Did you manage to get that one ill conceived, bad taste, cheesy gift from that one offender? I know it seems to be a right of passage, and I figured we could share our "bad gift" stories here. To make sure we're not going in the wrong direction with this, I understand that not everyone has good finances and not everyone can give the best gifts. This thread is for those that just don't appear to put any thought into what they're buying. I know I would personally rather not get anything from certain people and thus I figured I'd share my story to see if I'm alone in my sentiment.
The offender in my case is my sister and her family. It doesn't help that we rarely get along, if not for my parents, I doubt we'd see each other at all. Last year for Xmas, I spent roughly $300 on them total. If memory serves, I think they gave me a keyboard vacuum cleaner from the "impulse buy" section, near the cash register of Radio Shack that cost about $8.00. I don't even recall any sort of "Thank You" from any of her 4 rowdy children, or from her and her husband.
This year I really went into the season thinking to myself that I'm not going to spend any money on them. Unfortunately, my younger brother had his first baby and I was compelled to buy for her and the guilt of not buying for my sister's children would've been too much. Thus, I bought for all. I didn't go too crazy this time though. A few Hello Kitty trinkets for the girls, and some Legos and a Hot Wheels track for the boys. I also dished out about $50 worth of Keurig coffee cups and a Bluetooth speaker. My gift, from a guy and his family that recently bought himself an iPad, bought an iPhone for his derp of a son, and has purchased a slew of electric guitars for himself, and a new SUV for my sister consisted of a small smartphone tripod, again something that you'd find hanging near the cash registers because no store would ever dedicate a section to such an item.
Thus, given the history of bad gift giving (one year I got a small FM radio headphone thing that again looked like some sort of clearance item that hangs at a register), would it be ok for me to stop the gift buying reciprocation? I figure I could also just assign a dollar value to the price of the average gift I get from them and just divide by the amount of people in her family I have to buy for. Although if I went that route, I'd wind up buying each of them a candy bar or something equally as pathetic. Maybe next year I'll just stop with the gift giving to her and her family. I tried to convince myself that I'd do it just for the kids, but the kids are equally as ungrateful.
The offender in my case is my sister and her family. It doesn't help that we rarely get along, if not for my parents, I doubt we'd see each other at all. Last year for Xmas, I spent roughly $300 on them total. If memory serves, I think they gave me a keyboard vacuum cleaner from the "impulse buy" section, near the cash register of Radio Shack that cost about $8.00. I don't even recall any sort of "Thank You" from any of her 4 rowdy children, or from her and her husband.
This year I really went into the season thinking to myself that I'm not going to spend any money on them. Unfortunately, my younger brother had his first baby and I was compelled to buy for her and the guilt of not buying for my sister's children would've been too much. Thus, I bought for all. I didn't go too crazy this time though. A few Hello Kitty trinkets for the girls, and some Legos and a Hot Wheels track for the boys. I also dished out about $50 worth of Keurig coffee cups and a Bluetooth speaker. My gift, from a guy and his family that recently bought himself an iPad, bought an iPhone for his derp of a son, and has purchased a slew of electric guitars for himself, and a new SUV for my sister consisted of a small smartphone tripod, again something that you'd find hanging near the cash registers because no store would ever dedicate a section to such an item.
Thus, given the history of bad gift giving (one year I got a small FM radio headphone thing that again looked like some sort of clearance item that hangs at a register), would it be ok for me to stop the gift buying reciprocation? I figure I could also just assign a dollar value to the price of the average gift I get from them and just divide by the amount of people in her family I have to buy for. Although if I went that route, I'd wind up buying each of them a candy bar or something equally as pathetic. Maybe next year I'll just stop with the gift giving to her and her family. I tried to convince myself that I'd do it just for the kids, but the kids are equally as ungrateful.
It wasn't out of the ordinary then though, as it seems to be now. 
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