So today’s post is a bit
different from my other frugal win of the week (FWOTW) posts.
About 5 or 6 years ago, my
wife and I decided that we no longer needed to exchange gifts. This applied to various occasions such as
Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, and Valentine’s Day. I’ve written in the past about my thoughts on
gift giving during Christmas here, and I still feel like those comments
remain relevant today.
To quote from my previous
post:
One of the best decisions that my wife and I have
made regarding gifts was to just agree not to shop for surprises for each
other. If we really need or want something, we just agree to go and
buy it – no need to connect the purchase to a random “gift giving”
holiday. We already have almost everything we could possibly
want. We are trying to minimize the junk we own. Anything
else would just clutter our home.
Sometimes it is hard for people to understand why I
don’t buy an anniversary gift for my wife, or why she doesn’t get me anything
for my birthday. Our attitudes go against common consumerism
culture. Once you are in a committed relationship with your
significant other, your finances are linked. You are now saving for
financial freedom together. Spending money from our same bank
account doesn’t benefit our financial future in any way. Our best gift to each other is sharing the
common goal of reaching financial freedom together.
Last week I was in the office
lounge eating my homemade food during lunch.
One of my coworkers also brought her lunch struck up a conversation by
asking me how my Christmas shopping has been going. I explained to her that my wife and I decided
years ago just to not worry about getting each other gifts. It was an unnecessary stress that we really
didn’t need and our lives were better off without random gifts. She was a bit surprised to hear that we don’t
participate in giving gifts to each other.
My coworker then started telling me about how difficult it was trying to
find the right gift for her husband while having a hard time balancing the
budget at the same time. She explained
how last Christmas, she was dealing with unemployment and money problems, and
the couple decided not to exchange gifts.
Christmas came and went without any issues. Since she was working this year, she
automatically thought that they were just going to resume the tradition of
giving gifts.
Well, this morning my
coworker excitedly came to me to share that she had a talk with her husband and
they both decided they did NOT need to get each other gifts for Christmas! She told me that she was so relieved after
talking this out with her husband.
There’s no need to break the budget to follow the trends of
society. Christmas is not about giving
gifts.
This holiday season, take the
time to appreciate everything that you already have.
Appreciate your health, your family, and your friendships.
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