As far as gifts go? We got my SIL a waffle maker she has been asking for and my brother a best buy gift card (he refused anything else, lol). The waffle maker came with a rebate and came down to $10 but my brother's gift card will be $30. I feel like I need to make up that extra money!
Re: Do you spend the same amount on everyone?
That's true. We got an awesome BF deal on the waffle maker, it was originally $40! My brother is a pain and refuses anything else, haha. I have tried to buy him things before and it never seems to work out so I am giving in.
In this case, no I wouldn't stress about it. I tend to go more by what the gift usually costs than on how much I actually paid for it.
For instance if the waffle maker is typically $25-30, I would call it even. Nobody is going to know that you got a great deal on it and only actually spent $10.
You can lookat it this way...how much was the waffle maker regularly? if they are the same price then does it matter that you got a rebate for it? They don't need to know that.
WE used to spend $75 onthe kids and we decided 2 yrs ago to only do presents for the kids. Now we have dummed it down to $50. My IL's still spend the $75 and MH and I still spend $75 on DS for both holidays, but I know as the years go on we may end up spending a little less or I will start looking even harder for better deals.
No but I try to keep the value of the gift the same...i.e., I got my SIL a great Polo sweater on sale for $30, but it's worth about $50-70. I'll be giving my nephew a gift card for $50, and I call it equal.
If the gifts are comparable, I'd say you're good.
We try to hit a ball park number, but different "groups" have different numbers, ie, little cousins are 15, parents are 40, brothers are 30, etc.