In "A Christmas Memory," what obstacle must Buddy and his cousin overcome to make their gifts?

This nostalgic memory of a childhood Christmas is
remarkable for a number of reasons, but one is the context in which the memory is set.
It is clear that Buddy and his cousin come from a poor background, which makes their
feat of baking over thirty cakes impressive, to say the least. The story narrates the
various challenges that they have to overcome in order to buy or obtain the ingredients
that they need in order to bake the cakes, and the detail provided shows what obstacles
they need to overcome. Consider, for example, the way that they save all year to get the
ingredients that cannot be obtained in any other way:

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But one way and another we do each year
accumulate Christmas savings, a Fruitcake Fund. These moneys we keep hidden in a n
ancient bead purse under a loose board under the floor under a chamber pot under my
friend's bed. The purse is seldom removed from this safe location except to make a
deposit, or, as happens every Saturday, a
withdrawal...

The way that
this money is carefully and painstakingly collected is made clear. Throughout the year,
Buddy and his cousin have engaged in every kind of employment possible to earn a few
more pennies, such as killing flies. It is clear that baking these cakes becomes a
year-long endeavour, with many individual obstacles to overcome, but most of all, the
poverty of Buddy and his cousin is the biggest challenge.