Well, I'm really not in a favour of spending unnecessarily. But I really have a lot of pals at work and most of them give me a token chocolate or something for Christmas. They're really nice people and I'd love to have them understand that all this gifting is really a marketing scam by companies to induce people to spend more than necessary. Furthermore, it's well known that gifting during Christmas creates vast amounts of waste as some products are only useful for the period. Like Christmas snow globes... Or small ornaments that serve no purpose except be a token of appreciation which will lie in a cupboard forever. Some products would never even have been produced if not for this habit of gifting!
Ok now that I've made my stand on gifting clear, I still have to go through with the motion of buying some small gifts for some of my colleagues/friends. I've mentioned in a previous post (Under the Primary Credit Card) that I bought SGD300 worth of vouchers to top up my spending to hit a reward amount on my credit card. I'm not particularly proud of it, mind you. But well, I knew this additional expense would come up during Christmas which would push past my usual spending anyway, so it's like allocating some of last month's spending to this mth. (Now, remember if you saved money last mth due to under spending your budget, it DOES NOT MEAN that you are allowed to increase your spending on this month. The slippery slope of the hedonic adaptation starts kicking in when you increase your spending. Instead, you should get used to the habit of spending less and work hedonic adaptation the other way, meaning to get used to spending less instead.) However, this was a planned reallocation of my expenses anyway and I have to keep my colleagues happy as well. (Cost of raw materials in Singapore is very expensive and making personalized cards, gifts would cost as much if not more. For those who are going to suggest on making my own gifts.)
So I made my way down to the nearest hypermart. After running through most of the Christmassy items, I eventually spent about SGD100 worth of vouchers for about 50 gifts, mostly chocolates wrapped nicely for better presentation. Leaving me with SGD200 worth of vouchers to spend on other months. Which actually now gives me a bad habit of spending more than my targeted SGD1500 per month, cos I can now spend slightly more due to the vouchers. Else I would just use the SGD1500 budget and account for misc items within the budget. Note to self: To only use the vouchers for really really unexpected spending instead of a pressing urge to use up the vouchers within the next few mths. (There's this psychological feeling that I'm not using real cash when using the vouchers. So I sometimes get the feeling that I can just use it up as it's not accounted for in my mthly expected spending.)
What have you all been buying this month? How much have you spent? How much of it was on useless stuff which would be left in some corner of earth never to see the light of day? Or have you bought useful stuff like maybe a bicycle to teach your kids to cycle or wholesome food for your family, I don't see anything wrong with gifting a sack of potatoes so that someone can eat for half a mth or so or 1kg of a person's favourite cheese. And since the recipient is going to use the food stuffs anyway, it is going to be a very useful present! Why not? Why not give useful stuff which they can use and will not be just a waste of earth's resources?
What have YOU given this season?
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Ok now that I've made my stand on gifting clear, I still have to go through with the motion of buying some small gifts for some of my colleagues/friends. I've mentioned in a previous post (Under the Primary Credit Card) that I bought SGD300 worth of vouchers to top up my spending to hit a reward amount on my credit card. I'm not particularly proud of it, mind you. But well, I knew this additional expense would come up during Christmas which would push past my usual spending anyway, so it's like allocating some of last month's spending to this mth. (Now, remember if you saved money last mth due to under spending your budget, it DOES NOT MEAN that you are allowed to increase your spending on this month. The slippery slope of the hedonic adaptation starts kicking in when you increase your spending. Instead, you should get used to the habit of spending less and work hedonic adaptation the other way, meaning to get used to spending less instead.) However, this was a planned reallocation of my expenses anyway and I have to keep my colleagues happy as well. (Cost of raw materials in Singapore is very expensive and making personalized cards, gifts would cost as much if not more. For those who are going to suggest on making my own gifts.)
So I made my way down to the nearest hypermart. After running through most of the Christmassy items, I eventually spent about SGD100 worth of vouchers for about 50 gifts, mostly chocolates wrapped nicely for better presentation. Leaving me with SGD200 worth of vouchers to spend on other months. Which actually now gives me a bad habit of spending more than my targeted SGD1500 per month, cos I can now spend slightly more due to the vouchers. Else I would just use the SGD1500 budget and account for misc items within the budget. Note to self: To only use the vouchers for really really unexpected spending instead of a pressing urge to use up the vouchers within the next few mths. (There's this psychological feeling that I'm not using real cash when using the vouchers. So I sometimes get the feeling that I can just use it up as it's not accounted for in my mthly expected spending.)
What have you all been buying this month? How much have you spent? How much of it was on useless stuff which would be left in some corner of earth never to see the light of day? Or have you bought useful stuff like maybe a bicycle to teach your kids to cycle or wholesome food for your family, I don't see anything wrong with gifting a sack of potatoes so that someone can eat for half a mth or so or 1kg of a person's favourite cheese. And since the recipient is going to use the food stuffs anyway, it is going to be a very useful present! Why not? Why not give useful stuff which they can use and will not be just a waste of earth's resources?
What have YOU given this season?
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