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MrKatharsis posted:My uncle has good gift giving/receiving advice: "If I can't eat it, drink it, or smoke it, I don't want it." This is how my husband feels about gifts, he also appreciates replacements for things of his that are worn out so he's still at a net gain of 0 for possessions since he throws the old one out when he gets a new one. He usually gets an article of clothing, some nice booze, and a cigar or two from me and he's happy. His family gets downright offended if we try to buy them gifts ("if I wanted it I'd buy it for myself") so we don't do presents with them. I don't mind. My family is more traditional with gift exchanges but we all keep Amazon wishlists updated throughout the year so it's almost zero effort to find and gift something they actually want and will use.
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Dec 25, 2016 20:07
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I bought my brother a drone for Xmas despite it being something he wouldn't buy for himself and he's been flying it around for the last 45 minutes cause it's really cool and fun. Gift worth isn't based exclusively on utilitarian value. I guess ask me again in an hour once we get the thing stuck in a tree.
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Dec 25, 2016 20:28
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I bought my wife a 2009 civic with low miles. My 7 year old got a donation to his college fund. Then we sat in silence in the living room with the heat set to 64 while packing up our reusable bought on sale fake christmas tree.
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Dec 25, 2016 20:47
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pr0zac posted:I bought my brother a drone for Xmas despite it being something he wouldn't buy for himself and he's been flying it around for the last 45 minutes cause it's really cool and fun. Gift worth isn't based exclusively on utilitarian value. I guess ask me again in an hour once we get the thing stuck in a tree. I've always thought the point of getting someone a gift was getting something they would like/want but can't justify buying for themselves, so unironic A+ job.
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Dec 25, 2016 20:57
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therobit posted:Looks like Planet Money wss wrong; homo economicus do exist, and they post on these forums. Lol at bitching about giving receiving gifts, a very old and important social bonding behavior, because it is not a perfectly efficient use of money and resources. There is a lot more going on than exchange of trinkets.  Maybe it'd be different if I wasn't one of the best paid people in my family(
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Dec 25, 2016 21:36
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22 Eargesplitten posted:I've always thought the point of getting someone a gift was getting something they would like/want but can't justify buying for themselves, so unironic A+ job. Yeah this, I usually tend to the more expensive versions/better brands of things they already buy eg, a slab of good beer for mates who drink the cheapest poo poo they can find, a really good version of a tool dads only got the cheap chinese copy of etc. Seems to work fairly well
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Dec 25, 2016 21:48
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H110Hawk posted:while I bitterly open their presents. Cheers for the mental image. 
Sic Semper Goon fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Dec 25, 2016 |
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Dec 25, 2016 22:00
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Cloks posted:Here's a personal BWM story. Yeah please don't spend hours feeling bags in the toy aisles 
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Dec 26, 2016 00:38
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pr0zac posted:I bought my brother a drone for Xmas despite it being something he wouldn't buy for himself and he's been flying it around for the last 45 minutes cause it's really cool and fun. Gift worth isn't based exclusively on utilitarian value. I guess ask me again in an hour once we get the thing stuck in a tree. I got my dad a little crummy cheap drone toy last year just because I had one myself and they were fun and sub-$20 and my mom and I coordinated a separate, nicer gift for him and instead he spent all his time playing with the drat drone 
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Dec 26, 2016 00:40
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At my in-laws and many presents were opened, but ultimately the one that got the most attention was the $10 Bop-It.
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Dec 26, 2016 00:45
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ate all the Oreos posted:I got my dad a little crummy cheap drone toy last year just because I had one myself and they were fun and sub-$20 and my mom and I coordinated a separate, nicer gift for him and instead he spent all his time playing with the drat drone How complicated are those to fly? My grandpa always loved those balsa wood rubber band planes. He might go wild over one of those.
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Dec 26, 2016 01:02
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My cousin got me a $1 Scratch off ticket that was not a winner; a 2017 trivia calendar, and what appears to be a self-assembled and bound book about the HAARP weather control device in Alaska. It contains chapters with titles like "Ownership: Illuminati or Government? A difference without a distinction." Where does this rank on the gift scale? TIA.
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Dec 26, 2016 01:05
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My friend just got Glenn Beck's Agenda 21 from her aunt. Her aunt apparently knows nothing about her
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Dec 26, 2016 01:23
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Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:My cousin got me a $1 Scratch off ticket that was not a winner; a 2017 trivia calendar, and what appears to be a self-assembled and bound book about the HAARP weather control device in Alaska. It contains chapters with titles like "Ownership: Illuminati or Government? A difference without a distinction." Owns
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Dec 26, 2016 01:23
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My wife got me a leather satchel from Etsy and I cringe to think of the cost. I got her 2 seasons of an canceled 1990's TV drama that isn't on DVD or streaming which I spent 3 weeks braving Polish scammers and cold calling people on Facebook until I found a very nice lady on Facebook who inexplicably kept and digitized 84gb of old VHS tapes. She even edited out the commercials.
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Dec 26, 2016 01:41
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I have to know what show
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Dec 26, 2016 01:44
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The book is pretty great. But I don't know how special it is. On the one hand, he gave a copy to everyone. But on the other, he took the time to collect all these articles, print them out, and pay kinkos to bind 8 or 9 copies of them. That's way more effort than my gift. The concerning thing is that there is nothing prescriptive in these articles. I guess he just wanted us to be aware? But what is our next step?
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Dec 26, 2016 01:57
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Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:The book is pretty great. But I don't know how special it is. On the one hand, he gave a copy to everyone. But on the other, he took the time to collect all these articles, print them out, and pay kinkos to bind 8 or 9 copies of them. That's way more effort than my gift. FYI HAARP is open to the public and gives daily tours, obviously your next step is to go there and take a tour and watch your brother scream in some poor tour guide's face about the secret earthquake alien technology or whatever.
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Dec 26, 2016 02:03
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Krispy Kareem posted:I got her 2 seasons of an canceled 1990's TV drama that isn't on DVD or streaming which I spent 3 weeks braving Polish scammers and cold calling people on Facebook until I found a very nice lady on Facebook who inexplicably kept and digitized 84gb of old VHS tapes. She even edited out the commercials. Droo posted:I have to know what show Same, this owns.
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Dec 26, 2016 02:07
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Droo posted:I have to know what show Homefront. Ran for 2 years and starred a very young Kyle Chandler and a younger Dr. Kelso. I found someone on IMDB who claimed to have the show and would sell me DVD rips and here is the PayPal and he's in Poland and that's not a scam at all.
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Dec 26, 2016 02:08
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22 Eargesplitten posted:How complicated are those to fly? My grandpa always loved those balsa wood rubber band planes. He might go wild over one of those. I've only used the little toy one I got but it was super easy to learn, the thing stays stable on its own indoors so all you have to do is get comfortable with making it take off without launching itself forcefully into the ceiling (which is entertaining at least) and then steering it around without running its spinning (but harmless) blades into anyone's legs.
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Dec 26, 2016 02:30
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Krispy Kareem posted:Homefront. Ran for 2 years and starred a very young Kyle Chandler and a younger Dr. Kelso. Ask him if he has Cupid
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Dec 26, 2016 04:51
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My sister had a boyfriend who's Mom was forever in financial dire straits. Yet every Christmas, Birthday, and Easter she would gift him a Snowbaby. 1. Literally nobody needs a Snowbaby 2. Certainly not a 22 year old dude in college Even the "nice thought" angle goes out the window when the rest of the year she's calling him in a financial crisis. Might as well spend all her money on candles.  I think some of you are misinterpreting the gift opinions in this thread. If you can play with it or get some enjoyment out of it, that is utility. The gifts I don't want are things like bad smelling incense, or the 15th turtle figurine of the year, or yet another hat after my husband has said "NO MORE HATS" the last 10 years. I like thoughtful gifts, and consumables or experiences are always great, but another thing that doesn't bring me any joy/entertainment nor makes my life any easier (especially if it is heavy) is a bit of a burden. Now I have to find a gift to maintain this social dance, which is way more difficult when you're trying not to get cheap throwaway "gift for the sake of a gift" that's just going to end up in a landfill. My in-laws moved their old furniture into our flat when they sold theirs (GWM, we got a full house of beautiful furniture) but one of the cabinets is entirely full of "gifts." That's my mother in law, she's wonderful but the gifting of generic dumb crap doesn't do it for me.
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Dec 26, 2016 05:43
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Banned for untagged NMS
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Dec 26, 2016 05:54
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Oh great I got money. From family members who combined make less than I do. From any sort of reasonable measure of utility, the world is worse off.
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Dec 26, 2016 06:26
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I've bought display cabinet gifts before where their only function is to sit in a glass cupboard and look pretty and to remind people that we've been to (insert vacation country here).
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Dec 26, 2016 06:32
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NancyPants posted:I don't get Christmas. I'm not a children, so I buy my own toys. I know I'm a little late for this but no, you are not. I am. Identity theft is a crime, one that is very BWM if you get caught. Please stay safe during the holidays, everyone. On topic: My parents got me a magnetic knife bar. A very nice gift, but literally the only place I will be able to put it in my tiny kitchen is a wall that is adjacent to the handle of my microwave door, at the perfect height to accidentally slash my arm. I'll probably just wait until I move to use it...
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Dec 26, 2016 06:43
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Not a Children posted:I know I'm a little late for this but no, you are not. I am. Identity theft is a crime, one that is very BWM if you get caught. Please stay safe during the holidays, everyone.  We all exchanged equal amounts of cash and sat stony faced around a pot of cabbage soup as is the Pants family Christmas tradition, it was a good year.
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Dec 26, 2016 07:00
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I gave my wife a ridiculously expensive bag. She gave me nothing. Both of us are happy about it.
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Dec 26, 2016 08:19
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No one loving cares about you or your SO or your family get each other. Stop humble bragging you cunts. On a very related note: quote:I am trying to buy my girlfriend a record player for $350 before the new year. I have none of the money and only 6 days to get it. I tried working 7 days a week at my job of being a gymnastics coach but I am pulling myself out of debt. Is there a way for me to make that much money in 6 days? Suspicious Lump fucked around with this message at 09:33 on Dec 26, 2016 |
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Dec 26, 2016 09:26
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Not a Children posted:On topic: My parents got me a magnetic knife bar. A very nice gift, but literally the only place I will be able to put it in my tiny kitchen is a wall that is adjacent to the handle of my microwave door, at the perfect height to accidentally slash my arm. I'll probably just wait until I move to use it... One year my weirdest aunt got me a couple very nice ceramic knives and a magnetic knife bar. I'm not sure if it's weirder to think that she didn't realize I couldn't use ceramic knives on the knife bar, or that she hadn't realized she got me two knife-related presents and thought I independently needed both of those things.
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Dec 26, 2016 10:38
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I got my mom a mug to replace one she had broken about a week earlier.
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Dec 26, 2016 11:38
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Not a Children posted:
Ceiling knives are a thing.
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Dec 26, 2016 12:13
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Suspicious Lump posted:No one loving cares about you or your SO or your family get each other. sorry next time I'll frame all my seasonal and thread-relevant stories as MY FRIEND lest I get labeled a humblebragger  Americans with holiday debt added $986 in debt on average. UK debt report from last year: quote:British households are nursing a 'New Year debt hangover'' after embarking on the biggest borrowing binge in a decade in the run up to Christmas. 2016 US Christmas debt: quote:According to global performance-management company, Gallup, the average American adult will spend around $785 on gifts this Christmas, up from the $728 they planned to spend in 2015.
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Dec 26, 2016 13:14
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But whyyyyy... I love gift giving but that is ridiculous. This isn't some anecdote of some particularly bwm person. This is the norm?
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Dec 26, 2016 13:47
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Switchback posted:My sister had a boyfriend who's Mom was forever in financial dire straits. Yet every Christmas, Birthday, and Easter she would gift him a Snowbaby. That owns, I am going to buy them for everyone I hate but am obligated to gift with.
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Dec 26, 2016 14:58
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Doesn't gift giving kind of qualify as a game? Yes, it's an inefficient system, but you're also seeing how good of a gifter you are and judging the other person's reaction. And probably even "beating" them when their gift to you falls short of expectations. Maybe that moves to the needle a smidgen towards efficiency. And holy poo poo I never knew something like snow bunnies even existed. monster on a stick posted:Ask him if he has Cupid I'm sure he has everything, including that Jerry Lewis Holocaust clown movie for $40 (plus $10 in shipping) to his Polish PayPal payable as a gift so there are no fees and no recourse.
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Dec 26, 2016 16:25
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My mom funded her Christmas shopping this year with $500 she won at a bar on some 1 dollar per roll dice game. She also got me lots of things from TJ Maxx, and the price tags were still on them and pretty heavily discounted. I feel like this is the first time I've ever been able to say my mom has been good with money about something. Big picture she's pretty bad with money. She got me a gift card for Target too, which is okay. At least it's somewhere I'll sometimes go. I appreciate it, and I'm sure a lot of you feel the same way, but I'd rather just get cash if I had the choice and be able to spend it, or not spend it, where I like. Sort of on topic. I was talking with my dad about insurance the other day, and he was telling me about some kind of health savings plan he had through his job for a really long time. If the employee put money into the account, the company would double the amount to put into the account up to $160 per month. So if the employee put $40 in, the company would put $80 in. If the employee put in $80, the company would put in $160, but if the employee put $200 in, the company still only put $160 in. He made sure to always get the max company match in that plan. He just retired at 62 and can't get medicare yet so he's getting his insurance through COBRA. Turns out he has like $25000 in that health plan saved up and he's just been using that to pay his premiums every month. I've never heard of a plan like that, and my dad couldn't remember the name of it. I mean, it sounds like an HSA but as far as I know those don't have employer matches. BAE OF PIGS fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Dec 26, 2016 |
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Dec 26, 2016 16:31
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I'm amazed that Americans only spend 785 bucks, honestly. My family and in-laws go nuts at Christmas. I was bad this year (got people things), but usually the big present to everyone is home-baked goodies. Everyone loves a fresh tray of cookies.
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Dec 26, 2016 16:36
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My retired MiL wants to get a part time job despite the fact she and my FiL have government pensions and social security they are collecting, she refuses to cut her spending to match their income. Insists on drinking 1 or 2 three dollar ice teas from Starbucks every day. Still has mortgage and a car loan. 
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Dec 26, 2016 16:46
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