Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

How to Handle Someone Who Gives Too Many Gifts

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First world problems, right?  How can you complain about someone who gives too many gifts?

Believe it or not, that’s something I’ve struggled with during the holiday season.  I have one relative who, simply put, is buying too many gifts for me, my husband and my kids.

Handle Someone Who Gives Too Many Gifts

How to Handle Someone Who Gives Too Many Gifts

If this relative was independently wealthy, that would be one thing, but I know that she’s also trying to save money for some home repairs and a trip of a lifetime to Europe.  I wish she would buy each of us just one gift and put the rest of the money in her vacation fund.

Do you also have problems with someone in your life who buys too many presents?

If so, there are things you can do.  (Though you’ll probably want to implement most of these suggestions AFTER this holiday season.)

 

Set a Gift Giving Limit

Most people buy gifts because they want to be nice, and they want to do something special for you.  However, people can overstep their bounds.  This year between all of my relatives who like to give gifts to our kids, the kids are getting more than enough presents.  Combined with the gifts my husband and I were going to give, my kids were going to have way too many gifts.

I set aside some of the gifts I was going to give; I’ll use them next year.  I also had my mom set aside some of her gifts for birthdays.  I’ve also asked some of the relatives to set a limit of one or two gifts in future years so that our children are not drowning in presents.

Accept and Be Appreciative

Another idea is to simply accept the many gifts and be appreciative.  After all, as Trent Hamm, guest blogger on The Christian Science Monitor, points out, “These gifts are given out of love.”  Hamm, who struggles with his family members giving his kids too many gifts, explains, “People give our kids gifts because they love them so much and it’s their way of expressing it.  For me, telling them  not to do so is akin to saying, ‘Please don’t express your love and caring for our children.’”

Handle Someone Who Gives Too Many Gifts
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

If someone like a grandparent routinely goes overboard with the gift giving, you can reduce the number of presents that you get your kids and save money.  You can just reap the benefits of saving money, or you can take the cash that you saved by not buying so many gifts and instead give the cash as a present to the prodigious gift giver.  Everything comes full circle this way.

Direct the Giver’s Generosity

I remember when I was little, my mom’s friend wanted to get me a Christmas present.  She got me Green Eggs and Ham since I was a prolific reader, but  I was well beyond that book.  Too often, people try to be generous by giving a present, but the gift they give is not necessarily what the recipient needs or wants.

You can direct the gift giver’s generosity by steering her to a wish list.  You could create it on Amazon, and then you would be able to keep track of what has been bought, and you could also have some say in the plethora of presents coming into your house.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to handle someone who gives too many gifts requires tact and patience.  While the situation may be frustrating now, the time will likely come when that person, especially if it is a grandparent, will be gone, and you’ll wish you had this problem.  Be grateful, and use one of the suggestions above to try to stem the tide of gifts, even if that person isn’t willing to change.

Read More

How to Turn Unwanted Christmas Gifts Into Cash

5 Best Subscription Gifts for Kids

Easy Ways to Earn, Make, and Give Free or Cheap Gifts

Do you struggle with well-meaning relatives buying too many gifts?  If so, how do you handle the situation?

 

3 Strategies to Keep Track of Your Purchases To Save Money

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I’m a big fan of buying in advance for items that I know that I’ll need.  For years when my kids were little, I’d go out shopping a day or two after Halloween to buy my kids discounted Halloween costumes for the next year.  I never paid full price for a Halloween costume, and after Halloween was over and the kids were done with the costume, I sold the costumes on eBay for close to the price I paid.

That’s the way I like to shop, and I know it’s how many others shop, too.  After all, shopping this way is a smart strategy to stretch your dollars.

The problem is that as life gets busier as the kids grow older, I’ve found that sometimes I forget what I bought in advance.  Then, I desperately go out shopping for the item I need, not realizing I had already bought it in advance.

track purchases
Track Your Purchases

Case in point: Last year, right after Christmas, I bought my daughter a green ruffled dress on clearance at a steal for this year’s Christmas.  But, I forgot I bought that dress, and come November, I spent a lot of my time searching children’s resale stores for a dress that wasn’t unreasonably priced.  I had no luck.  A few weeks ago, I was digging through some storage tubs in my closet, and I found the dress.

So this year, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to implement a strategy to keep track of all of my deals.  Here are some techniques I plan to use:

Keep all of the deals in one location.  I have a corner of my walk in closet where I keep a large storage tub filled with discounted items I buy whenever I see a good sale on things I’ll need later.  I use these items for my kids’ birthday and Christmas presents.  I have added another tub to this one.  I’ll store other items like seasonal dresses in these tubs so I know everything I’ve bought in advance is in one location.

Keep a spreadsheet of gifts.  Even if you keep all of your items in one location, you don’t want to constantly have to rut through everything to find what you’re looking for.  Keeping a spreadsheet of the items you’ve bought in advance as well as who they are for will make it easy to see at a glance what items you have.  This can also prevent you from overspending and buying more than you need.

Use the libib app to track books.  I frequently give books as gifts.  We also homeschool, so when I see a good sale, I’ll buy books in advance for the next year or two of school.  The free app libib is a great way to keep track of your books.  Simply scan the barcode with your smartphone, and you can create an inventory, even categorizing by person you’ll be giving the book to or genre.  You choose.

Buying things you’ll need in advance is a great way to save money. . .as long as you don’t forget about what you’ve already bought!

Do you buy items in advance?  If so, how do you keep track of them?

 

5 Best Subscription Gifts for Kids

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It’s Christmas morning.  Your kids excitedly rip open their presents, and all day long, you can barely pull them away from their new toys.  If you’re lucky, the excitement lasts a week or two.  But then, unfortunately, the new toys lose their appeal and luster.

Does this sound familiar?

If you want to avoid the kind of gifts that quickly lose their luster, consider giving your child a monthly subscription present.  Then, the joy of Christmas lasts all year long as each month your child will get a new surprise gift!

Here are some you may want to consider:

Surprise Ride

best subscription gifts for kids
Subscription Gifts for Kids

If you have kids who love books and crafts, this may be the subscription service for you (and them)!  Each Surprise Ride box includes two activities, a book and a snack, and extras.  A recent Surprise Ride with a polar bears theme included the supplies to make a polar bear habitat and a polar bear coaster, a Magic Treehouse polar bear book and ice cream snack, and polar bear bracelet and snowflake game. All activities are designed for kids 5 and up.  You can get the monthly subscription or pay for 6 months upfront for a $40 savings, or 12 months upfront for a $60 savings.

Foodstirs

Perfect for your little food enthusiast, aged 5 to 12 years.  Each month, Foodstirs will send a kit to bake a sweet treat.  The ingredients are organic and do not contain artificial dyes or flavors.  Some kits available at the holiday season include the Very Merry Gingerbread Cookie Kit and Holiday Tree Brownie Kit.  Kits are shipped for free, and when you subscribe for a 3, 6, or 12 month box, you can receive up to 28% off the retail price.

Pley

How much fun would it be to get a new toy to play with every month?  That’s the premise behind Pley.  You choose a toy for your child from 500+ toys available for children from 0-12 years old.  Your child plays with the toy for a month; then you send it back and get a new one!  Avoid toy clutter in your home, and your child won’t bore of his toys!

Little Passports

Little Passports offers four different subscriptions: Early Explorers (ages 3 to 5), World Edition (ages 6 to 10), USA Edition (ages 7 to 12), and Science Expeditions (ages 9+).  The first three subscriptions focus on geography, and the latter on science.  The geography subscriptions include stickers for your child’s passport, souvenirs, photos, letters from the travelers, and online games.  Subscriptions are available for a variety of months and are cheaper when you commit to a 12 month subscription.

Kiwi Crate

Kiwi Crate offers monthly subscriptions for five levels, from ages 0 to 16.  Choose the crate that you would like.  For instance, in the Doodle Crate, for ages 9 to 16, your child can learn how and build their own clock with the supplies given!  A Tinker Crate for ages 9 to 16 offers a STEM project like creating a hydraulic claw.  Kiwi Crate offers subscriptions monthly, for 3 months, for 6 months, and for 12 months again, with the biggest discount going to the longest subscription.

Do your kids subscribe to any subscription services?  If so, which one is your favorite?