What was the most disappointing present you've ever received? Lighthearted!

[Lsquiggles]

My boyfriend made a big song and dance about having bought me an amazing present one year, I was so excited until I opened it and it was a spice rack

Tell me your worst!

Ooh i just remembered my worst ever gift. It was at the beginning of the last recession and my dh had just been made redundant from his job with no prospect of another one. He bought me not one but two freshwater pearl necklaces totaling nearly 400 pounds. I rarely wear jewellery and never anything like that, i hated them! They refused to give a refund, I don't blame them but i was very upset at the time. It was a small expensive shop with nothing that i liked, i ended up using the credit to get a few overpriced gifts for other people. I also got a credit note which was useless as they went out of business shortly after. I would honestly rather have got nothing.

Deadringer please don't tell anyone your dh gave you them..

A pack of Brillo pads. wrapped up in Christmas paper, for my March birthday.

I threw a lovely birthday party about 2 years ago, after having recently moved house - fairy lights everywhere, all in the trees in the garden, loads of wine, loads of homemade curries and accompaniments plus hand made mini puddings. Took me a week to do all the cooking.

A woman from the local village turned up with her husband, and presented me with a bottle bag as a birthday gift.

When I later looked in, it was a £1.29 bottle of fizz from Lidl. I really wish she hadn't bothered. It made me particularly cross because I know they are comfortably off. So a good old nose round, including a quality meal, everything homemade, for £1.29. Result.

I would never ask her to anything again. I don't like meanness. She's probably still in blissful ignorance that I even know how tight they were. Left a very unpleasant taste, despite my lovely food!

A sat nav. I don't drive anywhere farther than an 8 mile radius from home gutted

One of those god awful newspaper frames, you know the ones that mimic a newspaper front page... the headline was "Fandoozle turns 30", and the "article" warned people to stay indoors as the party animal was celebrating.
I couldn't hide my less than impressed expression when I opened it.

Years ago my husband went to do the food shop at Morrisons. When he came home he was all excited saying 'I've got you a Mothers Day lunch at Morrisons!'. I thought oh god, Morrisons? Is that the best he can do? Lunch in the cafe?
As he unpacked the shopping he took out a joint of beef, potatoes and a cream cake... You had to bloody cook it yourself!
That'll teach me for turning my nose up at Morrisons cafe.

When I was about 7 or 8 I asked for a remote control car for Christmas. And on Christmas morning I was so excited to see I had received one. Only it was one where the car was attached to the controller so I had to follow it round to make it go anywhere! I was so disappointed.

Car jump leads !!! I kid you not wrapped in inside out Noddy paper cos that's all he could find in the cupboard !!!

A book ”101 Uses for a dead cat” as a cheer-up gift on my 18yo cat dying. From my now Ex.

My mother knitted some large Noahs Ark animals at my SIL’s request for her 2yo DS’s nursery. I was given them back 5 years later, in a box and wrapped in birthday paper for my 30th birthday present.

She said, ”well they were hand-knitted so I thought your mother would like them back” maybe (not!) but especially not as a present and not even given to the knitter!

Batshit.

secret santa is always bad... I'm litrally so easy to buy for (honestly id be happy with nearly anything from poundland lol) but the 3 times I did secret santa where all awful:

1. I was very close to everyone, we hung out they knew my kids and I house sat for them while they where in spain - they bought me 'a satanist handbook', I dont talk about religon but Im christian, my kids go to catholic school and always wear a big cross, it was so bizarre because they knew me so no idea where they pulled this from

2. A £5 gift card... I personally think a gift card is the laziest present EVER, basically saying 'I couldnt be bothered to put in a seconds thought so buy your own gift' but to make it worse it was a super close group, I got the newby and learned everything I could to get them a beautiful cutom made and engraved pen set and everyone else got LOADS of really personal items (it was suppose to be 1 item but since most people where good friends everyone went overboard bar the person I got)

3. a leaflet/flyer - litrally not joking a paper pamphlet from the library, Im not mad and he was a lovely person but im still completely baffled by it to this day

my old best friend use to never get me anything, she always said 'its the thought that counts and I thought about getting you something'... sorry but no its the EFFORT that counts, I wouldnt even be mad about no gift it was the attitude that annoyed me

I struggle with DH too... hes the only person I truely expect something from and hold to any stanard but he can be so hit and miss - he often thinks of things (even researches them) but then do anything till the last minute and cant get it so I get something 2nd rate last minute thrown together thing and a spiel about the great thoughtful thing he had planned but didnt do :(

A waste paper bin. From my mum at Christmas. Yes, I did need one, but for Christmas? Really? Biggest present and it's a bin. I may have reminded her about it a few times.
Work secret santa - penis hoopla. Most people had gone to a bit of an effort despite the low price limit. Quite a few hand made things - I worked in a craft shop so they were all excellent quality. I get bloody penis hoopla. A £5 tub of sweets would have been fine. A (very) cheap bottle of wine. Heck, a £5 voucher for the shop we worked in would have been better.
It immediately went in the bin. The secret Santa got taken over by "joke" gifts a few years later and then didn't happen as only a few people wanted to take part at that point. The penis corkscrew was probably the death knell. Wasn't funny.

The jumper (brown, Tesco) abd matching earrings my mum bought me once were pretty grim. The jumper was the wrong size and I’ve never had pierced ears.

I have similar every year. It’s why I hate “it’s the thought that counts” - no, sometimes there is no thought.

My dh thought I would just love a deep fat fryer one birthday so I could make lovely home made chips!!

To be fair I did get some lovely jewellery as well, but he gave me the fryer first, he said my face was a picture!!

Oh yes, the 'I thought of getting you X but ran out of time, so got you a cheap y instead'.

XH (yes, him again) once said, on coming home from his 'working away' job when it was my birthday 'Oh, I saw the new Terry Pratchett book at the station, but I decided to get my return ticket instead.'

And no, I didn't get anything else instead.

A toilet brush from my husband. We'd recently re-decorated "my" bathroom so he bought me one to match the colour scheme. Fortunately he bought me other presents as well, so it became an amusing story rather than being really upsetting!

Oh I’ve just thought of another one. I worked in a big office and people often moved teams. I moved to a new team a couple of weeks before Christmas. They’d already done their secret Santa picks so I wasn’t included which I didn’t mind at all.
The day came where they swapped gifts and to my surprise I was handed one. I thought what a lovely gesture to welcome me to the team.
I opened up to find a really old fashioned rather large sewing kit. I was 27 at the time. I hid my disappointment really well and was very gracious until my team leader came over to see what I had been given and loudly shouted ‘bloody hell thats a shit gift isn’t it??’ The whole thing was mortifying

What does ox fam smell of ?

Iklboo 🙀

Oxfam is a second hand mainly clothes shop

Smells a bit old and dusty.

Oh I’ve just thought of another one. Funny rather than upsetting. I’d only been with Dh, my then boyfriend a few months and for my birthday his lovely aunt, my DMil’s sister, randomly gave me three pairs of silky black knickers. I didn’t know what to make of it, hardly knowing them at all at that point. I just said thanks. I actually wore them to death, they were quite nice.

Knowing them as I do now I know there wasn’t any malice, I think they just found it funny. The aunt was - still is - a lovely woman and I can just imagine her and my lovely late DMil roaring with laughter over giving the new and very shy young girlfriend saucy underwear. I bet my boyfriend / now Dh - got a right ribbing.

For my 30th MIL got me a rubber swim sock that you wear if you have a verruca. I didn't have a verruca nor did I go swimming.
One Christmas she got one some sort of Victorian throw back nightie. Full length, high neck and long sleeves. She was very pleased with herself because she thought if I wore it DH wouldn't want to have sex with me

Not one bad gift, but dozens.
All from ex-mil.
Every xmas and birthday. A nightie.
I hate wearing things in bed, I feel like I am being strangled.
Poor ds suffered a similar fate.
He always got 2 tee shirts (usually nice ones) that were at least 2 sizes too small.
He usually wore the right size for his age.
But she always got him too small.
She used to ask what he wanted or needed. So we would give a varied list for her to choose from.
Things like hand knitted jumper (she loved to knit) books, lego, clothes pjs and gave the next size up. Eg he was six and a half at xmas, so boy age 7 tops.
But whatever we put on the list, he would get age 4-5 tee shirts.
Sometimes something else to go with them, sometimes nothing else.

The first Christmas after we were married I was absolutely convinced DH had got me a mobile phone. They were still not very common then and I desperately wanted one. We'd talked about what a good idea it would be as I had a long commute and had had a couple of slightly scary moments driving home in bad weather. He had even asked me what models I liked best. So when I was handed a box slightly bigger than a shoe box on Christmas morning I excitedly ripped the wrapping off to find........a hairdryer. It was an ok hairdryer, but not really any better than the one I already had, and it definitely wasn't a Sony Mars Bar. I'm rather ashamed to say that I didn't do very well at hiding my disappointment.

DH and I got married very young and had no money. We’d set up a gift list of cheap basics (towels, pans etc) as we were also setting up home.

MIL (extremely wealthy) said that she wanted to get us something really special -‘memory to last a lifetime’. I was secretly hoping it might a contribution to a honeymoon, which we couldn’t afford.

On our wedding night, she proudly presented us with a £5k silver cutlery set we’ve used it once in 10 years for posterity and it now raises our TV to a good viewing height

I still think of the honeymoon we could have had for £5k though...