I find it helps me to have a list and a budget for each person [or group of persons - so I have an under $5 list, a $10 list etc - these are the majority of the business folk - as well as the rare few much higher value gifts for some staff members etc] and to keep a list on my computer so that when I find, say, a really cute small item for my MIL at a garage sale or on clearance, I write it down and don’t forget about it, forget to GIVE it, forget I’ve got it etc.
Also those ‘token’ business gift things are often easiest to get early in the year – which helps to get them out of the way.

My list helps me stretch my dollar for a bigger splash too. For example I went to the dollar store today to get a few things and found some really nice mirrors of just the sort I’d been thinking that my dds would really like for their rooms. Now I don’t know about you – but I am not as organized as, ahem, I would like to be.

However for a buck each I grabbed those mirrors [simple silver for the tween, which I will write something inspirational around the rim of; pretty rainbow framed for the second grader ;p] and I wrote it all down on my gift list for the holidays.

Lo and behold who knew I also bought them each their own hairdryer [in fabulous prints] from target when they were the deal of the day? I’d forgotten.

So now I foresee an entire ‘in room spa’ package with some dollar store hair doodads/brushes and maybe a new lotion or nail polish . . .

I could never pull any of this stuff off without a list.

And with a dedicated ‘gifts’ line in my budget it all gets folded in throughout the year – and at holiday time I have very little left to do!