SIR – In response to my letter based on an article in the T&A (January 4) which claimed that one-in-ten people went into debt to cover the cost of Christmas, and six per cent are still repaying money they borrowed for presents last year, Mrs Rachael Witney opined that some people are not in a position to budget (T&A, February 4).

But estimating income and expenditure for a set period of time is incumbent on the person who holds the purse strings. Nowadays adults and even children at a tender age expect and often receive expensive presents, but anyone with a modicum of nous doesn’t look to buying caviar when they only have funds for crab paste.

I do not recant, but reiterate that one should cut their coat according to their cloth, regardless of which rung of the financial ladder they are on.

Wilkins Micawber (David Copperfield) was no sage but wisely espoused: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.”

D Rhodes, Croscombe Walk, Bradford