I Got Wonderful Gifts for a Family of 5 for Only $85. Here's How

Generally speaking, I do my best to be generous with the people in my life. But let's be real -- the gift-giving season can be overwhelming. In addition to family and friends, I have to think about my children's teachers, coaches, and activity leaders. That's a lot of gifts to give out -- and a lot of money to spend.

Thankfully, I make it a priority to stash money in my savings account for the holidays year-round. So I do have some leeway when it comes to buying gifts.

At the same time, my siblings and I make a point to not go overboard on gifts for each other's families. The way we see it, we love getting together for the holidays and spending time together, and the gifts are really secondary. So as sort of a rule, we only exchange one item, and we aim to keep it moderately priced so no one feels pressured to spend beyond their means.

With that in mind, I decided to turn to Costco to purchase gifts for my sister, brother-in-law, and three nieces. And I pulled off that haul for $85 (plus tax).

A nice assortment of gifts

My sister and her family live in an apartment without much storage. As such, they don't want numerous or overly large gifts because they don't have a place to put them. That's why I tried to focus on gifts for my sister and brother-in-law that wouldn't take up a lot of space.

For my brother-in-law, I settled on a hot sauce gift set from Costco for $18.99. It has a nice variety of flavors, and once the set is used up, it's gone, so he won't have to worry about where to store it.

For my sister, I spent $29.99 on a "chocuterie" set. It features a nice board and assorted chocolates. Since my sister does like to host, I figured the serving tray would be a good gift for her to hang onto -- and it shouldn't take up a ton of space.

Meanwhile, my three nieces are eight years old and under, which means they're pretty easy to shop for. This year, Costco had Squishmallows for $11.99. I scooped up three of them for my nieces and I'm confident they'll be thrilled. So all told, that was about $36.

When we take that $36 and add $19 for the hot sauce collection and $30 for the chocolate board, it's $85. But even with tax, I still managed to buy gifts for my sister's entire family and come away with a credit card tab of under $100.

Spend what you're comfortable with

I can admit that I didn't specifically set a budget for buying gifts for my sister and her family. Instead, I had a general idea of what I wanted to spend -- and it was more than $85. However, it just so happened to work out that I was able to find great picks for that price point.

If money is tight in your world, though, then you should set a specific budget and pledge not to go over it -- especially if you're buying gifts for close family. Chances are, your sibling or parent would feel downright awful if you were to bust your budget in the course of buying them presents. So you're better off sticking to a number you're comfortable with.

Now. I can admit that I didn't really shop around in the course of buying the gifts above because they amounted to much less than what I was expecting to spend. But again, if you're on a budget, shop around -- even when you have access to a store like Costco that's known for its low prices. You never know when one retailer might have a given item priced for a few dollars less.

All told, I'm happy with my Costco gift haul, and I hope my sister's family will be, too. But if not, the nice thing about Costco is that you can return unwanted purchases without a hassle. And that's one final thing to keep in mind.

Retailers tend to have reasonably flexible return policies during the holidays, but it's always good to read the fine print first. That way, if a gift you're giving doesn't quite work out, your recipient won't be stuck with something they don't want or can't use.