Draw a Venn diagram of all the people you know, with you at the centre. It would probably look like a flower with all your friends, clients, colleagues, relatives, sport team members, golf buddies, church friends etc as the little petals you know.

So there’s gonna be some groups of people who’ll just never meet your other people – right? Fantastic!

When you’re the only common denominator, if you give them a gift, they’ll be none the wiser if you also happened to give that exact same thing to someone else, such as for a christening, housewarming or 21st.

If so, you might want to consider buying gifts in bulk! Simply type in “bulk lot” on eBay and you’ll be amazed what you can find.

Are a few of your girlfriends having babies all at the same time? Come pre-armed to those baby showers with a babysuit, socks, singlets or little shoes.

Got endless kids’ parties that you have to come bearing gifts? You’ll find sets of little girls’ fairy style necklaces, Lego sets and kids’ books for a steal.

Is it coming up to housewarming season? Buy a bulk lot of beeswax pillar candles, serving platters or magazine baskets.

Have you got more kitchen teas and bridal showers than you can poke a stick at? Save money with bulk purchases of tea towels, cooking utensils or coffee table books.

Are you alarmed at the number of 16th, 18th or 21st birthday gifts you’re expected to buy for your nieces, neighbours and daughters of work colleagues? You can buy Pandora beads in bulk to start them off with their own bracelets.

Even if you don’t like the idea of buying bulk, did you know you can buy giftwrap in bulk? An average sheet at the newsagent costs about $4.95 but if you buy it from a florist wholesaler (which sells a sea of retail supplies including paper, candles, baskets, silk flowers and so on), you could buy about 100 sheets of gloss wrap, cellophane, tissue paper or that funny reconstituted paper for around $29 – or about $0.29 per sheet. With the money you’ll save on gifts, you’ll be wrapt.

Ever wondered why your Nanna seems to support all those charities? This may explain it.

A study by researchers at US Penn State University has found that men are more likely to give money to a needy person in their neighborhood – if they gave at all. Men tend to think of what’s affecting them in their immediate vicinity.

Women on the other hand, are equally likely to give money to needy people (aka charities) in their neighbourhood and overseas AND to give equal amounts to both groups.  Charities know this and lurrrrrve targeting females for donations.

The study tested both genders for donating to groups based on proximity or common ethnicity (ie “my people”) and based on humanity and suffering (far away). People could a) keep the cash, b) give it to victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans or c) victims of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean. The survey also tested participants’ “moral identities” (or how much they identified themselves as fair, honest, caring, fair etc).

Women with high moral identities were more likely to split their donation equally between both charities. Women with lower moral identies and men with high moral identities gave more to the Hurricane Katrina group and much less to the tsunami charity.

Men with low moral identities pocketed the cash.

I’d guess you might buy (or, especially if you’re a man, get someone else to buy on your behalf), at least 16 GIFTS A YEAR.

And, no, it’s not crazy talk:

If both of your parents are alive, you just might give: 2 x birthday gifts, 1 x Mothers Day gift, 1 x Fathers Day gift, 2 x Christmas gifts, (and just maybe, 1 x wedding anniversary gift to your parents) = 6 (7 if you agree with the wedding anniversary gift)

PLUS if you have a partner, add: 1 x Valentines Day gift, 1 x (wedding/date you started dating) anniversary gift, 1 x birthday gift, and 1 x Christmas gift. (Again, the bare minimum) which cumulatively =10 (11 if generous)

PLUS if you have at least ONE child, add: 1 x birthday gift (I’m being really minimalistic here – many people give a couple of gifts per child), 1 x Christmas gift. = 12 (13)

PLUS if you have at least 3 adult friends (I hope you have more than that!): 3 x birthday gifts = 15 (16)

PLUS if you attend just ONE wedding OR engagement OR housewarming OR christening OR one of your 3 friends has a baby per year: 1 gift = 16 (17)

Some years of course, you can have multiple births, weddings, christenings and new babies being born.

Sooooo, do you have a gift budget? It might be worth considering one. If every gift costs you at least $20, that’s already $320 (16 x $20), and if you tend to spring for $50 per gift or more, that’s $800.

Many people don’t plan their gift-buying but buy a gift just when it’s due. But why the lack of planning when it comes to gift-buying? Valentines Day is always on 14 February. Christmas Day is always 25 December. Mothers Day is always when your country says it is. And unless you’re Elizabeth Taylor, your wedding anniversary wouldn’t change every year, either. Ditto for people’s birthdays.

Then they panic that they  haven’t got the money set aside for the gift (for a date that’s usually known well ahead of time), and put it on Visa or Mastercard and get into debt, which makes them resent buying the gift/s.

A gift budget of $800 for 16 gifts (which may be more or less, depending on whether you have both sets of parents, siblings (I didn’t even mention those), a partner, children and more than 3 friends you’d give gifts to, works out at about $66.67 per month.

You might not have a gift occasion every month – July is expensive in our family (my mum, brother and nephew have birthdays on the 12th, 19th and 26th) – but you can always plan for it.

With Mothers Day looming, there will be some of you (shock! horror!) who haven’t yet bought her a gift because a) you have no idea and/or b) you’ve got no money left til payday on the 15th or whatever (and as an adult you know it’s just plain wrong to ask your mum for some money to buy her gift).

But there is a relatively easy gift that anyone can give their mum and it’s probably in a drawer or on your computer hard drive right now. Yes folks, it’s a family photo taken at some point.

An easy but oh-so-happy-making gift is to get a photo where she looks particularly happy and pretty, get it (re)printed and framed in a nice frame from the local gift shop or if it’s a really good one, get it blown up and put on canvas. It’s personal and sentimental and she’s sure to love it.