Charitable Gifts are a bit weird aren't they? How do you give someone a gift, but not give them a gift? Also, it's almost like you are saying to the recipient - you are too much of a consumer and you think about yourself too much, so I am going to be charitable on your behalf. Almost as if you are doing your best to save their soul.
Having said that, I actually think charitable gifts are a good idea in principle. A couple of Christmases ago, I picked up a pamphlet in Oxfam all about charitable gifts, what you could buy, and were it went. I thought it was a great idea for presents for the family, neither mine or Alex's family really want for anything, and I do find the whole buying gifts for distant relations who you don't see from one end of the year to the other, very irritating, and a waste of money. Lets face it, you don't see these people above 10 hours out of a whole year, and haven't got a clue what they like, or have got, and then are expected to produce an amazing present for them, for as little money as possible, and to top it all they are doing the same for you. When you open the gift it's always some weird tat, that you wouldn't touch with a barge pole, and you wonder why you bothered spending all that time, money and deliberation on what you bought them. Any way, I digress.
I thought the charitable gift thing was a great idea, and when Alex came home, I rather enthusiastically explained the concept to him, and didn't he think it was a really good idea? He laughed in my face. After he got up off the floor from a mirth overdose, I asked him, rather irritatedly, what he found so funny? 'Can you see my mum's face when she opens that?' He said, 'she'd be really unimpressed.' I have to admit, that after thinking about it, I had to agree. I bought his mum a gift experience last year of a day to a perfume lab to learn all about how to make perfume and to make some perfume of her own. As she asks for perfume every year, I thought it would be a great idea. Incidentally, I bought my mum the same gift, and she thought it was amazing, and thoroughly enjoyed it. So, when Alex's mum opened her gift certificate, she read it from cover to cover and then looked at me and said, 'so, what is it?' It took me a full fifteen minutes to explain to her what it was, and that no, she didn't have to pay for it, and yes she could take a friend. She looked very dubious, and to this day, I have no idea if she went or not, and I don't want to ask her if she went, because if she didn't, I'd be seriously pissed of that I wasted £50 for nothing. So, this is obviously why a charitable gift would be way over her head, and it's not like she's stupid or anything, she was a teacher for crying out loud, so she must have some modicum of intelligence.
Personally I think charitable gifts are only good if you aren't going to see the recipient in person, or if you know the person really well, and know that they are something they really would appreciate. For some reason, a lot of people really don't like the idea of them. I think they are great, and if someone bought one for me, I think that would pretty great. Most of the presents we receive, aren't things we actually want, or need, and we have to pretend that we really like them so as not to hurt any one's feelings. Having said that, if my in-laws gave me a charitable gift instead of my usual birthday wad of cash, I can't say I'd be particularly impressed with that!
I haven't come across many different types of charitable gifts. Off the top of my head Oxfam is the first that comes to mind, as they were the ones I looked at. I also think other large charities such as Save the Children and Wold Vision do some. There are also charitable gifts such as animal adoption, which is also a great idea, although there is a great deal of variation from one company to another. Funnily enough, my daughter recently asked me if she could adopt a red panda (her favourite animal) using her pocket money which I looked into on her behalf. Most companies just go into adoption for the big selling endangered animals, such as tigers, giant pandas, rhinos, gorillas etc. You can also give money just to help a specific breed rather than an actual animal. For example, I give £2 a month to the WWF towards helping the tigers. Red Panda's aren't a particularly popular animal, so it was quite difficult to find an adoption scheme that not only benefited the pandas, but also my seven year old daughter. Eventually we found that at Chester Zoo (we go here often when we visit my mum), we could set up an adoption scheme that would help the animals, but would also give us some tickets to visit the zoo, and in particular, a special day where she got to meet the red panda keeper and ask any questions she may have. We decided that as it was a gift for her as well as being a donation to charity, that she could ask for it for her birthday, so as charitable gifts go, it's not massive, but for a seven year old girl to want to give part of her own pocket money to charity, I think it's quite amazing.
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Snow and Redundancies
My friend Carol got made redundant last week. She is the first of my close friends/relatives to be struck by the recession. Very nicely they have given her a months notice to find another job, but she has worked for the council for about 15 years, and her job is very specialised, so I don't think it will be easy for her.
I mention her not only because she got made redundant, but also because her financial situation is very similar to mine. Carol's partner Andy has a very well paid job, but they have a large mortgage as do we, and work to a strict monthly budget. They don't generally go on holiday, as there isn't really any spare money for it. The only differences between us is: They have one child, we have two, Carol works part time, and they are very sensible with their money.
I am more than a little concerned for Carol, and watching how they will cope with the lack of that extra income, will be something I will be doing, with more that a normal amount of interest. I do believe they have some savings, though not much, (we have none) and their situation is not quite as dire as mine and Alex, so I am sure they will be fine.
BUT....
The fact that one of my friends has lost their job as a direct consequence of the recession brings the whole thing a little nearer to home. It makes it a little more real, not just a headline on News At Ten. The recession has definitely entered my life now and not in a way I would have wanted it to.
Closer to home, it has of course been snowing. Walking the kids to school on Monday, I damaged my heel, it is excruciatingly painful to walk on, but if I put an arch support in my shoe, it makes it bearable. I went to the doctors today, and I have 'Plantar Fasciitus'. Google it, I can't explain it myself. I have to do stretching exercises, apply topical anti inflammatory, and wear this thing in my shoe, and it might go in a couple of days, or a couple of years, who knows!
The snow has made everyone under the age of 30 feel very excited. The kids have been building snowmen, and tobogganing in Woodford Park. It's great that they have found a free method of entertainment. I still can't see what all the fuss is about four inches of snow. When I was a child in Derbyshire, we had snow so deep you could touch it from an upstairs window. My Grandad had to cut a tunnel through the snow around the side of the house. Now that's snow.
One more thing I should mention in relation to finances. At the weekend, my children asked their daddy if he would take them swimming. Unfortunately due to spending slightly too much at Christmas he was grossly skint, and I didn't have any money as my bank in their infinite wisdom chose randomly to cancel my bank card without informing me. The kids wanted to go swimming so much, that they both pooled their pocket money so they could go swimming and pay for daddy too. Our children are 7 and 4, and get £1 and 50p a week respectively, for helping around the house. I was very impressed not only at their ingenious nature, but also at their selflessness, as Oscar is free to get in, he paid for Willow, and Willow with more pocket money paid for Daddy, and also had money left over to buy herself and her brother a packet of sweets each afterwards.
See, it's not how much money you have, but what you do with it that counts.
I mention her not only because she got made redundant, but also because her financial situation is very similar to mine. Carol's partner Andy has a very well paid job, but they have a large mortgage as do we, and work to a strict monthly budget. They don't generally go on holiday, as there isn't really any spare money for it. The only differences between us is: They have one child, we have two, Carol works part time, and they are very sensible with their money.
I am more than a little concerned for Carol, and watching how they will cope with the lack of that extra income, will be something I will be doing, with more that a normal amount of interest. I do believe they have some savings, though not much, (we have none) and their situation is not quite as dire as mine and Alex, so I am sure they will be fine.
BUT....
The fact that one of my friends has lost their job as a direct consequence of the recession brings the whole thing a little nearer to home. It makes it a little more real, not just a headline on News At Ten. The recession has definitely entered my life now and not in a way I would have wanted it to.
Closer to home, it has of course been snowing. Walking the kids to school on Monday, I damaged my heel, it is excruciatingly painful to walk on, but if I put an arch support in my shoe, it makes it bearable. I went to the doctors today, and I have 'Plantar Fasciitus'. Google it, I can't explain it myself. I have to do stretching exercises, apply topical anti inflammatory, and wear this thing in my shoe, and it might go in a couple of days, or a couple of years, who knows!
The snow has made everyone under the age of 30 feel very excited. The kids have been building snowmen, and tobogganing in Woodford Park. It's great that they have found a free method of entertainment. I still can't see what all the fuss is about four inches of snow. When I was a child in Derbyshire, we had snow so deep you could touch it from an upstairs window. My Grandad had to cut a tunnel through the snow around the side of the house. Now that's snow.
One more thing I should mention in relation to finances. At the weekend, my children asked their daddy if he would take them swimming. Unfortunately due to spending slightly too much at Christmas he was grossly skint, and I didn't have any money as my bank in their infinite wisdom chose randomly to cancel my bank card without informing me. The kids wanted to go swimming so much, that they both pooled their pocket money so they could go swimming and pay for daddy too. Our children are 7 and 4, and get £1 and 50p a week respectively, for helping around the house. I was very impressed not only at their ingenious nature, but also at their selflessness, as Oscar is free to get in, he paid for Willow, and Willow with more pocket money paid for Daddy, and also had money left over to buy herself and her brother a packet of sweets each afterwards.
See, it's not how much money you have, but what you do with it that counts.
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