There are only a few days left before Christmas and I have yet to buy presents.

This isn't unusual for me in the least—I tend to do everything at the very last possible minute.

Shopping for gifts isn't any different than other tasks that come due once a year. I sometimes forget to renew my tags and inspection sticker until they are overdue as well. I don't mind writing this because I just recently checked all the stickers and tags to make sure they were good. I'm covered at least until January.

Ever since I heard of the "time value of money" in economics class, I've had a handy excuse. Forgive me for the lack of exactness here, but it basically states that the best thing to do with money is keep it as long as possible. If you owe a bill, it is wiser to hold the money and draw interest for as long as possible, paying it at the last possible moment rather than pay the bill early and let the other folks have the ‘value' of the money. However, bills are the one thing

I have striven to take care of early. Not only do I save interest on loans by making payments early and also paying principal when possible, I also buy myself peace of mind knowing that the month's obligations are taken care of.

That tendency is also the reason that I have waited until this week to start Christmas shopping. No, I don't mean so I can keep my money longer. That would make me sound like an Ebeneezer type. But as a person who pays the bills first, including the giving I plan to do, I usually have to wait until the second part of the month to make other purchases. Since the other purchases are, by and large, optional, I can always cut some or all of those out according to the realities of the budget. Now that I have my monthly ‘spending money', I lack time and motivation to get the shopping done. Every year I tell myself I'll get it done sooner and avoid the crowds. Every year I find myself scrambling to find ‘the perfect gift' for each person on the list a week before Christmas. I've elbowed for space when trapped in a crowed of stampeding shoppers in my time, dashed to get in line first and even arrived one person too late to pick up the particular toy the kids wanted that year. However, this year I'm going to try to go shopping in the morning, but times when I hope everyone is still at home enjoying their Christmas vacations.

Further adding to my Christmas woe, a recent entanglement with a cloven-hoofed forest creature has the family car with several less- than-desirable design modifications. I really hope it wasn't a reindeer or I'll be forced to sue Santa Claus for contributory negligence, not withstanding the fact that he is driving reindeer during a closed season. After all, this happened a couple weeks ago. Shouldn't Santa be out holding kids on his lap, laughing his jolly laugh or running over grandmothers? Isn't that enough without letting his minions attack family sedans?

In all seriousness, evenings on any mountain road this time of year is almost like a death trap for crossing deer. It's no picnic for passing family cars, either. Since I dropped the full coverage on the car last year to save some money, I am left paying for the repairs out of pocket. Now there's a great way to save money, huh?

Luckily, a friend with whom I attended high school has agreed to look for parts in his extensive junkyard network. There's nothing quite like having friends in all the right places. I'm not overly concerned about them being in ‘high' places, mind you, so long as they are the right places.

He has come up with some of the parts needed to replace the hood and fender, including all those little pieces that are located under the hood that are designed to fall apart on impact. It's called a safety feature, but when I'm the one with the bill, it's a highway robbery feature.

There's just something about nice-looking vehicles and my family. They don't last long.

The old grey truck that I totalled about 8 years ago and am still driving would have been my choice for colliding with my fine antlered friend, but things seldom work out that way. Prior to the day I rolled it over, it was very attractive. Now I'm left with just my Chevrolet truck that hasn't been wrecked and abused. I hope it stays that way.

Anyway, it looks like I'm facing a bill of at least $1,500 in making the needed repairs, money that never comes easily. Since all the vehicles are paid for, I figure I will suffer through this expense and be glad that I'm not making monthly car payments again. I decided that I would instead try to keep and fix the things I'm driving now. When you add up a year at $300 to $500 (or more) per month per vehicle, I could afford to run over a lot of deer and even some other kinds of animals. Maybe not elephants, buffalo, cows or giraffes, but I likely could get away with an occasional big dog, calf or even a gazelle.

For the past five years or so, it has been my goal to have my home paid for, all my vehicles paid for and no credit card debt that isn't paid off monthly. I'm still working on it, but accidents and surprise expenses sometimes make it feel like one step forward and two steps back.

Since I consider debt to be a modern form of bondage, I make every attempt to avoid (or get out from under it) when possible. One thing that used to lead me into the "valley of the shadow of debt" was Christmas. Our family used to buy gifts for everyone, with some unspoken spending need there to buy just a little nicer gift than you received. After just a few years of that, I found myself borrowing more than $1,000 per year just to pay for Christmas. Seeing the foolishness of this policy, I met with the rest of the family and we all agreed to get it under control. At that time, there weren't any small children in the family. Now, with five small children in the immediate family, we try to buy gifts for all of them. After all, the joy of giving an appreciative child a gift is one of my most favorite pleasures in life. Maybe we'll bake everyone cookies or something.

Then again, maybe we'll bake ourselves cookies and invite everyone over to help eat them. Either way, I'm sure it will work out.

Get more tongue in cheek commentary this week's issue of the Alleghany News!

Email: allnews@ls.net