My friend and I were debating this fact today. I say, no. She said it depends.. If the person doesn't tell you the reason why they're borrowing the money then it's ok. I guess I could see that logic...kinda lol.
What's your opinion?
Nope. I am a no debt person and I would not appreciate it if I found out someone borrowed money to buy me something. I would be perfectly content with a nice handmade card and knowing someone did not buy more than they could afford for me. I am a simple person and respect NO DEBT and delayed gratification.
No because I wouldn't want a gift that someone had to borrow to give me. Even if they didn't borrow the money from me I wouldn't like someone thinking I need something bigger than they can afford out of their pocket.
No! I would hope that NO O. ever feels they have to borrow money from anyone to get me a gift! That's nuts!
no way. They can give me an IOU on a gift instead of cash. I will always need cash. I won't always need a "gift"
I would rather have my own cash to buy myself something I wanted/needed.
Ya, I would offer a forgivable loan to my 6 year old.
No. You're pretty much buying your own gift at that point. And unless you are picking it out yourself too, you don't even know if you're going to like it.
And if you and/or the gift giver needs to borrow money to buy it, it is way too expensive.
The better gift would be no owing me money. For any substantial amount of money I ask why they need the loan, so I would always know the reason. If they lied to me about why they needed the money and then bought me a gift, I'd be pissed. It does get me thinking about my wedding. I used to use my bosses credit card to buy all his gifts for others. I guess he assumed I'd do it for myself because he never bought me a gift. I could of used his card and bought myself something really nice and he wouldn't of noticed, but I would of felt bad about it.
This idea just sounds absurd. I'd lend my brother $20 so he could go buy me a gift? Eh how about you skip the gift. I'll spend my $20 on whatever I want.
The only instance where I think this idea would work would be if I gave my son $3 at the dollar store and told him he could get one item for himself, one for his dad, and one for me. (Did this one time actually. My dear son - 3 yrs old at the time - bought me a popsicle mold. Oh fun! Just what I wanted - to make my son popscicles. Actually he was sweet. He didn't get me a toy or anything. We've actually used the popsicle mold and both he and i have enjoyed creating popsicles. Best 99cents he's spent on me).
I do this all the time with my kids. We're out shopping, we see something that would make a good Christmas, birthday or mom's day gift for me, they have no money on them, it goes on the conveyor belt with all my other purchases, they pay me back when we get home. They remember to pay me, and then I try to forget that they bought it and pretend to be surprised when my special day comes around. Now that I'm older, it's become easier to forget about the gift in a week or two and often I really am surprised by the time I unwrapped it!
If they are under age 10, then yes. :) Other than that, I don't loan people money. I give money, but I never loan.
It did happen for me but a little different. My DD was invited to a BD party and I'm really good friends with the mom. And she had told me what her daughter wanted. I hadn't had a chance to get back to that store and she went before me and picked up the gift for her daughter. She told me that she had gotten it and then I paid her back.
I have, unknowingly lent someone money because they purchased something intended for me and then something came up and they were behind - and I was like - give it BACK (as in the gift)! But they said it was non refundable, so I paid for half of my gift - Oh well, I rolled it into "the thought that counts" category.
For my kids always.
For others it depends :).
I agree with everyone on this one - I wouldn't want someone to borrow money to buy me a gift. If someone has to borrow to buy a gift they can't afford it. Besides if they really want to give a friend a gift and can't afford it can't they come up with some idea that they can make or do something for the person even if its doing their laundry or cleaning or taking them somewhere or even just going to the park together or something. If a person really wants to give a gift they can come up with some sort of endearing way to show the person they care.
The is kinda crazy idea.
If someone borrowed and didn't tell me it was to buy me a gift and then found out I wouldn't be too happy about it.
I can't imagine anyone being rude or tacky enough to ask to borrow money from YOU to buy YOU a gift.
It sounds so tacky. The whole idea of gift giving really is supposed to be from the heart. It's not supposed to be based on materialism. (I know in my mother-in-law's culture it's different, since they are very materialistic....They do count money and it has to be big, just like in the "Joy Luck Club" book.) If you can't afford a gift you'd really like to get someone; you can always say,"I would have really liked to get you ____, but all I could afford was this. I hope you like it."
