stub
HomeSpendingGive This Gift If You Want To Piss Off Your Husband

Give This Gift If You Want To Piss Off Your Husband

I love getting surprises, but there’s one I wouldn’t be too thrilled with. If Lauren ever does this to me, we’d have a problem.

I love the enthusiasm, but I’m pretty sure major purchases shouldn’t be surprises. Surprise, I just locked you into a $30,000 contract and you’re going to be paying someone else every single month for the next 5 years!

Gifts That Keep on Taking

There are a few other gifts that work in similar ways. While it may seem very generous, an xbox 360 for example is sweet because it’s expensive and you may not have been willing to pay for it yourself. But, there’s another side to it. You’re now responsible for buying games to go along with it, and at $50/each, the costs can add up. And you don’t want to waste a brand new, xbox, right?

Similarly, getting someone a nice picture without a frame kinda sucks because you’re forcing them to spend on getting it framed, which can definitely be expensive.

Be smart with your gifts, don’t give gifts that will cost the other person money. And if you’re in a relationship and buying a gift with shared money, don’t buy something really expensive that the receiver will have to share the costs of.

Readers, do you hate gifts that keep on taking? What other terrible gifts have you gotten?

RELATED ARTICLES

10 COMMENTS

  1. Last year a few friends decided that because I like Harry Potter so much, they would all get me Harry Potter themed gifts. That was a cool of them, except several friends just went to the store and picked out things that just said “Harry Potter”, even though they were items I would never get any use out of. I appreciated the gesture, but I was kind of annoyed that I now have four or five items of Harry Potter merchandise that have nothing to do with Harry Potter aside from the name stamped to the package, and that really have no personal connection with me, such as a Harry Potter Sculpting Kit, a Harry Potter Coloring Book and a Harry Potter Junior Film Novelization (you know, a version of the movie, written down, and watered down for Kids– having read the books, why would I want that?). Now several friends really put some thought into it and got me things like The Harry Potter Cookbook (I’m the cook in our group of friends) and a book about the psychology and themes of Harry Potter which I loved… but all in all, it felt like the majority of my friends thought that just getting something with “Harry Potter” on it would have been better than a practical, non-branded gift. I was happy to get any gifts at all, but I would have preferred items I could have actually used.

  2. Well, okay, but aren’t you making (sexist)assumptions? Maybe the wife in the ad is a Wall St. Executive who just got a million dollar bonus. Then, the present would be quite a good one!

    And to Kat, who responded about the Harry Potter gifts. I get it completely and you’ve got a good point. I just hope your friends don’t read this blog.

  3. I hate these kinds of gifts where the giver doesn’t really think about the recurring expense they just gifted upon you.

    Off the top of my head:

    HD Receiver for your satelite forcing you to upgrade your TV package

    Blu-Ray Player so you have to upgrade your DVD collection.

    Keurig or Tassimo home brewer. The individual K-cups and T-Discs are nearly $1 a piece.

    Satelite Radio for your car. Subscriptions are between $7 and $20 per month.

    Those are all better than a Lexus payment though.

  4. My family and friends feel pretty serious about this too. We won’t give a gift certificate for a meal or a service if there’s no way to include tip, for example. And a few years ago my mom got my dad satellite radio, but she also got him the subscription for the year and she’s renewed it for him every year since.

  5. Yep, that would put a strain on the marriage, a stupid gift like that. How about a bread machine? Smaller scale than a Lexus, but now you have to buy special flour to go with it, and it will take up space in kitchen cupboards.

  6. If your wife gets you a $30K Lexus you either:

    1. Have a wife who makes tons of money and cost is no problem
    2. Have a wife who has no concept of finances in which case you really have a much larger problem on your hands

    As for receiving gifts from friends that require additional purchases, don’t use them and eventually after a year or so, list them on CraigsList. If asked, say you ran out of room or the item broke. Unless its a really close friend, they aren’t going to know if it’s still in your house or not.

  7. Saw this commercial the other day and it bothered me too…sad thing is that some people who can’t afford it will go out and do this

  8. It bugs me when people don’t think of recurring expenses.

    I live with two roommates. When I was out of town (actually, at FINCON), they bought a Swiffer as a “group expense.”

    Now, a Swiffer requires you to buy special brand-specific “swiffer pads” that are disposable after each use, PLUS special brand-specific “swiffer solution” that attaches to the mop.

    In other words, it locks you into buying only Swiffer-brand recurring expenses for life. And as you can imagine, those aren’t cheap.

    Their purchase was an insight that many people don’t think about recurring costs.

Comments are closed.

Most Popular

Recent Comments