Maintaining a budget for Christmas gifts

For some expatriates, Christmas is an expensive and stressful time of year. The pressure to conform to the gift-giving tradition can bust the wallet and even when you are working with a budget, it can be hard to keep expenses under control.

Cindy Gildo, an expatriate in Dubai, recently found herself in a gift buying dilemma. First, she had a long Christmas shopping list: more than a dozen people, all of them relatives and living outside the country.

Second, she barely had little over a week to wrap up her shopping and send the gifts away before Christmas time.

Third, it takes at least a month to ship a package to her folks back home. "And to top it all off, my finances are dire. Yet, I can't just sit here and not send anything to my family. I don't want to send cash as a gift, either. It simply lacks personal touch. What should I do?" she exclaimed in frustration.

Last-minute shopping can really take the joy out of the most joyful time of year and Gildo had only herself to blame for her problem.

She would not have been in such a stressful situation had she finished her shopping months ago.

Fortunately, she figured out ways to beat the Christmas deadline without breaking her budget.

Setting limits

Rather than going all-out to buy expensive presents for all her relatives, Gildo took a look at her gift list once more and set a limit on the amount of money to spend for each person. Her goal: Don't spend more than Dh1,000.

So, to get firmly out of the red and within her tight budget, she went on a bargain-hunting spree at Dragon Mart last weekend and happily returned home with four tastefully designed ladies bags, four wallets and a blanket for under Dh500.

She completed the last leg of her holiday shopping at the Mall of the Emirates where she picked up three nice men's shirts that cost Dh55 each. At Carrefour, she discovered more long-sleeved shirts that cost a lot less, around Dh20 to Dh35 each, and didn't even look cheap!

Also at Carrefour, Gildo dug out a couple of pretty bed sheets from a thick pile of blankets on sale, each costing under Dh50.

Cindy added up all her expenses and was surprised how she managed to buy more than a dozen items for under Dh1,000.

And so, she was left with one more challenge: how to have her presents delivered at her folks' doorstep before Christmas Eve.

Not long after, two of her friends who were going home for the holidays offered to deliver her presents to her folks.

By keeping a disciplined approach to shopping, she completed her gift list without breaking her budget.

Although many people tend to buy expensive gifts to please loved ones, it's smarter not to give quite so much in times of economic uncertainty. Little gifts do make a big difference. After all, it is the thought that counts, right?