Trying to make gifts even

Lord, that is extremely tacky of anyone to be worried about that so obviously that you can tell.
I also try to keep it even for my children and grandchildren but don't stress about it too terribly much.
I do the actual MRSP, meaning NOT the sale price.

We keep the dollar amount the same but we don't make ourselves crazy over it.

I use an app to keep track of things, and I use the amount we actually paid.

I try to keep both DDs equal in total spent and number of gifts under the tree. Youngest DD23, hasn’t been home for Christmas in a number of years (Covid travel restrictions while in university, then she was traveling, then she moved across country) so she gets sent a stocking, gives me a few ideas to get delivered and then I top up to total with $$ or GCs.

We always did similar "theme" ie one kid got ice skates and other skis - winter sports equipment. Although we keep it in the same ballpark - don't stress about it otherwise, certainly not enough to differentiate between sales or not. I don't waste energy on petty people, so DIL can get over herself. If you're gifting her a thrifted sweater and giving other dil an iphone, that's of a different scenario.

Personally, I go with the normal retail price. Just make sure you remove all sale stickers. 

I just have 2 DDs. I keep a spreadsheet of what I have bought/plan to buy and each girl has a column. I make sure I have the same # of gifts that cost approximately the same. It's not an exact science.

If my sister got a car every year and I got socks, I’d notice. But otherwise, no. I’d someone cares enough about me to buy a gift, I just say thank you. As for my nieces and nephews, when rhey were too little to understand, they’d get the same number of gifts without regard to making sure the cost was equal. Now that they are older, they just want money so obviously they get the same. We have a small gift giving group so it’s just the core family and we aren’t competitive or comparing. I did stop doing gift exchanges with my husband’s family because several years in a row they forgot my daughter’s Christmas gift, or it was on back order, or they wrapped it up with someone else’s name on it so she had nothing to open while her cousins did. That’s hard for a kid. The last straw was that she got told she was going on a whale watch in the summer as her Xmas present then when summer rolled around, the only weekend that worked for everyone else was her dance recital weekend.

I just try to even out gifts, not monetary value. If something was on sale, I am not going to give that person more gifts.

If it is something that is frequently on sale, I would use the sale price. For example, I buy clothes at Talbots. If I received a sweater, I would assume the giver bought it at least 30% off, maybe 40%. I would certainly hope they did anyway!

I would go by the regular price.

I keep number of presents the same. I also try to keep total amount spent on each as close as I can. I’m another that thinks it probably doesn’t matter to my son and daughter-in-law. I also buy for my brother’s grandchildren and the four girls all get the same thing and the two boys get the same thing. I try to keep the $ close.

my kids have specifically told me that they don't care - they get gifts they're happy with and they aren't concerned with exsactly how many/how much $. They also don't necessarily spend the same on the gifts they buy us or their siblings.

This might stem back to DD24's first Christmas when DS33 was 10 and we talked to him about the fact that baby toys were less expensive and bigger (physically) than his toys and that her gift pile might look bigger than his but that Santa as well as mum and dad would try to get the gifts that they thought he would enjoy. And we had the same conversation with DD24 when she was 6.5 and DD18 was a baby.

Never been an issue with my kids. I've always tried to keep it in the same ballpark with dollar amount but honestly I think I (kind of) cared more than they did, always trying to be the fair mom.

Not that I recall them saying so but I would think when younger, it's be the number of gifts rather than the cost that they'd notice. Especially since we take turns opening.