Invest in Experience and Stop Buying Junk
It seems that each year we spend more and more money on gifts. A recent Gallop poll shows that American shoppers are predicted to spend $764 on presents in 2011, a figure that’s up $50 from last year.
Canadians, on the other hand, are predicted to spend $1,397 between now and the end of December, but they’ll be investing more money on entertaining friends and family and spending quality time with loved ones, as opposed to wrapping and unwrapping presents from under the tree.
Of course, these are just guesses and predictions, which often fall short of our actual shopping habits. In reality, last minute shoppers and those charging the holidays away will more than likely be paying off gifts well into the 2012 holiday shopping season, and spending far more than their budgets allows.
What are we spending our money on?
Huffington Post reported the most popular holiday gifts of 2010 to be cash, electronics, toys, gift cards and clothes. Not too many necessities there.
Nettie Bleacker, Great Depression survivor from Virginia, said that back in her day gifts served a purpose. “My daddy would bring home an orange for each of us at Christmas, and it was the only fruit we’d have all year,” said Bleaker. “What a treat!”
And it isn’t just the citrus goodness that Bleacker remembers. “We gave memories, experiences and lots of love,” Bleacker told us tearfully. “My momma saved all year to put me on an airplane for a ten minute ride and, to this day, it is one of my happiest life moments.”
Giving the gift of experience
Trinkets and ornaments and knickknacks may pass as presents under the tree, but they’re not exactly memorable. Does your grandmother really need another cat figurine to line her bookshelf? More importantly, does she want one?
It’s time with friends and family-time spent creating new memories from new experiences- that cement us to what’s truly important and allow us to live in the moment.
Tammy Shockrowe, stay-at-home mom from St. Paul, MN, bought all of her 2010 Christmas gifts from social buying websites for under $100, and claims to have given more life to her family than cheap gifts would ever provide. “I gave the gift of freedom, of life,” said Shockrowe. “My 83 year old grandmother went skydiving for the first time, and all because I bought her a Groupon gift certificate.” According to Shockrowe, her one-hundred dollar bill bought the following adventures for her family last year:
- A spa day for mom and daughter.
- Skydiving lessons for grandma.
- A weekend camping trip.
- Dinner out for the whole family.
- An afternoon at the movies.
- Martial Arts classes for the kids.
- Tickets to a historical museum.
“2010 was magical,” says Shockrowe. “My family is out living life instead of sitting home on the couch watching other people on television live their lives.”
Want to live a little more in 2012? Subscribe to My Deal Board and give the gift of adventure this year.
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