For these next few weeks there seems to be an excess amount of people who happen to have birthdays coming up as well as other occasions that normally involve buying presents for people. As a result, I have been trying to find presents for people that I thought would be suiting.
Another person who was shopping for the same people was telling me on how this was such a financially draining week as she was using up her entire monthly non essential budget solely on gifts for others.
This got me thinking too as if you are in a situation where there are say too many birthdays and you are on a very tight budget as it is which one of the following would you do?
1) Determine how much money you can truly afford and divide it equally amongst the recipients or even giving things that are more personal instead.
2) Spend however much you would normally spend on a person by using tools such as a credit card even if it means adding more debt to yourself.
3) Delay giving certain people a present so that you can get them what you intended once you have the funds to do so.
I personally would be inclined to do the first option. Although realistically, I think most of the time people have a “I can so I will†mentality and will instead opt for say option two and start racking up on the credit card. It just seems more like a debt that you are paying back to the other person, so to speak, as oppose to giving a gift if you are spending more than you can afford I’d say.