The birthday presents I gave the OH went down well.
We did it a few days early as my daughter is down from Scotland so we combined Chinese take away as a birthday and welcome home meal or so I was led to believe.
As far as I am concerned, OH has had his birthday. He gets a money present from a sister, a present from me and sometimes a present from one or other of the kids.
We have a nice meal and sometimes a cake.
It is the same on my birthday except I don't want a cake.
Yesterday he announced we should buy a birthday cake (BUY!)
He likes the huge choc cake from Snailsburys so we ' looked'.
£10 for a cake !!
I didn't whip out my purse and hand him money.
We went home without one .
Later he said ,we can have pizza on my birthday!
He will still be thinking about buying a cake.....
It is hugely irritating. We HAD chinese take away.
As usual there was so much that the DS finished it off next day as Lunch.
But OH cant accept that everything has a limit .
He has always had the same attitude, he sees something and then in his minds eye, it shrinks to nothing..
So his 6 pence pocket money of the 1960's was seen as 'Not enough' ,the £20 a week he was given in the 1970's was equally sneered at and nothing has been enough ever since.
Incidentally the £20 a week is the exact amount I was paid for full time work when I was 16 so that shows how ridiculous that attitude was.
I on the other hand am from the other end of the spectrum.
The penny or 2 pennies that my father only ever gave for rewards for rare tasks, were saved until we had enough to buy sweets. We didn't get pocket money and often had second or third hand presents on birthdays and Christmas and clothing was bought new only twice that I remember in my childhood and one of those events was the school uniform.
We were expected to give presents too and these were always home made or re gifted.
It gives you a whole different mentality.
My eyes don't see things shrink ,they see them grow.
I look at my survey payments and say wow £40 in a month, that is £480 a year.
I could use £30 for buying my veg seeds and we can save £5 a week on the grocery bill which is £260 a year.
£240 will pay for some nice birthday and Christmas presents online and save digging into the bank account.
Possibly saving £250 over the year.
270 has already saved 510 looking at it like that.
We can put the rest(210) towards gadgets that save money in other ways for example battery charging, food preserving, garden equipment ,parts and equipment to mend things.
The initial amount will have grown into a much larger amount.
Therefore the surveys etc are well worth doing despite their being low enough to not even reach the tax threshold.
So I ask myself what is so different in our lives that we think in such diverse ways?
This has to be a family thing.
His roots
OH parents were both single children from professional parents.
His maternal grandfather ran a business of architects.
His paternal grandfather was another successful architect although less affluent.
Neither of his parents ever needed to think about money much in their youths.
They bought cars,jewelry,expensive knick knacks and frittered money away on nothing.
They had 5 kids and poured money on them whether they could afford it or not.
They mostly couldn't.
My roots
My maternal grandfather was a resourceful man who had saved enough from his working life to buy land and build a cabin style house with no mortgage by the time he had married.
He was semi retired I think in that they lived on the land in a small holding capacity and he used his interest in technology to provide an unofficial service mending cars,bikes ,early televisions and radios.
They ran a car they drove to the seaside most weekends, he taught all his children to swim They were also taught acrobatics on the gym equipment he built in the garden as he had been a circus performer in his younger days.
His wife taught the girls to knit and make their own clothes and to cook.
Mum was one of 4
My dads parents both worked and as far as I can work out dad was one of those kids who roamed the countryside to play and make dens and generally be free in very much the style of the kids in Richmal Crompton's books.
Dad was one of at least 5.
We did it a few days early as my daughter is down from Scotland so we combined Chinese take away as a birthday and welcome home meal or so I was led to believe.
As far as I am concerned, OH has had his birthday. He gets a money present from a sister, a present from me and sometimes a present from one or other of the kids.
We have a nice meal and sometimes a cake.
It is the same on my birthday except I don't want a cake.
Yesterday he announced we should buy a birthday cake (BUY!)
He likes the huge choc cake from Snailsburys so we ' looked'.
£10 for a cake !!
I didn't whip out my purse and hand him money.
We went home without one .
Later he said ,we can have pizza on my birthday!
He will still be thinking about buying a cake.....
It is hugely irritating. We HAD chinese take away.
As usual there was so much that the DS finished it off next day as Lunch.
But OH cant accept that everything has a limit .
He has always had the same attitude, he sees something and then in his minds eye, it shrinks to nothing..
So his 6 pence pocket money of the 1960's was seen as 'Not enough' ,the £20 a week he was given in the 1970's was equally sneered at and nothing has been enough ever since.
Incidentally the £20 a week is the exact amount I was paid for full time work when I was 16 so that shows how ridiculous that attitude was.
I on the other hand am from the other end of the spectrum.
The penny or 2 pennies that my father only ever gave for rewards for rare tasks, were saved until we had enough to buy sweets. We didn't get pocket money and often had second or third hand presents on birthdays and Christmas and clothing was bought new only twice that I remember in my childhood and one of those events was the school uniform.
We were expected to give presents too and these were always home made or re gifted.
It gives you a whole different mentality.
My eyes don't see things shrink ,they see them grow.
I look at my survey payments and say wow £40 in a month, that is £480 a year.
I could use £30 for buying my veg seeds and we can save £5 a week on the grocery bill which is £260 a year.
£240 will pay for some nice birthday and Christmas presents online and save digging into the bank account.
Possibly saving £250 over the year.
270 has already saved 510 looking at it like that.
We can put the rest(210) towards gadgets that save money in other ways for example battery charging, food preserving, garden equipment ,parts and equipment to mend things.
The initial amount will have grown into a much larger amount.
Therefore the surveys etc are well worth doing despite their being low enough to not even reach the tax threshold.
So I ask myself what is so different in our lives that we think in such diverse ways?
This has to be a family thing.
His roots
OH parents were both single children from professional parents.
His maternal grandfather ran a business of architects.
His paternal grandfather was another successful architect although less affluent.
Neither of his parents ever needed to think about money much in their youths.
They bought cars,jewelry,expensive knick knacks and frittered money away on nothing.
They had 5 kids and poured money on them whether they could afford it or not.
They mostly couldn't.
My roots
My maternal grandfather was a resourceful man who had saved enough from his working life to buy land and build a cabin style house with no mortgage by the time he had married.
He was semi retired I think in that they lived on the land in a small holding capacity and he used his interest in technology to provide an unofficial service mending cars,bikes ,early televisions and radios.
They ran a car they drove to the seaside most weekends, he taught all his children to swim They were also taught acrobatics on the gym equipment he built in the garden as he had been a circus performer in his younger days.
His wife taught the girls to knit and make their own clothes and to cook.
Mum was one of 4
My dads parents both worked and as far as I can work out dad was one of those kids who roamed the countryside to play and make dens and generally be free in very much the style of the kids in Richmal Crompton's books.
Dad was one of at least 5.
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