Stew at Gather Little by Little wrote a post about Holiday Finances in general, but I’ll pick out his thoughts on how to deal with a holiday gift list that is beyond your budget.

A snippet:

The problem comes when I start to consider employees, employers, supervisors, neighbors, acquaintances, the mailman, the trash collectors, etc. Every time I turn around, I am being asked to contribute $5 or $10 so we can go together for a gift for someone else or to bring a “gift worth $15″ for a gift exchange or so-and-so is expecting a tip. These gifts are putting us in the poorhouse . . . well, we were already there . . . these gifts are putting us under the poorhouse.

Here are a few solutions that may or may not work for you.

• Homemade gifts: not sure what I can make that anyone will actually appreciate. My wife definitely tries to do this with some success, but this strategy is limited.
• Budget and save up during the year: Very good idea, but we do not have any more room in our budget for another item. We have a negative savings rate as it is. Our finances are heading in the right direction and we are keeping our heads above water, but we just finished a year with an extra $14,000 of expenses due to our house not selling.
• Graciously decline: Not sure if there is a way to do this without offending or appearing cheap or worse – everyone gives me a gift anyway and feels sorry for me. Yikes!

Here’s my followup comments for those who are on tight budgets this year, or whose friends / family / co-workers are on tight budgets:

If you are coordinating a group gift, and I’ve been tasked with that responsibility in the past, do NOT select or purchase the gift until you find out who can contribute and what their budget will be. Even the modest $5, $10 and $15 contributions can throw someone for a loop who is wondering how to put money in the gas tank or buy groceries that week.

If you are coordinating a gift exchange, do not put your participants in a situation where they need to buy a gift in addition to their existing shopping lists. If you want a party game, offer a white elephant / regifting gift exchange so people can swap out a present or knickknack they already have but would be glad to trade out.

If you want to tip or provide a gift to your teacher, mail carrier, newspaper carrier, etc., do so because YOU want to and can afford such an offering. I was a newspaper carrier off and on from junior high into my college years and I did like the cash, candy and cookies that many of my customers gave me at Christmas. But I didn’t stiff customer service to those who didn’t tip. (It was an entirely different story for those who tried to stiff me on the subscription bill.)

I have lots more tips at Help! I Can’t Afford Christmas!