Budgeting In the Fun Stuff Holiday Indulgence

The following is a guest post from Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, which covers spending, saving, and the fun stuff along the way.

For any of you that haven’t “met” me before, I am not extremely frugal but I’m not a big spender either. My husband and I basically live off of his salary as an elementary school librarian and use my cubicle work salary for savings. This pretty much means that I’m a HUGE fan of holiday indulgences.

I don’t think we should go nuts, blow off all our savings goals, and become uber-consumers, but I do think that spending some extra money on some fun traditions is totally worth it. Here’s what hubby and I splurge on every December:

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

We have gone to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Winter Tour every year for the past 6 years even though the tickets always end up costing about $120 after all the stupid fees are thrown on. Their show is amazing. It is a true mix of a rock show, a choir performance, an orchestra experience, a laser light extravaganza, and a pyrotechnics dream. Even if you weren’t in a holiday mood before taking your seat, you’ll leave humming Christmas tunes and ready to smile at every passerby you see.
The show starts with a Christmas story that’s told through some very awesome voices. The story is touching and the songs are amazing. When they wrap up the last bit of the story, you seriously feel like you got your money’s worth…then they surprise you with a whole other performance! The other half showcases their current favorite songs and new pieces. They also usually have a guest performer on stage at some point that joins in. Overall, $120 is more than worth it and we happily sign ourselves up every year.
Board Gaming Convention

Another holiday tradition for us is to attend a New Year’s board gaming convention for 4 days at the end of December and beginning of January. We have gladly forked over $70 for the past 5 years to attend the Lone-Star Gaming Convention. My husband and I enjoy playing board games like Power Grid, Vikings, and Settlers of Catan throughout the year, but a gaming con is 3-4 solid days of gaming and hanging out with friends. We even stay at the hotel despite the fact that it’s only an hour from our home. We think it’s worth the extra $300 a year to have a mini-vacation to start off the year with some major fun.

Gifts

Our last main splurge every year is definitely the amount of money we may spend on gifts. Normally we try to keep all gifts within the $25-$50 range, but we allow ourselves an extra $1000 every Christmas. We don’t always use it, but we know it’s there if we find something that is just absolutely perfect for someone. Some years we find or make great gifts for a relatively low amount and just put the extra towards our normal goals, but other years we do take full advantage and splurge on family or ourselves. One year we surprised my husband’s father with a $300 painting that just screamed his name. Another year we purchased our 47″ LCD TV, which we’ve enjoyed for more than 3 years at this point. 🙂
Do you and your family budget for holiday splurging? Do you have any slightly costly traditions?