It was my 40th last year. My parents offered to get me a set of fab kitchen pans (a big set) for £1500. The month before my birthday, I found them virtually unused on eBay for £300...so I snapped them up.
Parents then said, what did I want instead. I looked at some new garden furniture, but on the basis we are hoping to move in the next 12mths, I didn't want to choose something now that wouldn't fit our "future" garden.
My DM has a habit of getting me nothing for my birthdays, but putting a home made voucher stating I have, say, £150 to spend on whatever I like and I should buy whatever and let her know. It never feels right, because I don't really want to source and buy my own present, then ask for the reimbursement, so I never get round to doing so, and end up getting nothing. My mother sees this, yet does the same every year.
I'm determined not to let this happen to my 40th present, but literally can't think of what to get. I know £1500 sounds a lot, but when you weigh it up with the ten years previous of "vouchers" she's issued and I've never got anything, it's not so much spread over a decade.
What would you choose for £1500 please? My taste in bags tends to run higher in value than this, and I don't really want a contribution towards a purchase, I want to tell her the item, and she can purchase it, so it actually feels like a present. Yet I can't think of anything other than a handbag. I'd like one big purchase, so it feels like a memento of a landmark birthday. I did wonder about luggage, although the set I've got is perfectly good, I'm literally stuck for ideas.
I appreciate this is a first world problem by the way.