Trying to do gift budget what about collections at work?

HairyHandofDartmoor

Can you pretend to put in some money and then cunningly palm it back? Then everyone will think how generous, what a lovely person so and so is, while really you have given nothing (hee hee)!

gerryco

I have a simple rule-of-thumb for office collections - if no-one has died I give nothing. (Although I am willing to contribute towards the cost of the card).

These things are always inequitable - the popular people do well and the less popular are asked to put their hands in their pockets all the time, but end up with nothing when their turn comes.

Birthdays, engagements, marriages, births, christenings etc etc, you name it, there's one happening every week. Too much emphasis is placed on material gifts, and everyone seems to forget that...

IT'S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS!!

hum_lovely

Don't want to change the direction of the thread here but when I left my full time quite well paid job to have our first child 10 yrs ago it only took a few months for my husband to declare we were better off financially with me not working: tights, clothes, shoes, handbags, lunches for this that and the other (before MSE and the bring your own sandwich were around of course!), bus money, fuel insurance tax and car parking etc.... It was the collections part in this thread that reminded me that I spent so much while AT work that it was almost not worth GOING to work! (according to my husband, anyway)

skint_spice

I could believe that hum_lovely especially if you get sucked into all the collections, cake days and lunch groups.
we also split bills equally at group lunches which is annoying when you have one course and one drink and others have 3 courses and 3 drinks but if you joined them it'd bump the bill up further!

hum_lovely

skint_spice wrote: »

I could believe that hum_lovely especially if you get sucked into all the collections, cake days and lunch groups.
we also split bills equally at group lunches which is annoying when you have one course and one drink and others have 3 courses and 3 drinks but if you joined them it'd bump the bill up further!

That's so true - you spend ages trying to find the cheapest thing on the menu only for it to be announced at the end of the meal (usually by someone very senior in the dept and who earns much much more than you) that the bill should be equally split! Cake days, I had forgotten about those too! The day where, for the privilege of it being your birthday, you get to buy things for others, some of whom you don't really like and most of whom (again!) earn loads more than you. Never could fathom the logic of that one!
:rolleyes:

hilstep2000

I'm in a school, and at the end of the summer term this year, it cost me £20! (And that was only putting £1 in every one!)

TillyTrippit

We got to a ridiculous state of affairs in our place - we seemed to be expected to buy a pressie when someone looked as though they might be under the weather!!!

We ended up by having a 'celebrations' fund. Everyone pays £15 per year and this pays for a buffet at Christmas and end of school year.
It pays for the pressies - £10 for every year you have been there for a leaving pressie or a getting married one. If you work closely with a person then you can always add your own gift, but otherwise we are covered - oh yes, if you are off sick for more than a week we will send a little bunch of flowers.
For giving birth you also get a pressie amounting £10 for every year.
This way we are sorted and there are no hidden surprises.
Take care,
Tilly
xx

raq

I also use to hate the BROWN envelope coming around. Many many years ago you HAD to put in £5.00 per person then someone pipe up and said "What if you cannot stretch that far". Then I moved onto another department and it was more relaxed. You did get a lot of coppers. When I was really struggling two years ago I never tookmy purse into work as I never had any reason to. Not complaining I have had a lot of lovely presents but I was only one of them to say this is getting too much.

kami2112

TillyTrippit wrote: »

We ended up by having a 'celebrations' fund. Everyone pays £15 per year and this pays for a buffet at Christmas and end of school year.
It pays for the pressies - £10 for every year you have been there for a leaving pressie or a getting married one. If you work closely with a person then you can always add your own gift, but otherwise we are covered - oh yes, if you are off sick for more than a week we will send a little bunch of flowers.
For giving birth you also get a pressie amounting £10 for every year.
This way we are sorted and there are no hidden surprises.
Take care,
Tilly
xx

This is a good idea and means you can budget whilst keeping your spend to a certain level. Wish we'd done this in my last place.:beer:

CHRIS_D_3

We have a good idea at work. An email is sent round advising of a collection, only those who vote YES would be visited with the dreaded brown envelope.
Of course some would try it on and would still ask, at which time I would appraise the cause - do I want to contribute or not?
If I didn't think the cause was worthy I just say "No Thank You"