I tend to be fairly frugal with most day to day purchase. I avoid eating out too much, limit myself to one Dunkin Doughnut’s coffee per week, and put lots and lots of thought into any purchase above $25.

Of course, all of that goes out the window when it comes time to buy gifts, whether it is for a birthday or a holiday. This time of year, it’s for birthdays, as my wife, father, and sister all have birthdays within a few weeks of each other. I am usually able to control myself when it comes to gifts for the family; while I really wanted to get my father a Logitech Harmony remote for $75, I limited myself to some unique tea for $15 I picked up from Chinatown.

Unfortunately, the amount I can spend on my wife knows no bounds. I’m not talking thousands of dollars here, but I still have had issues with spending more money on gifts or outings than I probably should. For example, earlier this year I bought my wife a pearl necklace, bracelet, and earrings to celebrate her getting a new job. A month before that I bought her a new digital camera, after feeling guilty that the one I bought her for Christmas turned out to be such a dud.

(The funny thing is that my wife is one of the most non-materialistic people I have ever known. While she appreciated the pearls, and loves using the camera, she would never expect any of those as gifts, nor would she buy them on her own.)

The heart of the problem for me, and I suspect many of you out there, is that money spent on gifts often falls into a murky category, an odd combination of money you might feel required to spend (though I would hate to compare birthday presents to a electricity bill) and money that actually feels good to spend because you know it is going to make a person close to you feel very happy. I am especially guilty of the latter feeling.

So when my wife turns 25 tomorrow, I will be taking her to a restaurant with entrees about double the price I would normally spend, seeing a movie (a somewhat rare occurrence for us nowadays, as we found that an easy way to save some money), and buying some smaller gifts. While I somewhat regret not having a gangbuster present to give her this year, we’re in a somewhat cloudily financial situation right now with her looking for a new job, and I also have spent a fair amount on gifts so far this year.

Not to mention the fact that my car is currently in a shop, racking up literally $1.60 a minute on labor charges as “Honda specialists” attempt to figure out a problem with my air conditioning that no one else can. I’m sure I’ll begrudgingly post a final tally for the cost of that work when I found out tomorrow.