Do you have a gift / present budget?

hedgesparrow

I recently got into a spot of bother with my budget and realised that often my personal spending goes out of the window when I buy presents for people.

So I worked out how many people I buy for and how much I would like to aim to spend for each one and I realised that including the event in winter beginning with C (can't quite bring myself to type it out in May!) I will spend £780 a year on gifts!!

So I have divided it by twelve and reached £65 per month to buy presents, but this is where I am starting to worry.

I figure I need to get to the situation where I can buy next months presents this month. And if I have a month where there aren't many presents I can get a head start on C presents. But I need to be strict with myself and stick to what I said I would spend.

Does anyone out there already do this? Any tips or advice? Do you buy presents in the order of birthdays or as you see something someone will like? Do you buy presents for months in advance or just save the cash till that month?

I am probably overcomplicating this but I want to feel like I have a plan so I don't mess up my budget again.

Frogletina

hedgesparrow wrote: »

I recently got into a spot of bother with my budget and realised that often my personal spending goes out of the window when I buy presents for people.

So I worked out how many people I buy for and how much I would like to aim to spend for each one and I realised that including the event in winter beginning with C (can't quite bring myself to type it out in May!) I will spend £780 a year on gifts!!

So I have divided it by twelve and reached £65 per month to buy presents, but this is where I am starting to worry.

I figure I need to get to the situation where I can buy next months presents this month. And if I have a month where there aren't many presents I can get a head start on C presents. But I need to be strict with myself and stick to what I said I would spend.

Does anyone out there already do this? Any tips or advice? Do you buy presents in the order of birthdays or as you see something someone will like? Do you buy presents for months in advance or just save the cash till that month?

I am probably overcomplicating this but I want to feel like I have a plan so I don't mess up my budget again.

I have a budget of £60 a month to cover both types of presents. I do tend to buy presents near to the birthdays as if I buy something before I tend to lose it around the house somewhere

I also use this money for cards and wrapping paper which I buy when cheaper.

Like you, I realised that my personal spending money was being more used on other people than myself, so I split my budget to separate them,

caeler

Stop buying gifts? OK I appreciate it really isn't that simple but on a serious note reassessing who you are buying for, setting expectation and stopping the unnecessary is worth considering.

In our family we agreed a rule, only to buy for the young kids at Christmas, do cards at birthdays and presents for big birthdays only. This seems to have worked rather well and we just make more effort to get together to celebrate.

It took me a while to get used to this, because I love buying gifts and spoiling my loved ones, but we all get to the stage where it becomes financially impossible.

Kitten_Pie

I buy presents as I go along and have a draw for them. I have my friends birthday present for her birthday in July because I saw in on offer and new she would like it.

Christmas is generally started in the January sales. We focus on getting things that people like rather than the cost so budgets are very low. Try to keep family presents below £10 and friends below £5 but it means spending a lot of time looking for bargains.

Found that if I left it too close to the event then I was more likely to spend too much on something that would do rather than they like.

The grabbit board here has some good bargains, my mums Christmas present has been bought this week from a suggestion on there.

Freebie board is also good, a lot of on there are samples but one year I put a basket together for a few friends filled with soap and shampoo samples etc and it turned into a really lovely gift.

I also have a spreadsheet with ideas on it so that I can keep an eye out should anything come in budget. It changes weekly and ideas and things bought are kept up to date so I don't forget and buy one person 20 things and nothing for anyone else. Experience has taught me this happens.

Bad_Weather

I set budgets and it took me a while but I now stick to them pretty religiously.

I also tend to buy in advance now as if i see something in sale that's at my budget! I took a cheap mates advice that even if a budget is set and something goes into sale she still takes it as though full price and thats a saving she's made. So she told me how her and her other mate had a £30 budget and she bought a bag for £10 that was £30 so she saved herself £20! So i now do the same with her present

Bought some stuff in January sales for mates birthdays in April and this month! Again friends who it seemed i was always spending more on them than they were on me.

This week for example my mates 30th is at end of month and i've been scouring for her present! I saw a bracelet i wanted to get her and it went on promotion so I got it for £20 down from £40! :money:

I ALSO like Caeler just stopped buying presents for some people. I used to think i couldn't attend drinks or flat warmings or visit a friend in a new house without gifts but i now just send them a card! Job Done! At christmas i just agreed to all mates that lets just miss presents.

It gets ridiculous you need to nip it in the bud at some point! And ironically it was always my friends with the most money who seemed to spend the least on everyone!

rising_from_the_ashes

I think it's also a matter of re-evaluating who you buy presents for (obviously harder if you have kids) ..... my presents budget is £10 / month - tiny by comparison to some but I just can't afford to spend more.

WRINKLES

I dont buy Birthday Cards .... I write Happy Birthday on a £5 ... £10 ...or £20 note and encourage familly members to do the same ... if you add up the cost of cards peopl get on a birthday ... they could buy themselves a nice present ... do the same at Christmas ... cards are a stupid idea , the only benefit is to make card manufacturers rich .

linz

I buy my birthday cards from Card Factory when they have their 5 for £1 etc promotions on. Got a drawer full atm so don't need to buy any for a while. Christmas cards and wrapping paper I get in the January sales and stick them in the loft. I save any bottle / gift bags / Christmassy boxes I get given and re-use.

I've not long been doing it, but with presents I buy things I think the person will really like, no matter what time of year it is (as long as it'll still last/fit etc) and put them in a 'presents' box and try not to forget about it !

I've already got my nieces Christmas present, a Disney princess nightlight/ceiling projector I saw on the grabbit board a while back on offer at Amazon.

My sister in law is having a Winnie the Pooh 'to-do' book and address book for her birthday which I got in the January sales from M&S.

For my brothers birthday I got him some packs of Fair Trade coffee and chocolate bars from Sainsbury's, total cost about £10, and he really liked it.

One of my mums Christmas presents is some toiletries from a posh hotel I stayed at with work !! There's bath and shower gel, bath salts, body lotion and soap, all from the dead sea which she will like as she suffers from psoriasis. You can't tell they're from a hotel chain and I'm going to put them in a nice Christmassy box I was given last year and wrap in tissue paper - a free present

She also likes Lorraine Pascal so I got her one of the books off Ebay for £4 odd, (brand new too), rrp £18.99.

My dad's really hard to buy for so he normally gets some malt whisky or some nice wines whenever there's a good offer on.

You could try doing some surveys with Valued Opinions. I find this site is great for saving vouchers towards presents. I redeem Amazon vouchers but I think they send out high street/supermarket vouchers too, which you could also buy presents with.

HTH

kjp

I have a separate bank account for gifts (also has e-savers for car insurance and car maintenance). I put away £50 a month on payday, and it's used for presents for that month. If I have a big month, I will use some of my 'fun' money, then top it up (if necessary) the next time I have a 'quiet' birthday month. Anything left in the account will build up towards Christmas. I like this system as it has it's own debit card, so I don't end up transferring money around here there and everywhere! I also have just started using Swagbucks and have £20 of Amazon vouchers, which I will keep for gifts, tempted by the idea of then transferring the 'gift' money into my savings but not sure yet!

hedgesparrow

Thanks for all the info and ideas everyone! Keep it coming, it's all really useful.

I particularly like the idea that if you come in under budget for a gift then to save the money. I do make some presents, so if I did that I could use the cash to pay off some of my debt. I have already made agreements with some people not to exchange presents, but I do love buying for the children in my extended family.

I am really hoping this plan could work to get it all within my budget and not have any sudden realisations that I need to buy three presents for people and I don't have the money.