The All-In Gift Budget Planner

Give within what you meant to spend: each person's share with the wrap, ribbon, card and postage taken off first, wrapping paper counted in whole rolls, gifts abroad kept inside the allowance, and the whole year's occasions on one monthly set-aside

GiftDuty's Gift Budget Splitter divides a total between the people you give to, but it treats each share as the gift's price, though the paper, ribbon, card and postage come out of the same money. The Gift Wrap Estimator works out a sheet in centimeters and never meets the roll it is cut from. The Gift Duty-Free Allowance Checker does not know the share, and none of the calculators sees the year. This planner takes the extras off each share first and gives every person a gift ceiling, cuts each wrap sheet from a fixed-width roll and counts rolls by the pieces, keeps a gift sent abroad inside the allowance you look up so its recipient is not sent a bill, and puts every occasion of the year on one monthly set-aside with its tightest month and a gift log. In the worked example $640 for eight people carries $83.56 of extras, so spending every share on the gift makes the season $723.56; Grandma's $80 share spent on a gift mailed abroad is $30 over a $50 allowance and costs her $29.12, while the same share with the extras taken off leaves a $43.29 gift inside it. Every price, box, allowance and rate in it is an example, computed by the same code the calculators run; allowances and duty rates vary by country and change, so the planner tells you to check the destination's customs authority. It is budgeting arithmetic, not tax or customs advice, and it does not cover gift tax. Included: seven steps, four printable working pages, reference tables, a quickstart, and a personalised sheet worked from the numbers you entered in our calculators.

Look inside

Two full pages from the planner, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• The Total First Rule: the total written before any gift, and a share for each person from weights, in whole cents
• The Price Last Rule: paper, ribbon, card and postage taken off each share, leaving a gift ceiling for every person
• The Roll Width Rule: each wrap sheet laid across a fixed-width roll, two joined pieces when it is wider, and rolls counted by the pieces
• The No-Bill Rule: a gift abroad checked against the allowance you look up, and what its recipient would pay if it is over
• The Whole Year Rule: every birthday, holiday and occasion on one list, with an amount
• The Tightest Month Rule: one monthly set-aside for the year, and the month the balance runs lowest
• The Gift Log Rule: planned and actual for every gift, with the running difference carried forward
• Working pages: a people and shares sheet, a wrap cutting sheet, a year plan and a gift log
• Reference tables: sheets and roll use for common boxes, the share a gift needs, and saving for December by start month
• A quickstart, and a personalised sheet worked from your own calculator inputs

The planner picks up where the free Gift Budget Splitterleaves off. The splitter hands each person a share of your total as if the share were the gift’s price; the planner takes the wrap, ribbon, card and postage off the top first, using the sheet the Gift Wrap Estimatorworks out, cut from a roll of a fixed width and bought in whole rolls. For a gift sent abroad it checks the declared value against the destination’s allowance with the Gift Duty-Free Allowance Checker, so the gift does not arrive with a bill the recipient pays, worked with the Import Duty & Tax Calculator. Then it plans the whole year’s occasions with a level monthly set-aside and a gift log. Every price, allowance and rate in it is an example for you to replace: allowances and duty rates vary by country and change, so check the destination’s customs authority. It is a budgeting planner, not tax advice; large gifts of money have their own rules (see our Gift Tax Threshold Estimator and a tax professional). No price or saving is promised.