A gift list that actually works, kept all year

Christmas is not an emergency and it is not a surprise, but for most households it behaves like both. The reason is that gift buying is a memory problem before it is a money problem: the good idea arrives in March and is gone by November, so December is spent buying substitutes at full price.

What to write down when the idea arrives

• Who it is for, and what the occasion is — birthdays and Christmas in the same list, because the budget is the same money.
• The idea, in enough detail to buy it in six months. "That book about the Arctic she mentioned" is not enough by November.
• Where you saw it and roughly what it cost.
• The date of the occasion, so the list can sort itself by what is next.

The two columns that save the most

Budget and spent, per person. Not a total for the month — per person. It is the only way to see that one nephew has had three presents and one parent has had none, which is the actual shape of most overspending.

Add a column for what you already bought and where it is. Every household loses at least one present a year to a wardrobe, and it is always the one bought in August because it was a bargain.

Where the money comes from

Take last year's total, divide it by twelve, and put that aside monthly from January. That is the whole trick, and it turns a £600 December into £50 a month you never notice. It is the same method as any other annual bill, and gifts are the annual bill people are least honest with themselves about.

Stopping the repeats

Keep last year's list rather than clearing it. Seeing what you gave the same person for three years is what stops the fourth pair of gloves, and a note of what actually went down well is worth more than any recommendation list. Two words are enough: "loved it" or "still in the box".