A musical Smart Spending holiday
Posted
Dec 24 2007, 02:46 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
On Christmas morning let's all be anthropologists for a day. Come on, it'll be fun: We have our own theme song! (More on that later.)
Tomorrow, I want you to time how long it takes for everyone to open his or her gifts. Record all reactions, whether they be, "This is wonderful! Thanks!" or "I wanted the other game system! I never get anything good!" During the day, observe how long it takes for kids (and grownups) to lose interest in their new toys and baubles.
Now, figure out how long it will take you to pay off the gifts, if you charged them. If you paid cash, figure out how many hours you and/or your spouse had to work to pay for this "celebration."
Ho. Ho. Ho.
Whose wallet is it, anyway?
I'm not suggesting that you're owed a certain amount of gratitude based on dollar values. But from what I've heard and seen, plenty of people have a skewed notion of gift-giving and are willing to go into debt, or at least to overbuy, in order to satisfy someone else's (i.e., marketers') idea of a happy holiday.
The "it" toy must be obtained at all costs (hi there, eBay profiteers!). Big-ticket items, especially electronics or jewelry, must be included. The same number of gifts must be given to each person to avoid the appearance of favoritism. Above all, a certain dollar amount must be spent.
After all, we have to show our loved ones how much we love them.
The problem isn't just that this is a messed-up way of defining love. It's also that the ante gets upped each year. The 2-year-old who has as much fun with the box in which the toy was packaged is a bit more demanding by age 6, or 16. The spouse who on your first Christmas together was thrilled with two gifts under the Charlie Brown tree is now more interested in diamonds or a wide-screen HDTV.
I'll admit that if I could, I would buy my daughter a house for the holidays. I want her to be comfortable and secure. But I can't buy her a house. I can buy her and her fiancé some Christmas gifts, yet I saw no reason to break the bank to do it. A couple presents were bought new, but most were from clearance tables or used-book Web sites, or obtained free through MyPoints and MyCokeRewards.
Before you spend, ask why
I could easily have overspent because I, too, am vulnerable to marketing pressures. But that would have dealt a blow to my slowly improving financial equilibrium -- not good for either me or my daughter. The last thing she needs to worry about is paying for my old age. (Hint: I'm 50 and my grandmother is still living.)
A reader of the Smart Spending message board writes that her family uses a four-gift rule: "Something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read." That appeals to me, even though I bought more than four gifts this year. But I stayed well within budget for all my holiday shopping, including postage for gifts mailed to Alaska and New Jersey.
Don't get me wrong. I love giving presents. But I won't go in hock for anything that's not a home or life-saving medical care. And even if I were rich, I wouldn't buy just for the sake of meeting some mythical gift quota.
About that theme song
Which brings me to the musical portion of the evening's festivities. An old friend, writing under the pseudonym "Frugalbert Humperdinck," proposed the following Christmas song for the Smart Spending blog. It should be sung, of course, to the refrain of the Engelbert Humperdinck ballad, "A Man Without Love."
Christmas bills are scare-ful,
But one can be careful.
Lovely is a man without loans.
Celebrate the season,
Keeping things in reason.
Lovely is a man without loans.
Go in debt, you peasants,
Buying toddlers presents.
Lovely is a man without loans.
Why impugn your credit
When they’ll soon forget it?
Lovely is a man without loans.
(Half-step up for the big finale)
Ere to shops I dart off,
First I pay the card off.
Lovely is a man without loans.
I’ll assuage my cravings
With January savings.
Lovely is a maaaan without loans.
