Gift planning

Most of the difficulty in giving good presents is not choosing them. It is that the information you need arrives months before you need it, in the middle of a conversation about something else, and by December it has gone.

These articles are about that gap. How to hold on to what people say, what to do about the person who seems to have everything, and how to set a budget that still means something on the 20th of December.

They are written from the same view: that a well-chosen present usually costs less than a hurried one, and that the difference is almost always something you already knew and forgot.

Toayen is the app that came out of the same problem. Free to download.

How to keep track of gift ideas and what you've bought

A £140 charger, bought for a watch she was about to replace. Three habits that stop information going missing between hearing it and needing it.

A Christmas gift budget that survives December

Why a single total isn't a budget, and what to write down before you write any numbers.

What to buy someone who has everything

Not another list of gadgets. Why this is usually a knowing problem rather than a shopping one, and the four kinds of gift that still work.