Start from the lowest-paid person in the room
The right budget is the one the person earning the least can spend without noticing. In a mixed office that is lower than the organiser thinks, because the organiser is usually mid-level and hangs out with other mid-level people.
Ask yourself what a new hire in the most junior role would be fine with, and set it there. Everyone above them can be generous in the wrapping, the card and the effort, which is what people remember anyway.
The figures most groups land on
These are the numbers that come up again and again when people describe a budget that felt right.
- Friends and family: ₱500 to ₱1,000, or $20 to $30. Higher is fine when everyone agrees out loud.
- Office, general staff: ₱500, or $20 to $25. The most common figure in both countries.
- Office, tech or BPO: ₱1,000, or $30 to $50. Common, but check the newest hires are not stretching.
- Weekly Monito Monita gifts: ₱100 to ₱200 each. Never more, or the final gift stops mattering.
- Kids and students: ₱100 to ₱300, or $5 to $10. The point is the giving, not the thing.
Say a maximum, not a range
"Around ₱500 to ₱800" is read two ways. The people who can afford it hear ₱800 and spend it. The people who cannot hear ₱800 and feel small about their ₱500. Then the ₱800 gift and the ₱500 gift get opened side by side.
Say one number and call it the maximum. "Up to ₱500" gives the generous people nowhere to go but the card, and the careful people a figure they can hit exactly. Add "and please don't go over" once, in the first message, and never again.
Three things that make a fair budget feel unfair
- Shipping. In a remote exchange, is the budget the gift or the gift plus delivery? Decide, and say which. In the Philippines a ₱500 gift with ₱150 delivery is a different purchase from a ₱500 gift handed over at the party.
- Currency. A group split across Manila and Singapore needs one currency named in the rules, or two budgets set to feel equal rather than to convert equally. $20 in Manila buys more than $20 in Singapore.
- Public opening. If gifts are opened in front of everyone, a cheap-looking gift is a public event. Either keep the budget low enough that everyone can hit it, or open gifts privately.
Put the number where people will see it
The budget belongs in the invitation, on the page where someone sees their match, and in the reminder you send a week before. People forget it, and the ones who ask you in person are the ones who care most about getting it right. Put the number in three places and nobody has to ask.