Birthday Madness Continues: My Brother's Birthday

Another year is upon us and the challenge of creating birthday presents from very little continues.  As you may remember in the 12 months previous to beginning my Goodbye Magpie challenge, I spent £713.96 on birthday presents, special occasion gifts and cards.  For the twelve months of this challenge I aim to reduce that to £100.  Total. Full Stop.  End of Discussion.

So, how am I getting on?  In the first three months of this challenge I have given 13 birthday greetings, including eight gifts, and paid for various parcels to be posted off.   I have so far spent just over half my budget at £52.29.  With around 11 birthdays left, I am over half way through.  And with just under half of my money left I am happy with my progress so far.

The latest birthday was my brother's.  And I have to admit that I spent zero pennies.  I managed to give him a gift by sending him off a voucher for John Lewis, one that I had been given for my own Christmas, along with an old card. (The stamp was an old unused 2nd class one I found in a drawer and the envelope was one of those free ones you get all the time in the mail!)  My brother isn't precious, so he won't have minded the sticky white labels covering up the previous message on the card.  And as he has just moved into a new home I think he will find a better use for the voucher than me and is in much greater need of it.  It may be ungrateful of me not to spend the voucher on myself, but at the moment, that is the best that I can do.

As my own birthday is in January, I was very tempted to e-mail everyone, to ask them not to send me any cards etc. and that I would do the same for them on their birthdays in 2012.  But, although I wouldn't mind this at all, I think that it might not go down so well with others, and it is tricky where children are concerned, so I decided against that plan.

Some may say that by being so mean, I have lost the meaning of birthdays.  But I wonder if we haven't all just been suckered into this idea, that one of the main ways we show our nearest and dearest that we care, is to buy them stuff? What about being nice to them?  What about cooking them a tasty meal?  What about spending time just playing a board game together, or having a laugh while sharing a pot of tea?  Or if they don't live nearby, why isn't it good enough to send them a thoughtful message now and then?

The real lightening strike moment came when helping my mum, brother and sister to do various household clear outs in quick succession last year.  I realised that a lot of the things that I was taking to the charity shop, were gifts that I had carefully picked out, paid for (while not really being able to afford it), and given to them for various birthdays and Christmases, and that a lot of these gifts really weren't from that long ago.

I don't blame them at all for chucking my presents out.  We all have too much stuff and they were right to have a good clear out.  But it did make me wonder what the point of it all was.  I was spending money I couldn't afford, they were getting gifts they didn't want.  The only people that were winning here were the retailers.

Given the choice I would rather spend my money were it was really needed and wanted and where it would have a real benefit; such as a lovely meal out for myself and JW, a new pair of trousers for No. 1 Son, or a regular donation to a charity I believe in.

JW certainly appreciated his homemade gift this year; it gives us inspiration every day!  So, I will continue with my Birthday Madness Challenge and see where my remaining £47.71 takes me.