By Sophia Do
The holiday season brings excitement, festive cheer and, for many teens, the challenge of gift shopping on a budget. Whether using earnings from part-time jobs, allowances or savings, high school students are finding ways to balance generosity with their limited spending power.
Baron Banner surveyed students to learn how much they plan to spend this Christmas and how they’re getting creative with their holiday budgets.
Freshmen:
“For Christmas, I usually go shopping with my best friend to get gifts for our friends and separately get gifts for my family. I try to stay in a budget of about 100 dollars for my immediate family of 3 and 300 dollars combined for my friends. We get gifts for about 15 people every year, but it changes every year. In total, I usually spend around 250 dollars. I don’t have a job or anything official but mostly just get money from my parents for doing work around the house or helping out with something. They are more lenient on me during the holidays for gifts though,” freshman Gwen Nguyen said.
Sophomore:
“I try to pull $100 from my savings for around four to five of my closest friends. I don’t have a job yet and mainly focus on getting gifts for my family,” sophomore Victoria Nguyen said.
Junior:
“I have a 15 dollar budget per gift using my lixi money from previous years, I only buy gifts for my family, scout members and friends,” junior Sophia Lu said.
Senior:
“It depends on how many gifts I’m getting for people for budgeting, and I have a couple jobs and I usually buy gifts for about 15 people,” senior Athena Tran said.
“I try to [set] aside $200 each year to spend on Christmas gifts which include family, friends, coaches, etc. I work multiple jobs to make sure I have money on the side to keep up with my hobbies and presents. I try not to buy gifts for more than 10 people,” senior Katelyn Nguyen said.
