Anyone else "gifted out" this time of year?

**amaranthe** · 06-12-2008, 06:42 PM

We are SO broke right now and keep getting invitations to stuff! This time of year there's Mother's Day, Father's Day, Graduations, wedding showers, personal showers, not to mention the birthdays and baby showers this month too! This month alone, I have to get 3 Father's Day presents (his dad, mine, and then my husband's), 5 graduation gifts, 2 baby shower gifts, 2 bridal shower gifts, one personal shower gift (WTH???) and 2 birthdays! On top of all that, I have to get my Mother in law ANOTHER Mother's Day gift, b/c I had gotten her a potted plant and she came out a day earlier than she was suppossed to, so I didnt have her Mother's Day present the day she came, and haven't seen her since then. Well, like I said, I got her this flowering, potted plant. But, I accidently killed it since then, so I gotta get her something else now too!

We are SOOOO broke right now too! Our tractor just tore up a few weeks ago and it was $5200 to get it fixed. Plus, with it being spring, and since we farm, we just had to spend $13,000 on fertilizer! While we had planned for about $11,000, the other $2000, and the $5200 for the tractor was NOT expected. I mean who has an extra $7200 laying around! So money is so tight right now.

Sorry for the vent! I am just stressing over all this! (The personal shower got me! THAT bride invited me to TWO bridal showers, AND her personal shower, AND her college graduation, ALL within 2 weeks of each other!) (She's gonna be lucky to get ONE gift...PERIOD!) (She is my first cousin.)

Agaiin, sorry for the vent. Just stressin! Anyone else out there "gifted out" this time of year?

Thanks to eveyone for listening to me gripe and whine! Sometimes it just feels better to get it all out and know someone understands.

**Briza** · 06-12-2008, 08:13 PM

Yeah, me too...in May and June I have Mother's day, 3 friends' bdays and some of their kids as well, father's day, my brother's bday...luckily I think I've gotten all my friends married off....whew...but their children will be graduating from HS in a few years and so there will be that to attend to.

Anyway, I'm single and don't see a wedding or a baby in the near or far future, so may soon pull a Sex and the City thing, like the main character Carrie did, and throw myself my own personal shower for absolutely no reason at all, what a good idea!

and hopefully get some nice goodies from what will be a VERY LONG registry list!

just kidding of course

but if you're interested, I will be registered at...

**hdb1982** · 06-13-2008, 01:34 AM

May and Sept-Oct are killer months for us. May 1 is my daughters bday May 9 is my dad AND MY HUSBAND May 11 is my MIL then mothers day, which I have to buy 3 gifts for b/c Adams dad is remarried then May 27 is his aunts bday. which she feels like a MIL to me. So just when we start to recover from that Fathers day smack us. Then Sept starts another mess. Sept 19 my other MIL, Sept 28 is my BIL, Oct 4 is my SIL, Oct 6 is my FIL, Oct 10 my other SIL then OCT 29 IS ME then Halloween. Thos 3 months kill us every year. I am so glad I dont have any graduations or showers this year.

***ICNDonna*** · 06-13-2008, 01:45 AM

It's really tough when everything hits at once. Do you have any factory outlets nearby? They can be pretty great for inexpensive gifts. I do have a suggestion for wedding gifts and that is to get small kitchen utensils, such as spatula, mixing spoon, etc., then package it nicely with a kitchen towel or dishcloths.

Hugs,
Donna

**leelee88** · 06-13-2008, 02:05 AM

That is a great idea Donna, I did that for my niece and she loved it, I wraped each one seperatly and also bought a small garbage can and put them in it so she could reuse that also.. It all came to $12. You can find neat thing at the dollar store, like that and if you look alot of those things are the same name brand as the bigger retail stores..lol So why pay more? Also sometimes a nice card with something written in them from the heart goes a long way. I know when me an Hubby are broke that is what we do. His family always understands. But usually I will try to cook them a birthday dinner or something to go a long with it. Or bake them something..You can only do what you can do.. People will just have to understand..That is the way I look at it..And most of them do

***ICNDonna*** · 06-13-2008, 02:10 AM

I think my favorite mothers day gift of all time was a card with a loving message from a step daughter! Sometimes that's the best thing to do. Another idea is to give a parent a check, but instead of a money amount, enter something like "good for one barbecue on our patio" or a coupon good for a car wash or something else to do for them.

Usually if you are invited to more than one wedding shower, only one gift is expected --- I wouldn't buy more than that.

Donna

***SharonA*** · 06-13-2008, 05:06 AM

Hubby and I do not have family any longer other than our son. When I read about all the gifts all of you are having to buy, I decided that it is not necessarily so bad after all. Whew!!!! We are saving a fortune.

**IC SARAH-CPP** · 06-13-2008, 06:42 AM

Okay what is a "personal shower" Please tell me! I would be humiliated to invite someone to a bridal shower, a wedding, and a bachelorette party, let alone 2 bridal showers! I insisted to everyone that for my wedding, they only get a gift for the bridal shower or the wedding and NOT the bachelorette party. I was so worried about that. I didnt want poeple who were invited to all 3 have to buy gifts for all 3, that is so expensive.

Donna has a great idea about the wedding gift, I would love to get that! I know how you feel though, it seems things always happened all at once to my hubby and I. The worst for us was Christmas. We only had one Christmas where we were able to really buy for each other. Every other year, every single bad thing that could happen to us, did happen to us! We always joked that we had the Christmas curse, lol.

Hang in there and I hope things ease up next month.

Sarah

**mary124** · 06-13-2008, 09:15 AM

Our families are not large- but not small either. For most of these holidays Ii either send money (to the younger children who are under 18-figured if they work they really don't need my money); or gift cards.

**VickiB** · 06-13-2008, 01:56 PM

Yep,...I feel your pain!

Seems everyone in my life has their birthday, anniversary, not to mention Father's day & graduation in June!

Nothing like getting it all over with at once! Luckily that leaves the rest of the year with nothing going on & no gifts required!

Vicki

***ICNDonna*** · 06-14-2008, 01:54 AM

A personal shower is when friends get together and give a bride-to-be things like lingerie, perfumes, nice soaps, etc. When Terry and I were married, my co-workers gave me one and it was wonderful --- I had been alone with three children for four years and believe me when I say that I didn't have one decent night gown!

Donna

**waterflow** · 06-14-2008, 05:46 AM

Maybe you could bake them all something? I have done that at times. Not sure if they just threw them out the car window going down the highway. Did hear once there was a mile long of sick animals having to be treated for something they ate.

Do you have to go to all of them or just tell th people you can't afford to buy them anything but wish them luck. I am soooooooo sick of holidays too. They just don't mean anything to me anymore. Normally I would be working on Christmas presents but not doing that. I think holidays shouldn't be really. Just a way for companies to make money. I keep remembering how Lucy on Charlie Brown's Christmas special says it's all commercialized or something and she was right.

***ICNDonna*** · 06-14-2008, 02:20 PM

A recipe book with your own recipes can be a good idea.

Donna

**Sally939** · 06-14-2008, 03:01 PM

You all have some great ideas. I did not know you need to buy a gift for a bachlorette party. I am glad a read this because I have one on Wednesday- Sunday. We are going to FL.

The one thing I do is put some money a side each month in a drawer (I do not have that many gifts to buy all year, so I do not put much aside) and when it is time to buy gifts I pull form that. This way each person gets about the same amount spent on them regardless of what time of year it is.

I came up with this becasue I guess I am use to getting the shaft (haha not really I have been spoiled by those closest to me). My birthday is the day after Christmas (it is my sister's bithday too, but we are not twins). My parents also have the same birthday (April 12). Their bithdays fall at a bad time becasue of Mother's and Father's day. Just an idea.

**curlette** · 06-14-2008, 03:29 PM

Hi Sweetie, You can

vent all you want to. My goodness but you've been busy, no wonder I hadn't heard from you. I knew you were entertaining and busy with family, but not to that extent!!! And it's no wonder you're going broke with the tractor breaking down. But take a breath, take another deep breath and slow down. Getting all stressed out about all of this is only going to add to your IC and other medical problems. We all have to go through events like this at some point in our lives where it seems like there's no stop to the gift giving and the family has just gotten so huge. I stop birthday gifts at 18, when they graduate. Talk about stress, just got back from hosting my folks 60th wedding anniversary party and my Dad ended up having a heart attack right there at the party. I'm just so glad that I was there at the time. Ended up staying longer as they kept him in hospital.
Try to relax and keep in touch, Sweetie!

curlette