Save Money - Don’t Buy Gifts
With Fathers Day just around the corner I thought I would share my tip on saving money when it comes to gift-giving:
DON’T DO IT.
Buying gifts for people (even family) is a fast-track to losing a lot of money. Think about all the times that you are required throughout the year to buy gifts:
- Birthdays
- Christmas
- Easter
- Valentines Day
- Mothers Day
- Fathers Day
The list, I am sure, goes on. And now think about how many people you buy gifts for. All that gift buying needs to be funded some how. And that some how is your future.
Businesses and marketers love those days and there is a good reason: people spend millions on gifts for others. And why? Because they are basically forced too. Society dictates that you buy your Mother a gift for Mothers Day otherwise you are just a bad son or daughter. Didn’t bring any gifts for anyone for Christmas? Judas!
But why should you spend so much on these gifts? When you could keep that money and save it for your retirement.
There are many other ways to show you care about someone other than buying gifts for them. Several comes to mind: make them something instead, call them to tell them how much you love them, simply spend some time with them, and I am sure there are many others. All it takes is a little bit of imagination and effort.
Every time I mention this to people I always seem to get the question: ‘Don’t you feel bad when someone else buys you something and you don’t have anything to give them in return?’ Well, to be honest, no, I don’t. And there is one good reason for this. Gift-giving isn’t suppose to be about getting something. It’s suppose to be about giving something.
If someone wants to give me something because they want to, who am I to deny them of that pleasure? But I will not feel bad just because they expect something in return. In fact, if they do, I think they should feel bad.
And trust me when I tell you that after a couple of times of not giving someone a gift, you will stop receiving any from them soon enough. So after a while you will no longer have to feel bad (assuming that you do).
If after that rant you still feel like buying someone gifts then maybe restrict who you do buy for or for what occasions you buy for, or both! Instead of every member in your family buying a gift for every other member of your family at Christmas, maybe decide beforehand to only buy for one other person (drawing names randomly out of a hat is a good way to do this).
There are many ways you can stop or reduce your gift-buying, and you will be doing your bank account and your future a big favour.
If after all this you still want to buy everyone a gift for every holiday imaginable then have you thought about budgeting for it? All you will need to do is to write down everyone you buy a present for and for each occasion you buy one for each person for the year and assign a value to each gift, then total this up. This may just shock you enough to stop buying so many gifts!
Once you have the total for the year, simply divide this into monthly, fortnightly or weekly expenditure depending on your budget and place this much away each pay. That way, you will not be blowing your budget each time there is a gift to be bought.
Do you still give gifts? If so, have you ever thought about giving up on it?
Image credit: JasperYue
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