To hate Christmas present spending threads?

[Highfalutinlootin]

Surely what everyone spends should be relative to their income and what they can comfortably afford, so this will vary wildly between families. There is no benchmark for responsible Christmas spending.

Threads like this are always full of high earners humble bragging, thrifty people pearl-clutching, and low income people claiming they are simply shocked that anyone could even have so much money let alone spend it on Christmas. It's all ridiculous.

It sure is. But so are many of the threads on here. Just ignore them and read the ones you are interested in 😊

I never read stuff like that for the reasons you quote.

This just reminded me of when my daughter was at Uni in the 1980's, she got a little part time evening job, at one of the catalogue companies, and her job was on the switch board , and having to deal with people who had ordered loads of things for Christmas, spending a few thousand pounds etc, and come January, a lot of them could not pay any weekly or monthly payments back, and making all sorts of reasons up, why they could not pay anything.

She told me a lot of crazy.stupid and laughable things that were said to her, when she had to phone them, and chase them up for payments. So Christmas spending gone mad.

There's a teeny tiny minus next to threads. I suggest you press it. Poof! Disappeared.

I used to work for an essential household bill company. People don't spend within their means at Christmas, so you need a 4th category - those who don't pay bills November - March to pay for a Christmas far beyond their means.

I’m in another country, so what I spend is meaningless. I just scroll past them because yes, they’re meaningless.

@OneRingToRuleThemAll

I used to work for an essential household bill company. People don't spend within their means at Christmas, so you need a 4th category - those who don't pay bills November - March to pay for a Christmas far beyond their means.

I just to work in debt management and the amount of people people I would talk to in the new year, who had gone overdrawn, missed loan payments 'because of Christmas' was ridiculous!

Though they often thought I was ridiculous for suggesting saving a little bit each month for Christmas, 'as what use is £x etc saved over the year'!

The threads are ridiculous of what do you spend, as everyone has different circumstances, different number of family members who also buy gifts. £100 to one family, is peanuts to others and also out of reach for someone else.

Totally agree - why would you care how much someone else spends at a Christmas? I enjoy seeing what people are buying and getting ideas but the dollar amount? I don't get it.

I’m fucking done with presents for adults though - so much FOG. Love buying for my children but hate having to spend money to oil the social wheels. I don’t want anything for myself, I have to find a place for it and the majority is tat anyway. Sorry - rant over

I agree OP. I hide them all. It's caused by consumerism and some posters obsessed with Christmas seem to be overcompensating for something (their own childhood/being a single parent/being unhappy?) Or they are using early and extreme Christmas planning as a means of avoidance...I don't know what causes it. Threads entitled "Are 10 gifts per child enough?" I literally saw that thread around September. WTF?? It has nothing to do with the real spirit of Christmas. It's a religious holiday and a time to celebrate friends and family for non-religious people.

@Highfalutinlootin People on the internet also lie.

There are threads on all sorts of topics on MN. People like to chat. Personally I hide the ones about line eyes on pregnancy tests, neighbour disputes and convoluted crap about not very difficult relationship dilemmas, because they are of no interest to me. Can't really get worked up about Christmas spending threads, though I doubt I would post on one as I have no idea how much I spend!

I have only ever looked at one of these threads before, out of curiosity. I wondered why people needed to discuss if XYZ was enough to send on a two year old....I found it really vulgar.

I think the competitive spending threads are amusing as we're all millionaires online.
I lost track of what I've spent though and still haven't wrapped the bloody presents up, must get round to doing it though.

People post all kind of bizarre stuff in AIBU. I read what interests me and ignore the rest.

Yes. It also seems just a daft way to view Christmas. Especially with young kids, sometimes the things they'll actually want or appreciate aren't expensive anyway so it seems mad to have a figure in mind of what to spend.

Don't read them then!
I find them interesting, especially the lists of what they buy. I never post my own spending though as it's irrelevant.

There will be some poky pies. I however love a what do you spend thread because demographically and societally there are some very odd expectations around Christmas spending. Serious research has been done on Christmas spending habits. I didn’t study this at length but came across articles many year ago when researching equal access to education and outcomes based on household income. Way back in the day when people were classed as A,B,C1 etc.

I still like having a look round the ONS website.

sometimes the things they'll actually want or appreciate aren't expensive anyway so it seems mad to have a figure in mind of what to spend

Yes, especially when people talking about buying random shit to make the amount spent up to a certain amount or equal amongst DC even if they don't want anything - 'I need something for £25 for DS because I want to spend £200 on him and have only spent £175 on him' or 'I've spent £175 on DD but £200 on DS so need something else for DD for £25' what can I buy?