Plan a gift budget across recipients for any holiday.
Dividing a holiday budget equally ignores that not every recipient is equivalent. Weighting close family higher and treating everyone else as one unit turns the list into weighted units, so the budget allocates itself proportionally instead of by guesswork. Six per cent is held back for cards, wrapping and postage, which is the cost most gift budgets forget until they have already been spent.
Weighted gift allocation
Unit value = (budget - wrapping reserve) / (close family x weight + others); close family gift = unit value x weight
Weight the list rather than dividing it. Assigning close family a multiplier and everyone else a single unit produces proportionate amounts that still add up to the budget you set.
Cards, paper and postage routinely reach 5-10% of gift spend. Reserving it up front prevents the last few gifts from being underfunded.
Then the list is longer than the budget supports. Reducing recipient count, agreeing a group gift or setting a shared cap works better than overspending across the board.