Money Obedience

This being a personal finance blog, I think I can allow myself to get personal. As you all know, setting up a budget is an important exercise for me. “Bargain shopping” gets in the way of it. So, let me vent a little and explain.

I am so sick of the e-mails I receive from all kinds of stores. A special offer here, a discount there, a must-have item here, and so forth. I think this season I must have gotten at least one e-mail from every store where I ever bought something, including Tiffany. I can’t even remember the last time I bought something at Tiffany. It must be some five years ago. But I still get their e-mails, and the light blue catalogue in snail mail. I don’t even open the envelope in which the Tiffany catalog comes. Somehow I don’t see the value of bombarding me with special offers. It makes these stores less endearing to me. And I have to wonder how much of the price I pay for goods goes to pay for all this useless advertising when I do buy something at one of these stores.

How about the stores which have your e-mail address recorded from the one time you bought something through amazon.com? What makes them think I have any loyalty to their store? I bought one or two things there years ago. That’s it. No follow-up shopping. I don’t need the frequent shopper card, either. Neither do I care about the special sale this holiday season.

I should consider myself lucky that I can easily delete each and every one of these e-mails, even unsubscribe from the mailing list. I don’t feel the urge to buy anything. We already bought well-thought out gifts for the kids a while ago. And the grandparents’ gift is our visit, rather than spending lavishly on things for them. In case you want to know, both vilkri-he’s and vilkri-she’s families live quite far away – we’re talking mandatory airfare, not driving... The grandparents in our family are pretty much set anyway.

Let’s look at my late grandfather for reasons why gift giving might not be the best thing in any event. My grandfather used to take his newly received shirt, still unopened, and stuff it in his closet right on top of the other unopened shirts from previous years. I am sorry. I can’t follow my parents’ example and give the new shirt anyway. If I can’t think of a good gift for my parents, I will not get them anything. Maybe it sounds a bit heartless, but I’d rather do something nice (like visit) that has no material durability but is valuable all the same, rather than waste money on something they don’t really need or want. Besides, I know that the best gift to them is spending time with them. And if I bring the family along, it is even better.

This blog is also about our overall well-being, so, let me say this in addition to my venting. While these e-mails and catalogues annoy me, I actually feel quite good that I can escape the consumerism of the season so easily. I don’t feel bad about not spending lavishly on friends and family. I know that I will feel much better spending time with friends and family, and I always try to spend time with loved ones, whether it is the holiday season or not.