Present buying etiquette

Rachel85

I, like many OS money savers, regularly buy birthday and Christmas presents many months in advance when I see a bargain. Unlike my friend who has boxes and boxes of ungiven gifts, I always make sure what I buy is bought specifically for someone rather than just buying random things just cos they're cheap.

Anyway, with a few of my friends I have unwritten guidelines about how much to spend, generally #5-10. However, if you get a bargain do you spend the same amount and give more or give to the same value having spent less. ie. If I expect to spend a tenner but find something perfect reduced from #10 to #5, so I buy something else costing an extra #5 or pocket the savings? Generally I try to get it somewhere in the middle, so spent #7 or #8 but get something which would/should have cost #12ish, so everyone wins. But I have been known to pocket the difference..

At the end of the day I know its not the cost but the thought that counts, I was just wondering what your opinions were..

Ps: # should be a pound sign but keyboad broken.

Lucie_2

Don't think about cost, think about value

thriftlady_2

I would definitely not buy some thing else to make up the intended cost.What's the point of the bargain otherwise?

Cost of gift comes way below 'rightness' of the gift for recipient for me.

sophiesmum_2

I always pocket the difference. If you aren't going to save anything by buying something in a sale etc why bother. Ilike to buy gifts in advance in sales etc but always have someone in mind when I buy something.
The recipient doesn't know what you paid for the gift only its value.
Go ahead and get your bargains.
sophiesmum

Rachel85

But bargains do enable you to give lots more within 'budget'..

Although I nearly always just pocket the difference ;-)

Sweet_Pea_2

I agree with above, except - it seems to me that whenever I get a bargain for SIL or her family, they always ask for the receipt because they want to change the item. Therefore a) they know what I spent and they then reduce what they spend on us in return, (but dont look for bargains like I do, so the presents are getting more and more miserly as they years roll by) b) complain because the period in which they can return the item has passed so I then end up taking the item off them and giving cash instead, so it ends up costing me more.
For them only I buy full price items close to the birthday or whatever occasion it is and I now always give her the receipt in an envelope. For everyone else I grab a bargain when I spot one and stash until the appropriate date.

Penny-Pincher!!

Value not cost:D

PP
xx

Rachel85

I hate it wen people ask for the receipts. As I'm a student, people don't generally do that because they know it'll be cheap and not worth returning. :-/

I am keeping an eye out for a christmas present for my mother-in-law-to-be. After she complained at being bought a very expensive PC last Christmas there is a budget of a pound or under!

Spendless

pocket the difference for me too.
sweet-pea do you holiday abroad? pick your bargains up there for that side of the family, then they can't return it :rotfl:

MATH

I often buy in sales or when I see something suitable and have a person in mind for the gift. I also bulk buy generic male/female/child gifts for the gift cupboard when I see them at silly prices and this has proved a real time and moneysaver. I always have a budget for each person and buy up to that value not cost.

auditbabe

I have a band of friends and family where we spend only a £1 for Christmas and birthdays, I get a real buzz from looking for cheap gifts that are personal to the person concerned. to me it is nor the value of the gift bur the thought behind it. Was it purchased for me or bought because it will do.