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Many students will search for jobs in order to afford gifts during this upcoming holiday season.<

The reds, the greens and the golds decorating department stores this holiday season may give some college students the blues, as they struggle to buy gifts on a tight budget.

Hundreds of dollars a month in school expenses, along with limited hours available for working at a job can make the pressures of buying those perfect gifts seem impossible.

Christmas and other seasonal expenses are leading many students toward temporary jobs or overtime at previous employers.

Jennifer Martinez, a fourth-year communications and sociology student, will postpone her return home to Oakland a week in order to work extra hours at her job in the administration office at Dreyfuss Construction in Culver City.

“I’m one of those students who cannot not work,” said Martinez, who recently burned compact discs for her father’s birthday because she couldn’t afford the originals.

Since the holiday shopping season began the day after Thanksgiving, also known as Black Friday, consumers have been flooding malls and department stores in hopes of taking advantage of holiday sales that could ease the financial burden of gift-giving.

Sales for the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving totaled over $12 billion, outperforming last year’s results by about 5 percent, according to Shoppertrak, a market watch group.

After taking finals and writing term papers, most students would appreciate three weeks of leisurely vacation, but limited budgets don’t always make this possible.

Moniqua Banks, a third-year political science student, plans on working 12 hours per week at Limited Too in San Diego, where she worked last summer and winter break. The income helps Banks buy gifts for her immediate family; she said she cannot afford to buy gifts for any relatives.

The average individual plans to spend about $750 this year, slightly higher than last year’s estimate of $690, according to a recent Gallup poll. Though the poll doesn’t specify how much college students in particular plan to spend, most will spend far less than the national average.

“I plan on spending about 30 dollars a person,” said Zahed Amin, a third-year history student.

Though Amin is Muslim and doesn’t celebrate Christmas, he still returns to his job at a JCPenney in his hometown of San Jose every winter break to buy presents for his friends.

With rent, books and various bills, other UCLA students worry they won’t have any money to spend on gifts this winter.

“I’m freaking out about money for buying gifts this quarter,” said Shelli Griss, a fourth-year communications student.