Gift Giving Trends

All I can say is: I am glad I can tell my fiance it is "not just me." The proposal, the beauty of two lives into one...and oh yes, the merging of finances. When "forced" to co-create our "budget," I found myself having to commit to certain practical expenses that, while I have long been a zealot at paying bills on time, I had never actually had to put into a little excel spreadsheet that I not only had to keep to, but could be audited by either of us. Ugh. What my dear fiance had not counted on when getting us to this pinnacle of balancing budgets was that I would be adding line items to HIS budget: oh yes, the "gifts" line item.

"GIFTS?!", he said quite audibly, although clearly he knew the battle was useless as I had that indignant look that one gets when it is clear one will not budge on this particular line item when the entire "budgeting process" was against my will.

HOWEVER, it turns out I am not alone: The Center for Media Research reported this week that according to a new survey by VoiceQuilt, Trends in Gift Giving indicate the following:

47% of U.S. women buy gifts for 10 or more occasions throughout the year
25% say they gave gifts for 15 or more events
19% say they gave gifts for 20 or more occasions in the last 12 months.

Even better, when citing reasons for gift giving, "just because" was a surprisingly popular reason to give a gift. Check out the popular rankings in numeric order:

Birthdays: 95%
Religious holidays: 88%
Mother's day: 74%
Valentine's Day: 70%
Father's day: 66%
And, the "just because" reason: 65%!

Women also appear to want the gift to be personal, sentimental...and wanted. The leading reason for giving a gift is to demonstrate "I love you" (62%) although even then, the majority of those polled indicated that a gift should be something the receiver actually wants (90%).

As for online purchasing:
The large majority spend $50 or under on gifts.

Anyone up for some online shopping?!