Thoughtful presents: Not costing the earth

I find the whole issue of how much we spend on presents really interesting. I’m a firm believer that affection shouldn’t come at a cost. I remember at school and uni, people would talk about how much they would spend on Christmas presents for their family and it would be around £200 and I was shocked.

My family pride ourselves on getting a bargain. It doesn’t mean that a family member isn’t less deserving of a gift because we didn’t spend so much on them. It means we can spend money on a greater number of people if we wish. I remember one Christmas Lucy bought Lisa series 1-5 of CSI, and she had to explain the cost because HMV had made a major error in their labelling and instead of £30 or so, it was £3 or roundabouts that figure! It was that great a bargain that the story had to be told.

On Tuesday I caught up with my friend Laura who I hadn’t seen in a couple of months. It was her birthday on Monday and I said that I would treat her to some gelato at Fabios. I also had bought a lucky dip bag from Tiger, which happened to be her favourite shop. I had no idea what was in it, but as you can see she got some random gifts. I didn’t realise that she actually loved the bird clips in the bag and had a few already and wanted some more.

She loved the lucky dip bag and the gelato; with the bag costing £2 and the gelato just over £3, a fiver for happiness for a friend isn’t bad going.