If gifts make you feel unorganized or stressed, a Gifting Calendar can put your mind at ease. Gift-giving occasions and holidays happen all year long, and if you aren’t paying attention, they can sneak up on you. Having a tangible plan all laid out and included in your family calendar will help you stay organized and prepared. No more running around last minute for that birthday gift.
Seeing the gift-giving occasions and holidays in one consolidated place also allows you to build out a budget. Gifts tend to be the category that get left off our monthly budgets. Because they are special occasion items, we don’t consider them as an additional regular expense. It’s time to change that mentality and plan for gifts within your budget accordingly.
How to Build your Gifting Calendar
If you want to start your own Gifting Calendar, the first step is to take inventory of all the gift giving occasions and holidays that your family celebrates and who you’d buy for.
The key here is to be overly detailed. If you have the list of every possible situation, you will be prepared for every possible gift giving situation. It is worst to miss one than to have something or someone listed that you don’t need a gift for.
Every family is different, so tailor the list to how your family operates. If you don’t exchange gifts on a certain holiday, don’t include it in your calendar. If there are friends you exchange gifts with, include them. Don’t forget to include the obscure or generic gifts too, like office holiday party gift exchanges, or family white elephants. Try to capture all the areas that you may have to purchase a gift for.
Common Gift Giving Holidays
- Valentine’s Day
- Mother’s Day
- Father’s Day
- Easter
- Sweetest Day
- Halloween
- Hanukkah
- Christmas
Common Gift Giving Occasions
- Birthdays
- Anniversaries
- Graduations – High School, University, even Kindergarten
- Religious Milestones – Baptisms, First Communion, Confirmation, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs
- House Warmings
- Baby Showers
- Weddings & Wedding Showers
- Promotions
How to Build a Gifting Budget
Now, you have a list of all the gift-giving occasions and every person listed along with that occasion. Next, assign a budget to every occasion. To find the right budget for an occasion, there are a few things to consider. First, think about what you typically spend now for that occasion. Then, think about the limits set by other people or groups. For example, if your work has a gift exchange set at $25 every year, that is a safe place to start for that item. Begin building out your budget for each occasion line by line.
Pro-Tip: I personally like to keep my budget consistent based on occasion and relationship. All my nieces and nephews have the same budget for birthday gifts. Gift budgets for my parents and my husband’s parents are consistent. My husband and I decide ahead of time how much we will spend for our anniversary and Valentine’s Day. This keeps our gifts consistent, fair and within our budget.
Once you have preliminary budgets listed for each occasion, add them all up. This is the scary part. When you add up the budget, you will see just how much you spend annually on gifts You’ll also maybe see why it is so important to factor gifts into your budget.
Spread your Budget Out Over the Year
Work your way backwards from the end of the year, figuring out just how much you should have saved by the time the occasion rolls around. It is likely that some months will be heavier on your budget than others, so spread out the cost. Look at your regular budget and determine how much you should be saving each month. This helps you prepare for those occasions rather than waiting until the occasion is close to start thinking about it. If you are looking at your budget and are not able to save the amount you have listed for your gifts, consider adjusting your budgets down to better suit your family’s needs.
Budgets only work if you work at them and follow them. Find the sweet spot between how much you want to spend and how much you can comfortably afford. Set limits for yourself based on what you can afford and set goals for yourself throughout the year to set aside money for gifts. If something in your situation changes, remember you can always adjust your budget accordingly. But remember that your budget it your guide to keep you on track. So, try to set your budget and stick with it!
Incorporate Your Gifting Calendar into Your Family Calendar
The last step is to add dates to the list and organize them from January to December. Do this in whatever existing planner or family calendar system you already have. It is easier to have everything in one spot, rather than having another thing to look at. If you do what works for your family here, you will be more likely to stick to it.
If you don’t have an existing family calendar, we use Google Calendar and I strongly recommend it. I like the option to set reminders for a couple weeks before so I have reminder that it is coming up as well as the day it happens. Having it in Google Calendar also makes it accessible on all my devices and shareable so my husband can reference it whenever he wants also. My favorite option though is the “Repeat” option by far. With the “Repeat” option, I can set an occasion to occur annually, rather than having to start from scratch each year.
Once your Gifting Calendar is incorporated into your family calendar, you will be prepared for every gifting occasion. No more forgotten birthdays, anniversaries, or scrambling last minute to find a gift. Gifts are supposed to be a fun and joyful moment and occasion. Taking the time to build a tool to help you stay organized will reduce the stress and save you time in the long run. So, build your own Gifting Calendar today!