Wednesday, December 12, 2007

In Which Our Heroine Substantially Exceeds Her Gift Budget: A Stream-of-Consciousness Monologue

I love giving people presents. Love it. This is, in fact, one of the reasons I really like earning money--you get to give people bigger presents. I am not one of the PF bloggers who will tell you that I think gift-giving is a stupid, blind-consumerism kind of thing to do. I think gift-giving is a wonderful thing to do.

That said, I'm getting a little excessive at present (so to speak). I'd planned to spend $50 each on my parents, and instead, I have become enamored of the idea of giving them (collectively) a $170 digital picture frame. It's kind of perfect--my mom, in particular, takes a lot of photos, and they're decluttering at present, so I like the space-saving aspect...I've found this Philips digital frame on Amazon at $80 off...it comes with a free memory card that I want to load up with pictures of me & my sister to give them...and I'm kind of rationalizing, but I really want to give them something nice. They gave me life! I'm buying it. I'll use the Prosper ad money to make up the difference between the budget and the actual price.

...The thing is, I know that I'll also want to give them something little each. I already bought my mother a cameo bookmark off Etsy for $10, and I'll want to get my dad something little individually as well.

Oh, actually, here's what I'll do: I'll invite my sister to go in on it with me. If she wants to split the cost, then all is budgetary sweetness and light. If not, I'll use the Prosper money and see if I can reduce spending in some other nook or cranny of my gift budget. Or (more likely) just cashflow the difference.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That sounds like a great idea. Your money is for what you want to spend it on- if gifts are that important to you, then you should certainly go ahead and spend the money on them. Plus $170 isn't THAT crazy. One of my coworkers bought her parents a flat screen tv last christmas for $2k.

Anonymous said...

$170 isn't so bad. I think that wanting to give gifts because you love people can be the source of horrible financial situation (people taking out payday loans to cover Christmas and whatnot).

But I also think that wanting to give people thinks that they'll love because you love them is a perfectly normal and laudable desire. As long as you don't think the price tag has to be XX to match the relationship, then you're on a great relational track. The only goal is to find ways to keep it from totally screwing up your budget. ;)

I think talking to your sister sounds like a good idea.

E.C. said...

Revising your gift budget for the reasons you've described doesn't sound too crazy. A thought, though, is this particular digital frame something really special, or might there be good alternatives? My ex got his brother a nice digital picture frame last year, and it fit just within the $100 limit in their family gift exchange so there might be some deals out there if you search for them.

SavingDiva said...

I also went a little crazy on Christmas presents this year...oh well! :)