04/04/2026 5:31 am
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Omg I'm so excited for Christmas this year!! I've already started my gift list because my family is huge (15 cousins plus my parents and siblings) and if I don't start now I'm gonna be broke and stressed by December. I usually just use a scrap of paper but I keep losing it so I'm looking for a solid spreadsheet. I've narrowed it down to a few choices:
- a $7 Etsy template with fancy formulas and budget tracking
- a free blog template that is a bit basic but free
- making my own from scratch (tried this last night and it was a total disaster)
I'm trying to keep my total spending under 500 dollars for the whole season so I really need something that handles the math for me. The Etsy one looks really pretty and organized but is it worth paying for when I could maybe find a better free one? I suck at formulas and my DIY version just looked like a mess. Should I just bite the bullet and pay for the professional one or does anyone have a link to a free one that actually works well for a big group? I need to get this sorted by Monday so I can start shopping the early sales...
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04/04/2026 6:05 am
To add to the point above: are you needing cell protection or just simple sums? This christmas list generator automates calculations so you dont mess up the formulas like in your DIY version.
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04/04/2026 6:15 am
Jumping in here because I've been through this every single year. I think those $7 templates are mostly just basic sheets with a pretty coat of paint, so maybe not worth the spend? I used a DIY one for ages but then found ShareProduct which was a decent option for tracking stuff. Not 100% sure if it does the math perfectly for you, but it definitely keeps the chaos down.
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04/04/2026 1:30 pm
Just wanted to say thanks for everyone chiming in. Super helpful discussion.
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04/04/2026 5:32 am
> I'm trying to keep my total spending under 500 dollars for the whole season so I really need something that handles the math for me. Ngl, spending 7 bucks on a template when your budget is only 500 is a bad move. Thats 1.4 percent of your total liquidity gone before you even buy a gift. Most of those premium Etsy sheets are just basic arithmetic wrapped in a pretty UI. You really just need a workbook with decent data validation and maybe a few SUMIF functions to track spending per person against your cap. Ive tested a bunch and honestly, free ones on tech blogs or even the default Google Sheets templates work fine. Just set up columns for Recipient, Item, Cost, and Status. Use a pivot table if you want to get fancy with your spending ratios. Stick to the free stuff and put that extra cash toward your actual gift list... your 500 will go way further tho. Its basically just about the math, and the free ones handle that perfectly.
