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People walk past a store in New York City.
Today Money and msnbc.com expert Allison Linn joined us for a live Web chat Wednesday to answer your questions about holiday shopping and managing your finances.
Here’s one of her answers to questions from the live chat. (See below for the full Q&A.)
Matt asked:
“This year, my wife and i decided to buy each other ONLY necessities (socks, underwear, etc.) We are thinking about doing that for our kids too. Thoughts?”
Allison replied:
“Wow, Matt, that's a great strategy for saving money. I do think that it probably depends on how old your kids are and what their expectations are for the holidays. If you are going with necessities for them, you probably want to talk about that beforehand, explain why you are doing it and talk about how they can craft and appropriate holiday wish list. It can be a great holiday tradition, though, and who knows - my kids LOVE getting pajamas for the holidays, and that's become a holiday tradition for us.”
If you have a question for our TODAY Money experts, submit it here.
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Leave a Comment:
Buying necessities is smart, we do that as well. Our young adult children will be receiving gas gift cards and grocery store gift cards. And no wasteful wrapping paper that ends up in a landfill, our gifts are wrapped in new bath towels or dish towels or a shirt, something they can use.
Great idea; refuse to spend any money in the retailer market......and then bitch about how sluggish the economy is.
Nice spider, I've read enough of your posts to know you espouse taking responsibility for your actions, So, Jay describes how they are taking responsibility, and you jump him for not being a good American Consumer. Nice.
Note: I do not support either corrupt political party. Vote out the incumbents, for true term limits.
Many of the clients (200 + families) at our local food pantry can't afford the necessities. Suggest you use that extra $$ to help them.
Necessities and its definition has seemed to have changed the last 40 years. Is a cell phone, 52 inch big screen LED T.V., an Ipod, personal computer, cable T.V. service, a personal vehicle instead of public transportation, name brand clothing and shoes, and many more items to numerous to mention fit into this latest definition or am I straying from its true meaning? Visiting the local grocery store the other day this definition perplexed me into more deep thoughts on the subject. While most agree necessities means food and shelter some gaps in this type of thinking have occurred since society and its ever changing description of what needy really means as been diverted to include many things never before considered truly necessary.
The story line from the first sentence from above: After purchasing some items from the local store, I witness a lady in her early 30's in front of me in the checkout line paying for her grocery items with a food stamp debit card. Noticing that she had three small children I didn't take too much notice. UNTIL, after my quick purchase. I was in the parking lot and noticed what the bagger for this Mom wast putting their groceries into. A 2008 limited edition Lincoln navigator. Granted this family could have fallen on hard times and their income could have taken a huge hit in a hurry but by the clothes they where wearing, by the vehicle they were leaving in and by the backseat DVD player and other electronic items I witnessed I was not sorely convinced they were truly needy! Maybe my assessment was out of line but the images did not add up.
Mac, it seems that you may have witnessed something that is purported to be true, but often is denied. We do see this happen once in a while.
There is all manner of fraud going on in our welfare system. Sometimes it is those who are fraudulently receiving aid. Sometimes it is those who are doling it out that skim off the top. As a taxpayer, I would love to see this put an end to. Although the reality is that there is probably more syphoned off at the top by the Industrial Complex that governs. There is probably more institutional fraud going on than there is personal fraud. Still, when we see the Food Stamp/Lexus crowd we take it as a slap on the face to our society's goodwill and it burns into our memory and makes it way into political rhetoric as bumper sticker slogans.
Also, being poor in America is nothing like being poor in most of the rest of the world. No wonder that the downtrodden from the world want to come to America.
As an above poster pointed out, the line between a need and a desire is very much blurred.
And if you can't afford the necessities? Then what?
If I spend more than $75.00 for gifts this year I will be surprised. It's not that I don't want to support the economy (for Spider), but that I truly don't have the money to spend. I guess his view is what got our country into trouble to begin with!
The only gifts we are giving this year, are to my husband's mother. She hasn't gotten new glasses or new clothes in over two years, and is in dire need of both. The current pair she has are being held together by tape, as she broke them after an atonic seizure, and what little clothing she has has thinned out from so many washings, and some of it doesn't fit, due to new meds that made her gain weight. She is going on Monday to get new glasses, buy clothes, and putting it on her credit card. We will then pay it off for her.
We are living through some very odd times. While I am sure there are those who steal from our safety net programs, there are also many who don't.
Of course, "necessity" is often confused with "want" and "convenience". It is amazing how many "can't" if they don't have some "widget" to guide them.
In our extended family, the amounts we were outdoing each other for presents was getting out of hand and a few years BEFORE the recession, we decided to limit presents to a max of $20 for each present. Sometimes that's violated but not often and not expected. We have all we need, we are very fortunate that all of us have skills and education and spent no time unemployed during this awful period, and there's no need for expensive presents. When a great bargain that fits someone presents itself, a group goes in together to get it if it's, say a $200 piece of jewelry on sale for $80.
Clothing is a great item to buy on Black Friday. Cotton prices have gone up tremendously and you can actually get some decent sales on clothing now. Read some great Black Friday tips here: http://bestblackfridaysecrets.blogspot.com/
My husband and I gave up most gift giving as the recipients already have so much *stuff*. We don't buy gifts for each other either--we've donated a lot of our stuff. Exception? Non-religious charities.