Ok, your budget is too tight for you to live on, and suddenly you have to buy gifts for other people. A wedding, a baby shower, a sweet 16 party, birthday presents for your kid's friends...

What do you do? How does it feel to have to buy things for other people when you really shouldn't spend that money?

Do people set aside a Gift Buying budget?

I do not have a gift giving budget. Unfortunately if I have to buy a gift for someone then I usually go without something myself to be able to afford it, but I don't give high ticket items anyway. My family knows my situation and we are all living pretty much hand to mouth right now, so gifts are small or we don't give any at all. It's quite ok with all of us.

When we were first starting out and living on a very tight budget I would set aside $20 every pay period for gifts. That way when Christmas came around it wasn't so much all at once. I love to give gifts so that really helped me enjoy life.

I set aside cash monthly for gifting my family - I agree with VintageGS that I enjoy giving. When I was growing up I saved my weekly allowance to be able to gift at Christmas.

In my life there is zero budget for gift giving, so i just agree with everyone there will be no gift exchanging.

I've never liked the ritual of gift giving - it seems based on obligation. I'd rather buy myself something and then have that person buy themselves something - that way everyone gets exactly what they want and feel up to spending.