★★★★A buyer
Works well. Only note is that it needs both sides to actually fill it in, which is a people problem rather than a spreadsheet problem.
The Two-Homes Gift Tracker
It earns its place when two homes are both buying, and at least one of you would rather find out in November than on the day.
$9
- Excel and Google Sheets both open it — .xlsx included
- Nothing to install, nothing to subscribe to
- Opens on your phone
- Instant download after payment
- 14-day refund, no questions
One gift list that holds both households. It flags a repeat before it ships, and shows you what your child actually receives — the total, not your half of it.
Your child does not experience your half
Two households, both spending sensibly, both staying inside a budget. And a child who ends up with four hundred dollars of presents while their sibling gets two hundred, because neither house could see the other's list. Then there is the smaller one that hurts more: the same present, wrapped twice, opened twice, in front of everybody. It is almost always the obvious gift — the one thing everyone knew they had asked for. Nobody did anything wrong in either case. There was just no list that held both sides.
It catches the repeat before it ships
Every row you type is checked against everything already in the list. Two tests run at once, and each one catches a different version of the same problem. Log a present as an idea and the check runs immediately. A duplicate caught at the idea stage costs nothing. One caught after it has shipped costs a return and a conversation. Exact matches turn red. Same-category overlaps turn amber, because those are usually fine.
It works whether or not you are on speaking terms
Two ways to use it, and neither of them is the wrong one. Share the Google Sheets version with edit access. You are both logging into one list, the duplicate check fires the moment either of you types, and nobody has to send a message asking what the other one bought. Keep it yourself and estimate their column. A rough guess in the second column still catches the one present everybody knows was asked for, and still shows you the combined total. That is most of the value, alone.
What's inside
- Start Here
- A one-page explanation of the colours and the order to do things in. Read it once and never again.
- Setup
- Name both households, set a budget for each, and give every child a combined target — the total you are both comfortable with them receiving. Overshoot and the sheet tells you by how much.
- Gift Log
- 150 rows, both households in one list. Household, child, gift, kind of thing, cost, status. The duplicate check runs on every row as you type.
- Duplicates
- Only the flagged gifts, pulled out automatically so you can deal with all of them in one sitting instead of scrolling looking for red.
- Dashboard
- Each child's spend from each home, the combined total, the difference against target, and the gap between the child receiving most and least.
How it works
- 1PayCard only. No account, no password, no address. Two fields and a payment box.
- 2DownloadThe link appears on screen straight away and lands in your inbox at the same time. It does not expire.
- 3Open itDouble-click for Excel, or File → Import → Replace spreadsheet for Google Sheets. Every formula carries over.
Specifications
- Formats
- Excel (.xlsx), Google Sheets (.xlsx) and a printable PDF guide
- Tabs
- 5
- Works in
- Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers, LibreOffice
- Opens on
- Desktop and phone
- Delivery
- Instant download, plus an emailed link that does not expire
Who this is not for
If everyone buying for your child lives in the same house, you do not need this. The Fair Share Gift Budget does the same job with one household and less typing.
If the other household will not tell you anything at all, and you cannot make a reasonable guess, the duplicate check has nothing to work with. You will still get the combined view, but it will only be as good as your estimate.
It earns its place when two homes are both buying, and at least one of you would rather find out in November than on the day.
Before you buy
Do I need to pay for Google Sheets?
No. Google Sheets is free with any Google account. If you would rather use Excel, that file is in the same download.
The other household will not use it.
Then use it alone and estimate their column. Most of the value is in catching the one obvious duplicate and in seeing combined totals, and both work with approximate numbers.
There are three households, not two.
Log the third under one of the two names, or keep a second copy. The combined target still works, because it counts every gift logged against that child.
Why does it flag two different Lego sets?
Because the same kind of present twice is the second most common way this goes wrong. It is amber rather than red on purpose — it is information, not a mistake.
Can I use it for birthdays too?
Yes. Nothing in it is specific to December. Make a copy per occasion and keep the children and the targets.
What if it does not work for me?
Email us within 14 days and we refund it. You keep the file. We would rather have the feedback than the nine dollars.
Reviews
★★★★★Steph B.
Shared the Google Sheets version with my ex-husband, which I did not expect to be the easiest part of co-parenting this year. It is neutral, it is just a list, and that helps more than I thought it would.
★★★★★Nicole
Blended family, two houses, and every year somebody ends up with two of the same thing. This is the first December where we sorted that out in November instead of arguing about it on the 23rd.
All ten holiday planners — $39
The gift budget, the Thanksgiving timeline, the blended-family gift tracker, the remote Secret Santa kit, the cookie swap planner, the two-families travel budget, the fifty-card Christmas list, the mixed-diet menu planner, the toddler activity calendar, and the ninety-day January debt reset. Bought separately they are $90.
Get all ten — $39
