It’s so tempting. You’re shopping for the holidays, and you see so much you want. So you buy something for someone on your list and stuff something in the shopping cart for yourself.
Well, you are not alone. An annual holiday spending survey by the National Retail Federation found that the self-giving is on the rise. This season, consumers are expected to spend the most on non-gift items in the survey’s 10-year history. Six in 10 shoppers said they plan to spend an average of $139.92 on “self-gifting” this holiday season.
The number of people who said they plan to purchase stuff for themselves during the holiday season has been climbing steadily from 51 percent in 2004 (when the question was first asked) to nearly 60 percent last year, reports Michelle Boorstein of The Washington Post.
“Fifty years ago if you asked people, ‘Is it appropriate to buy yourself a gift?’ They would have said: ‘Wrong,” said Adam Hanft, a branding and marketing consultant. “Now a huge number says it’s right. I think that’s a sea change in values.”
As Boorstein writes: “Kit Yarrow, a Golden Gate University professor of business and psychology, said marketers have ‘hammered home the point that: You deserve something.’ For previous generations, gratitude had a bigger role in gift-giving.”
My Gift to You
As a token of my appreciation to you, I’m giving away books left over from my Color of Money Book Club. I ask publishers to donate a certain number books that are then randomly given away each month. But often the publishers are much more generous and send more than requested. So, as I have done in years past, I stockpile the books for what has now become an annual Color of Money Book Club giveaway at the end of the year.
Supplies are limited, and I can’t promise a specific title. If you win and get a book you’re not particularly interested in, please pass it along to someone who you know would benefit from the information. To be considered for one of the free books, send your full name, city and state to colorofmoney@washpost.com. Put “2012 Color of Money Book Club Holiday Giveaway” in the subject line.
Monday Morning Money Quarterback
Consider this to be an invitation to a group participation. I’d like you to play Monday (or, in this case, Thursday) Morning quarterback and weigh in on how you would answer two people with financial dilemmas. The questions were submitted in letters to syndicated advice columnist Amy Dickinson.
In the first letter, a wife wants to know how to deal with her spendthrift husband. The husband likes to buy the latest electronics and says his job in information technology rationalizes the purchases. “He has two motorcycles, five trucks, three boats and two wood stoves,” the wife writes. “He now wants to buy a smart car (energy-efficient electric) on the basis that it is so much less expensive to operate than a gas car.”
The wife tells Amy, “I am drained and depressed by his actions, and I am considering moving out, in part so I can find somewhere to park. Any ideas?”
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