Penny for your Thoughts
Now that I'm finally leaving the portion of my life where I get money for making it to another birthday or passing a grade, I'd like to mourn the fact that I never learned how to appropriately react to getting money from relatives. Gifts are easy, because it's something nice and you can just tell the person thanks for thinking of you, you love it, and maybe throw something in about how you're making good use of it. Money is much, much harder for me. I got a graduation card from my Grandmother today, lovely card, and it had a pretty serious chunk of change in it. It's probably the last I'll ever have to deal with, so I feel like I have to respond well rather then just letting it awkwardly slip by. But what is the appropriate reaction? "Thank you for the card, and also for your generous donation"?
By my nature I can't ever really say "thanks for the money" flat out, because it always sounds so strange to me. It's ridiculous, because I am grateful and it was generous, but it feels like bad manners to talk specifically about the money. The best I've ever been able to do is thank the person for the card and make an allusion to the money, "Thank you so much for the card, it was very generous of you", followed up with an implication of what I spent the money on "I bought a ____ that I really love", usually something vague enough in price that it isn't obvious I stashed most of the check in my bank account. It's a system that works, but I don't like it; it feels like I'm discussing money laundering and not just a nice graduation surprise.
By my nature I can't ever really say "thanks for the money" flat out, because it always sounds so strange to me. It's ridiculous, because I am grateful and it was generous, but it feels like bad manners to talk specifically about the money. The best I've ever been able to do is thank the person for the card and make an allusion to the money, "Thank you so much for the card, it was very generous of you", followed up with an implication of what I spent the money on "I bought a ____ that I really love", usually something vague enough in price that it isn't obvious I stashed most of the check in my bank account. It's a system that works, but I don't like it; it feels like I'm discussing money laundering and not just a nice graduation surprise.