Money Moral Dilemma: Should I charge my mum for using my gift card to buy present for my kids?

Pollycat

dashboard wrote: »

Did you use your mum as a convenience to offload the gift card that you were struggling to use? if so then a discount on it would be fairer than charging the full amount.
'Darkness is cheap and Scrooge liked it'

Spendless wrote: »

I was wondering the same thing. I'm reminded of when my teenage daughter won £45 worth of Waterstone giftcards for 3 x 1st places at a drama festival and then talked me into buying them all off of her for the full amount so she could spend the cash on make up!. :think::rotfl:

See, that's the thing.


Nobody knows the circumstances under which this voucher was used.
It may be that the Mum had chosen the gifts and was on the way to the cash desk when the originator of the dilemma said 'Oh, hang on. I've got a gift card for that amount. You can pay with that.'
Anybody in that situation (the Mum) would be - imho - very mean minded if she thought that she had the benefit of the gift voucher for nothing.


After all, the author of the dilemma earned it at work so she (not the Mum) should should have the benefit of it.

SarahLou36

Depends on the situation.
If money was tight, I would have asked my mum if she minded paying for the gifts with my gift card and reimbursing me the cash. I know my Mum would be fine with this as she is spending the money either way so would be happy to help me out as well!
However, if money wasn’t tight and I didn’t plan on using the gift card anytime soon I would be happy for my Mum to use it and wouldn’t expect anything in return. The money is being spend on my children anyway and it saves my mum a little money 😊

Pollycat

SarahLou36 wrote: »

Depends on the situation.
If money was tight, I would have asked my mum if she minded paying for the gifts with my gift card and reimbursing me the cash. I know my Mum would be fine with this as she is spending the money either way so would be happy to help me out as well!
However, if money wasn’t tight and I didn’t plan on using the gift card anytime soon I would be happy for my Mum to use it and wouldn’t expect anything in return. The money is being spend on my children anyway and it saves my mum a little money ��

But what if money isn't tight for the Mum?
Why should she get the benefit of the gift card when the author of the dilemma earned it at work?

1trainer1

it was YOUR choice to let mum use the gift card, she would have paid the same with or without gift card, i recently went shopping to Costco and bought some stuff for my mum, dropped it off at my mum's house when i went to visit and took no payment from my mum as it was my choice to do that.

Pollycat

1trainer1 wrote: »

it was YOUR choice to let mum use the gift card, she would have paid the same with or without gift card, i recently went shopping to Costco and bought some stuff for my mum, dropped it off at my mum's house when i went to visit and took no payment from my mum as it was my choice to do that.

Not the same scenario at all.


The Mum was buying gifts for the author of this dilemma's kids.
If the Mum doesn't pay in full, the author of the dilemma would have paid for some of the gifts from their Grandparent.
Fair?
I think not.

devil_tez

If you really feel this is a dilemma then you shouldn't have used the gift card and kept if for yourself. If you weren't likely to use the gift card yourself then you should have let your mother use it and deducted it from what she owed. A gift card that you were given for free is a nice gesture to help out your mother over the Christmas period. I would definitely let my mother use any gift cards I have lying around to help with her Christmas shopping and if you were shopping with her and ensuring she bought things for your kids that they actually wanted then she was helping you to reduce the size of your kids wish lists and any way you can help her out will be helping to ensure your kids get what they want for Christmas.

Qwinnie73

Am i really seeing people on here say that you should not charge the full amount for the presents based on the fact that she blew your nose, changed your nappies, fed you and did all the things any proper parent would??
So are we really saying that as a adult we need to repay our parents for being good parents, because if this is the case then then the world is really cracking up!!!
Of course your mother should pay the full bill for the presents or you have bought these and not her.
If this was a coffee and cake you purchased then yes i would agree with the few that say she shouldn't have to pay, but for shopping that she wanted the YES OF COURSE SHE SHOULD, come on common sense people.
It a no brainer really.

gloriouslyhappy

chesky wrote: »

Why didn't you just let her pay in the normal way, instead of complicating things?

Martin's advice is to spend gift cards quickly, so this seems like a good convenience all round, and of course the mum should pay full value for her purchases, whatever the method of payment. Using the daughter's credit card instead of her own might be because the daughter gets reward points in that shop - have you never been shopping with a friend in a shop where you don't have that shop's reward card but your friend does, and you've told your friend to use hers on your purchases so the points weren't lost? A fairly common occurrance, I would have thought.

JamJar

Yup.....no brainer!

Hannimal

Wouldn't dare to make my mum pay - if I pay when we are out, I don't let her pay back. She has paid enough for me over the years