Christmas season is starting

The family & I went to Sam's club about 2 months ago and bought this beautiful red coiled bamboo platter. This thing is HUGE. About 26 inches across. I have it sitting on a shelf in my dining room. It was only 19.97.

This morning, the little girls and I went to Sam's Club and saw that they have a similar platter in stock. Since mine is really beautiful and affordable, I considered buying one as a gift for a friend. Guess what? This one's not 19.97. It's 34.53. Could one really be that much better than the other?

This is proof (at least to me) that stores raise prices before holidays so that they can lower them and trick us into thinking we are getting a good buy.

I've read a few articles saying that the average American Christmas budget looks like this:

Tree & decorations $100
Christmas dinner & treats $100
Wife's family $200
Husband's family $200
Spouse gifts $200 / parent
Kids gifts $200 / kid

For a family of 4, you're looking at $1400.00. WOW - do they all have cash saved up? My guess is that they don't. We don't spend near that amount on Christmas. This is our Christmas budget:

Tree $75 - IN trees are expensive
Christmas dinner & treats - $75.00
Kids gifts - $200 for all three

We are going to be responsible this year. No family gifts! No gifts for each other! Small gifts for kids! I'm refusing to spend money on things we don't need and will be sending to Goodwill before next Christmas. And seriously, do we adults need more stuff? Don't we just buy stuff as we need it? Although I have been holding out for my favorite slippers to go on sale. I would love it if Ross bought those for Christmas.

I'd love to hear what others do for Christmas. Leave me a comment.