Trouble Buying The Right Gift: Get Your Present Buying Right!

Buy The Right Present! Make Her Happy!

Betty buys the best presents, everybody says so. It’s her pride. She has a knack.

She drags the boyfriend round places that are too expensive (for him) and looks at items that are way too expensive (for him). Also at things that are cheap, and will make her look cheap (he worries). She doesn’t know why so much angst is necessary considering the recipient is often rightfully assigned to him, rather than her, and any present she gets is an extraneous, well, gift. Do you spend too much time worrying over buying the perfect present?

Spend A Little Extra For The Right Gift?

She doesn’t mind spending too much (according to him). She doesn’t mind spending too little, either. All she is after is the present, the right present, and she knows it when she sees it. She often thinks she should be one of those professional shoppers, and she’s not the only one who thinks so or has said so, either. After Christmas and birthdays she gets people calling her up to tell her just how perfect her present was – no lie!

Buy It And Get Over It!

And if they don’t like it, well, so much the worse for them. She says goodbye to a present once it’s wrapped and on its way. No fretting, no fuss, it’s out in the universe and on its own, someone else’s problem.

Today she’s looking for something for the son of her friends. She finds a playstation game combining science with shoot-‘em-up action, and that’s the ‘good-enough’ present, the one she bears in mind while looking for the perfect present. She is quite happy to give a good-enough present – most people’s problem in present buying is too much perfectionism, frustrating the flow of their buying, she thinks, at the same time always having a platonically ideal present in mind herself. What she actually buys is a Star Wars figurine of a minor character he has become somewhat obsessed with. Its appeal she cannot understand, but she knows he will love it, and that it is the right one.

The Pleasures Of Gift-Giving

It is surprisingly expensive, but she doesn’t grudge it. She and the boyfriend are underachieving graduates in the early thirties, underpaid and bored at work. But they have no kids and cheap tastes, so they have, probably, as much disposable income as a couple of high-powered professionals with two kids and a demanding mortgage. Which pretty much describes the friends they are visiting.

Having bought the perfect present, she will probably get at least as much of a kick out of it as the kid. What's to stress over in gift-giving?