There is an advantage to being broke at Christmas

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1078098_63766690I know that sounds weird, but I was thinking about all the years when I have to struggle to get gifts for people.

When you have money, or access to money as in credit – you just buy stuff. It doesn’t really seem to matter that much.

When you don’t have money – it requires thought.

When I had money, I just bought a bunch of stuff – and none of it seemed to be appreciated all that much. One year I bought my daughter some robot dog. She loved dogs and I thought this would be great fun. She never programmed it.

One year when I was broke, my daughter was dying for a particular hoodie from a store called Buckle. If you have never heard of it, it is a very expensive store. I could not afford a $120 hoodie.

I searched online trying to find something comparable for less. No luck.

I finally broke down and went into the store. My heart broke with every rack. But I kept being drawn to a hoodie they had on the mannequin. I could not find it on the rack, and with good reason – when I dug out the price tag, it was only $59, which under the circumstances was a real steal! It was nothing like what she wanted, but it was cool. I got the one off the display.

I was going to have to eat nothing but spaghetti for a couple of weeks, but I felt it was worth it. (my spaghetti is really cheap.)

I held my breath as she opened it. You could see the disappointment – it wasn’t the one she wanted. She graciously said, “Oh, that’s nice.”

I was heartbroken, but I said, “Try it on.”

It fit her great! But she was determined to hold on to the disappointment. Oh well… I tried my best.

She wore it the next day. She decided that it looked pretty good. She still wears it, and its years later.

The funny thing is, later that year, she got one similar to the one she wanted. She wore it for a while, but it was just OK.

I don’t know if you read the Great Gifts post, but I put a lot of thought into the coffee pot that I bought her for her birthday this year. It wasn’t the most popular (and expensive) choice, but it was a choice that would serve her much better.

It might have been the same year when I was trying to come up with an idea for my sister and her boyfriend. They had helped me a lot over the last couple of years, and I didn’t want to not have something for them.

My sister has a lot of health problems. Her boyfriend at the time was very overweight. They talked a lot about changing their diet, but never really took action.

I put together seasoning packets for my spaghetti recipe. I measured out the spices into baggies so all they would have to do is dump it in. I got the canned tomatoes, paste, and noodles. All they would have to do is add meat if they chose to. Of course there were cookies and hot chocolate mix too.

Now, they are cooking freaks. They are always cooking. They got a dog. They’ve lost a lot of weight.

My daughter is a cooking freak too. So is my other sister. She has a small farm and they buy very little from the grocery store. I’m so jealous!

As I look around my house, I have so many gifts that people made. Those are my most cherished decorations.

So, don’t feel so bad. With a little creativity, your gifts can be the most treasured.

I’m putting the final touches on a whopper post full of budget friendly gift ideas. It should be out soon!

 

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    1 thought on “There is an advantage to being broke at Christmas

    1. Debbie

      This made me smile…not only did the spice gift help us to make the sauce it taught us the recipe which is way healthier than ragu (yuck) so it was a lifetime gift!!

      Reply

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