Although they speak well of you as a generous person, gifts can also drill a hole in your pocket if you splurge your entire life savings on them. A strategy that has worked for some though is to come up with a gift-giving checklist. This strategy might very well work for you in at least two ways. First, it allows you to anticipate the days and occasions when you are expected to give gifts. Second, it encourages you to manage your funds so you will have enough money to spend on yourself even when you need to give gifts. Read on to see what details should be on the checklist.

• OCCASIONS. There are some occasions that set the whole world to a gift buying and gift giving fever. While you may not necessarily have to join the bandwagon all the time, list the specific occasions that you have plans on giving gifts. Here are a few suggestions: Christmas, birthdays and Thanksgiving.

• GIFT RECIPIENTS. Determine who the gift recipients are. List down both the regular recipients and the coincidental recipients. The people who make it to your regular list are usually your immediate family members, your lover, your close friends and perhaps that sweet old lady who happens to be your next-door neighbor. If you're all amped to win the popularity contest in town however, anticipate coincidental recipients such as your partying officemates, a visiting charitable institution or some other stranger whom you might just really need to thank in the near future.

• GIFTS. When you have a few recipient base to take care of, you can make your gifts column as specialized and as detailed as possible. However, if you anticipate yourself giving gifts to people frequently, you might lose track of the things you have given and those that you haven't yet, so always have a list of generic gift ideas on hand: a greeting card, flowers and some food or drinks.

• BUDGET. You can't give the world to every one of your recipients. Therefore, allocate a specific amount per person per giving occasion. The amount that you must write down should be the maximum budget you're willing to spend on a gift. Do not indicate something you do not intend to follow, as doing so will defeat the inclusion of this detail on your checklist.

• SOURCE OF FUNDS. It's great that you feel like Santa Clause already at this point, but you're definitely not through yet. Ask yourself the million-dollar question: “How will you pay for your gifts?” List in this column your possible sources of revenue and how much you must make and save for your gift-giving plans to become a reality every occasion and every year. If you're working full-time, you might decide to save a portion of your monthly income and allocate the saved funds for gift giving.

Remember these things when you plan to give gifts. Better yet, plan not just a day before the occasion itself, but plot your schedule throughout the whole year.