My MIL is queen of this kind of thing. Last year I got two non matching glasses from habitat, one tall clear glass, one short tumbler with an iridescent ‘finish’. Prices left on @ £3 and £2 respectively. She got them because she thought we were a ‘bit short of glasses’ (we were but I’d just bought new ones myself so….).
I also got a solitary cereal bowl one year. In that instance it was because she broke one whilst staying at ours on another occasion so I was gifted one as a replacement. Unfortunately our bowls are plain Denby and this was a patterned one in quite an old fashioned design.
Our cupboard is full of random bits of crockery as a result of these gifts. The frustrating thing is if we really were short of stuff it would be fine, but we’re not, we have plenty of crockery, the cupboards are stuffed. The last thing I need is extra bits of random stuff.
She’s not short of money by any means, her attitude is simply that you only buy exactly what you need and at ‘practical’ prices. That is not a gift in my eyes. A gift would be, for example, a set of 4 pretty glasses nicely packaged. But to her that’s just a waste, she’d rather buy 4 (or more) random items for the same overall value.
I do appreciate she is trying to helpful though, and she is 80 now so nothing is going to change. So I just smile and say thank you and add this years random item to the teetering pile of bowls in the cupboard 😣