Gift-giving for the clever

As we approach the holidays, I just thought I'd pass along our strategy for buying Christmas gifts, which, when we use it, is great for reducing stress in December and high credit card bills in January. We sat down this fall, wrote down a list of the family members for whom we'd be getting gifts, then divided them between the two of us. (Gifts for friends are our individual responsibility and come out of our weekly "fun money".) We marked the calendar--one gift purchased each paycheck until Thanksgiving. That meant that we've had most of December to think about and buy gifts for each other and our daughter. This means that while many people are running around with like the proverbial chickens, we are able to focus on surviving the busy Yuletide schedule! It also means that we can afford Christmas.