $25 per kid and move on.
Part of me wants to do that out of spite because I'm tired of everyone assuming we should spend more just because we don't have children.
We can afford to spend more but that doesn't mean we're obligated to. Since when does being child-free mean we're expected to fund everyone else's Christmas?
Are we being cheap by setting a $50 limit per niece and nephew or is my family being unreasonable?