Do you ever receive cash instead of presents on your birthday? Or perhaps your older relatives sometimes offer their grandchildren a money gift just because they haven’t seen them for a long time? How can you react?
Why a money gift?
I have to admit that when I was first offered a money gift, I had no idea how to react. It is not too confusing when you receive a money gift for birthday in order to buy yourself a present. This is usually the idea of grandparents who are no longer able to follow the latest trends in the area of fashion, computers or the whims of their grandchildren. Instead of spending money on something inappropriate, they would rather give a money gift and allow the birthday child to choose their perfect present.
Unsolicited money gifts
It is much more confusing when you receive a money gift for no particular reason. While we do expect to receive something for our birthday, such an unsolicited gift on a different day may be rather startling. Especially, if you were not raised in a family where grandparents regularly donate money to their grandchildren’s trust accounts. What can you do if it ever comes to that?
Firstly, it is advisable to realise that a money gift doesn’t result from someone’s concern for our finances. It is just a way to show us their support and make us happy – just like on our birthday. Secondly, it is good to tell the donor immediately what we will spend their money gift on. Example: ‘Cool! I couldn’t make up my mind whether I should buy myself new earrings. Now, I’ll definitely do it!’ Or: ‘Thanks! We will go on a luxury date and drink a toast to you!’ Finally, while it is enough to say ‘thank you’ for birthday presents (and repay the kindness by giving the donor a present for their birthday), an unsolicited money gift may be repaid in an equally spontaneous and unexpected way.
Photos in exhange for a money gift
Imagine the surprise on my Grandma’s face when I once told her that I also wanted to present her with something precious hidden in an envelope. Naturally, giving her money would make little sense. For some reasons, although grandparents willingly accept gifts in kind, it is generally accepted that small cash is only given from the older generation to younger ones. Therefore, I gave Grandma something that she couldn’t buy for money, namely my photos.
Photos in exchange for a money gift
Grandma often complained that we would never give her our photos when we developed them to place in our albums. I never understood why she would want somebody else’s photos. I presume we, her children and grandchildren, are not ‘somebody else’ to her. As a matriarch of her family, she probably wants to boast of her offspring when meeting with friends, even if she can only do so with photos.
When I developed our wedding photos, I deliberately ordered a few more prints in order to hand them out. I even wrote a short inscription on the back of each to make them more personal. My gift was welcomed enthusiastically, and since that time I have always made extra prints to give them to my parents, grandparents, parents in law or other family members.
Other types of thank-you gifts in exchange for a money gift
Your holiday pictures or the pictures of your child are just one idea of a thing that may be placed in a thank-you envelope. Apart from extra prints, you may also take special pictures for your grandparents with the gift they have sponsored. This way they will be able to boast not only of their grandchildren, but also of the wonderful present they gave you.
What I don’t recommend, in turn, are thank-you cards. You may give them once or twice, especially if the money gift was a considerable one (e.g. for a wedding or graduation), yet presenting them at every meeting is impractical. Thank-you cards bought in a store will just linger in a drawer. And creating a card on your own each time for the same person and on the same occasion may quickly become boring. Nevertheless, if you are the type that never runs out of ideas, time and energy to make DIY cards, such a gift would definitely make your relatives happy.
If you have other ideas for thank-you gifts that can be given in exchange for a money gift, please let me know in the comments below.
My advice:
– Many big photo labs offer discounts for large orders. If you order 200+ prints at once, the price of a single photo may be from 30% to even 60% lower. Especially if you can wait for a special deal. Subscribe to the newsletters of several photo printing websites, and you will never have to pay the regular price! [Read more about online photo ordering in Great Britain on: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/apr/01/online-photo-ordering-great-deals]
– Create a ‘Photo printing’ file on your computer, and add your favourite photos to it on a regular basis. This way, when you receive news of a special deal (which is usually available only for a short time), you will have a considerable number of photos ready for printing, and it will be cheaper for you to make a dozen more prints and give them away to relatives that to print photos just for you.
– If you receive greeting cards in envelopes, as is customary in my family, you may use exactly the same envelopes for your thank-you gifts. Especially if they have been signed. Otherwise, they would have to be considered trash. Yet if you use an envelope with the recipient’s name on it, e.g. ‘John Smith’, it may be easily transformed into ‘From John Smith to Grandparents with love’.
– Caution! Remember that valuable gifts are considered donations and may be subject to taxation. In most countries you don’t have to worry about it if you receive a book or its cash equivalent for birthday. Yet if your gift is a more precious one – e.g. for your 18th birthday, graduation or wedding – check whether it shouldn’t be at least reported!
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