Best and worst gifts

[MouseWife]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

A gift etiquette question. You liked your XM radio gift so that is wonderful, but in general what is the thinking on giving gifts that continued use by the recipient would require an expenditure?

Good question. I guess it depends on who is giving it {like her folks, they paid for the whole year } but if your kid bought it for you, I doubt they would be expected to cover so much time.

Phones. We have switched over to the pay as you go phones for the kids. We bought them the phone and gave them phone cards. Every now and again we replenish the youngest ones {he rarely uses his phone, so, this is great for us $$}.

If I'd bought someone else the phone, I would give them a phone card with it and that would be it. I would be giving a pay as you go phone to someone who already had one, just upgrading it. Or, as in my daughters case, who had a phone whose contract was expiring and I wanted to encourage her not to spend so much on her monthly phone bill. I told her she could budget and save a lot of $$ and she has.

If I received something, I wouldn't expect too much but I also shouldn't be expected to go right out and get right into it. Like if they'd given me a paintball gun...uh, maybe when I'm ready....