Hello my dearest readership,

“what?! You have spent 50,- €?! That definitely is too much and was not necessary!” – You might argue a lot whether this reproachful sounding sentence may be taken as right or wrong. Does there actually exist a right or wrong in such a discussion? In the following I would like to share my point of view about this question with you. One remark ahead, this manual is regardless from any income or personal situation.

Life is full of surprises – sometimes good, sometimes bad. I bet everyone of you has experienced this situation at least once that something went broken all of a sudden or an event is going on when you need to get gifts but is it not for such sitiations that you have the one or other Euro to dedicate?

Quantity V.S. Quality

Which investment is worth it and how much money is too much money spent? Either way, money is a matter of personal attitude and the way you set your priorities. Therefore you should first ask yourself what for you actually spend your money. Some possible general answers would be:

• for a gift
• because you need something
• because something went broken and now you need to replace or repair it
• because you want to go out with a friend
• because there is an exciting event which you do not want to miss
• because you saw something somewhere without which you cannot imagine your life.

Now Or Never

One of these events may be the sale in summer, winter and mid-seasons. Reductions up to 70% on things you have been following or waiting for a whole season long. Reduced prices in the first place do not mean that ware is in a bad state or miserable quality but that the ware could not be sold for the price given for a plenty of time and therefore the offer needs to be changed in order to catch clients. Why not using the time of season-reductions to already get gifts you will need in the future?

Regardless from price reductions – because even I have experienced this situation often enough when I got angry that a ware was reduced shortly after I got it for the regular price – it is possible the other way round to wait and wait for something to get reduced and either it will never get reduced or it has been out of stock before even getting reduced. Do you really want to do this to you?

“Gifts may cause feelings of duty to people but I, for myself, do not know any person that would not be happy about a gift.”
– Fall4Me

Gifts – Blessing Or A Curse?

There are some things money cannot buy, one of those major things are feelings. As mentionned above feelings of anger, sadness, disappointment or – thought positively – love and esteem. Nevertheless a lot of cultures and people put value on gifts not in its value in the context of money spent but as a little sign of attention and esteem. You also would not go visit a person with empty hands.
Some other events, apart from knocking down during reductions, when spending money is necessary are yearly events such as Christmas, Easter, birthdays or other kinds of anniversaries. We do not have numerous gift-manuals for different events for no reason. I often hear from people that they feel uncomfortable with gifts since they cause feelings of duty and payback to them.

I have two questions to these people:

1. What keeps you from getting a gift yourself?
2. How would you feel if everyone or at least a couple of people would receive ?

Refering to the second question, people who love to give gifts will be so happy about just your happy face and reaction instead of being confronted to reproaches. If you are not a host but receive a gift then my advices would be:

• get a gift for the person you were gifted by by the next opportunity
• be happy from heart, a good thank is better than feeling bad for not having anything

Gifts may cause feelings of duty to people but I, for myself, do not know any person that would not be happy about a gift.

It Cannot Always Be Invoices Or Debts

Sometimes you have to spoil yourself, sometimes you are saving your money for something bigger and in the end you will not come around the monthly invoices and you as well do not want to end up at 0 or fall into a minus on your bank account.

I dare to assume that you will not. Thank God, even though the gap between rich and poor gets divided more and more and the so called middle class hardly exists any longer but a normal earner with a firm job can allow itself to spend some more money on goods of a higher quality or do luxury investments, so as gifts – surprisingly or on yearly events, a good service, label food or clothes, a holiday and so on.

The Amount Stays The Same

We all have our monthy payments, we all are putting money aside and last but not least in times when the difference between between rich and poor becomes bigger people create the sick thoughts of fear and stinginess and throw values away.

Money is like flowers, while flowers just bloom no matter if we like them or not the amount of money will stay the same independent from our attitude towards it. We want quality, therefore we are willing to spend more money, because it is worth it, so how come we would not be willing to spend some money or our dear ones as little sign of attention? Keeping the money under our pillow will not increase its amount nor value. Sometimes we have to invest the money in order to find out about its value and increase its amount.

My look in details:

• Blazer by CNDirect
• Blouse from She by Karstadt
• Necklace & bracelet by New Look
• Jeans by Colloseum
• Boots by Zanon & Zago

Love, Johanna