Unwanted gift recycling 6 March 2006 at 8:37PM in Money Saving Polls 19 replies 3.2K views

Former_MSE_Andrea

Poll started 7 March 2006: Unwanted gift recycling - Aunt Millie's given you a woolly jumper you hate for your birthday but you know someone the neckline would suit perfectly - would you regift it? Which one of these is the nearest fit to your answer?

a. Never! It's a present. I'd keep it, whether I liked it or not
b. Of course! It'd be silly to waste it
c. Wish I could! Nice idea in theory, but I'd panic they'd find out
d. Re-gift revolutionary! I do it all the time
e. Never again! I did it before and got caught out

Vote here or click reply to discuss

trippy

I have this conversation a lot with people. If I have spent my money on a present for someone, I would personally find it a bit insulting if it's just put away in a cupboard and ignored. So I always say to recipients to let me know if it's not appropriate so they can take it back and change it for something else as I would prefer not to have wasted my money. If I found out that a recipient had passed on a gift I had given that would be ok as it shows the person has respected the fact that I've spent my money on it and is putting it to good use - even if it wasn't quite the one I'd intended! If the recipient was able to pass it on and as such save the cost of buying a gift himself for the next person, that's enough of a gift for me to have given them!

Kim141179

I'm a teacher so I get lots of lovely gifts for Christmas from the children that I just can't use..mostly smellies, which I'm really allergic to. I couldn't possibly give these back cos it would break their little hearts and offend their parents. So these do get recycled, though I wouldn't do this for anyone else's gifts. (Just make sure you put a Post It on the gifts before you store them so you remember who gave you them in the first place! )

mrcow

If I can't take it back to the store for a refund/vouchers/exchange, then it's recycle / Ebay all the way.........:o

sausagefans

Has anyone managed to accidentally give the same present back to the person who gave it to them in the first place?

I took a bottle of wine round to someone's house when we went for dinner, unfortunately they had bought the wine round to ours when they came for dinner!

amazon_spice

I really want to be a "D" but voted "C" scaredy cat!!! LOL

golddustmedia

Christmas always brings lots of boxes of chocolate... as much as I'd love to eat them I'm probably happier with biscuits or a regular choccy bar so they go in a kitchen cupboard fo use as presents... generally last until about Easter and saves me about £50 in buying house warming/new baby/thankyou type gifts!

The other useless rubbish goes on ebay.... I mean seriously my partner got hair straightners for Christmas... She's got perfectly straight her already!

highguyuk

Its no problem recycling gifts. Vouchers are not so easy. I have £25 worth of M&S vouchers. Thats alot of money to waste. Can I use these elsewhere?

gillG_3

When I was 17ish and my mum was 39, we liked some of the same stuff - now she's 65 and Im 42, we don't and she keeps buying me granny stuff - I have told her not to buy me clothes (it was getting scary!) and she started to give me vouchers for eg. monsoon. Great!! but now shes swapped to jewellrey and she just buys what she likes. Im not THAT old yet!! Don't want to sound ungrateful, don't want her to waste her money but dont want to upset her and can't really recycle - any ideas?????

gillG_3

highguyuk wrote:

Its no problem recycling gifts. Vouchers are not so easy. I have £25 worth of M&S vouchers. Thats alot of money to waste. Can I use these elsewhere?

I assume you can buy food with them? or at least stock up on your socks!!!!!

Murtle

vouchers are great, for stores you don't like use them to buy someone else a present!!! Espcecially in M&S at Christmas with their food selection, wait till it's reduced of course!!

Gill, why can't you recycle - I'm sure she won't remember!! or use the oh I've leant that to a friend she really liked it, must remember to get it back sometime line!!!

I recycle gifts I don't want, I wouldn't be offended if someone recycled a gift I gave them. Secret Santa gifts in our office all got swapped round so everyone ended up with something they liked!! The christmas mugs were something else, no one wanted those and we couldn't leave them in the office cause they were a nightmare!!!