Trent+Lloyd

While preparing for the final this weekend, I was also able to prepare to evaluate our Christmas expense account for this year. My wife has prepared a list of close friends and the chosen siblings that we are going to buy for this year...and they are many! However, being a student, our budget isn't as plentiful. Now...how do we go about purchasing for friends and family, and not go without meals for ourselves? Here is the breakdown of what we are looking at: Parents: 1 Siblings: 3 (counting spouse for one, but the whole family as the other) Close friends: 2 Neighbors: 10 Work friends: 5 Now, for many...21 gifts is not a lot to buy. However, add those to this list: Birthdays: 2 Parties: 3 Cards (Homemade): 30 Spouse: 1 In order to do our best at completing the list, we assigned a monetary value to each category. Here is what we came up with: Spouse: $50 Parents: $20-30 Siblings: $30 for each family Close friends: approx $20 Neighbors: $3 Work friends: $3 Birthdays: (depending on the person) $20-50 Parties: $10 Cards: $.50 each before postage (and including our letter) Multiplying this out according to the number of people (or items) in each category gives us a range of $295 to $420. The lower end of the spectrum accounts for sales and/or less gifts purchased overall, while the higher end includes last minute and full monetary limit purchases. This doesn't even include postage to send any of the gifts or cards out. So, after completing our first evaluation, we will need to factor in $9.00 in stamps to send cards to Europe and another $8.80 to send cards to our family and friends in the states. There are a few gifts we might need to send, but fortunately the rest can be delivered by foot or by a short stint in the car. Sheesh...Christmas is EXPENSIVE! While it might make us feel better to use a factor tree to break down the cost of each gift...it still adds up quick. We will need to find a new formula for saving money next year.