The husband and I aren’t overly extravagant when it come to presents for each other. We buy gifts for Christmas and Birthdays. The husband will occasionally announce he has bought me a gift, and it will be chocolate – cheap chocolate. Which is very gratefully received but not exactly pushing the boat out.
We don't do presents for Valentines, anniversaries, Easter, New Year, St Patricks day and obviously not Mother's or Father's day.
When we do buy each other presents we tend not to overspend. In fact in a very unromantic but relentlessly practical way we agree a budget before hand so that neither of us over-spends on gifts for the other. Both of our birthdays are in the summer, and unsurprisingly both of us celebrate Christmas towards the end of December which means we have a nice six/ seven month spread between present giving.
This summer (yes it is finally summer in the UK) we realised that we were likely to be at the pinnacle of our respective wealths. This is the last gift giving occasion when we are DINKYs (Double Income No Kids Yet (yet, yet, yet, yet - how I love the transition from DINK to DINKY)). We also don’t have IVF to pay/ save for - been there done that, bought the embryo, and we sold our flat in December and are renting so are mortgage free.
So we agreed to double our gift budget.
It has been quite fun. I’ve bought the husband something that he actively wants (asked for) and supplemented it with gifts that he’d like but not quite get round to buying for himself - including a dram of his favourite whisky (the bottle would have pushed me over our budget alone), a DVD of 'Allo 'Allo (in his opinion the best sitcom ever made ... discuss). Nothing too extravagant even doubling the budget doesn’t come close to what I know some people spend on their partners but I was pretty happy with the quantity and quality of the presents.
You may have noticed the ‘was’. Unfortunately my gifts were eclipsed.
On Friday, on the husband’s 37th birthday, we completed on buying a house. After six months of renting, masses of properties viewed, seven offers put in, three accepted and then the sellers changed their mind, we became home owners again. Approximately two months before Doug makes and appearance – which is a massive relief.
But back to the completion date coinciding with the husband’s birthday.
I would like to make it absolutely clear here, in front of witnesses, that despite what he may claim (and what one friend texted him and another emailed him to say): THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE HOUSE IS HIS BIRTHDAY PRESENT.
Good, glad I got that cleared up.
