GALLUP, N.M., Dec. 20 - Earl Milford put up an artificial Christmas tree in the wooden house on the Navajo reservation near here that he shares with a son and daughter-in-law and their two little girls.

But money is scarce and so are presents. "It's all right," he said, "they know I love them."

Mr. Milford is chronically broke because each month, in what he calls "my ritual," he travels 30 miles to Gallup and visits 16 storefront money-lending shops. Mr. Milford, who is 59 and receives a civil service pension and veteran's disability benefits, doles out some $1,500 monthly to the lenders just to cover the interest on what he had intended several years ago to be short-term "payday loans."