living in a material world...
And I am not a material girl. I really don't like feeling obligated to buy presents for people for things like Christmas. But, there are certain people, mostly family, who would be offended if they didn't get a Christmas gift from me. This year I decided, for financial reasons and to be more in line with my personal beliefs, I was going to do mostly home-made gifts. I would rather give/receive gifts that have some personal element to them than just going to a store and buying a sweater.
I'm not very crafty, nor am I an artist or anything like that. So, my home-made gifts were all baked goods. I made a large batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (my new favorite treat), banana and zuchini breads. I was pretty pleased with myself. And who doesn't like to have some extra food around during the holidays? I figured if people didn't want to eat them, they could bring the treats I made to a party or whatever and serve them to other people.
But I think most folks were a bit disapointed with their goodie baskets in lieu of a gift. My in-laws didn't even get it, and since they didn't eat the banana bread I brought, told me to bring it back home. Oh well. At least I tried, and I didn't break the bank buying gifts that people may or may not even like. My sister and one of my good friends even got really into it. We agreed to only exchange home-made stuff this year. My sister made us some gingerbread cookies and a tasty honey mustard sauce. My best friend made us chocolate candies and peppermint bark. So that made me feel pretty good about the whole thing, even if most people didn't get what I was trying to do.
And speaking of material things, why do things break every 5 seconds now? Husband and I just had to get rid of our washing machine, which died after 25 years. My parents gave it to us as a freebie, and we got about a year's use out of it, so that's pretty good. I can't complain about that. But then our vacuum died, and that was only about 4 years old. The thing is hopelessly clogged, and I've tried everything, but I just can't take the thing apart enough to actually fix it. So, we are in the market for a new vacuum. And of course there is the car, which I feel should go to at least 200,000 miles. But I'm not sure that it's going to make it there. I've put so much money into it this past year. Pretty soon we are going to have to decide if paying out a couple thousand dollars a year in repairs is worth not having a monthly car payment. And there is the dependability issue. We only have one car, and if it is unreliable, then that is huge problem.
Anyway, it just seems to me that things are not built to last any more, and everything is so consumer-centric, companies want you buying new stuff all the time. So, no one makes quality products any more, they make products that will last a few years, so then you will have to buy another one sooner rather than later. I hate that. When I shell out a big chunk of money, like for a car, or even a washing machine, it better last more than 5 years. I hate that everything is disposable now.
I'm not very crafty, nor am I an artist or anything like that. So, my home-made gifts were all baked goods. I made a large batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (my new favorite treat), banana and zuchini breads. I was pretty pleased with myself. And who doesn't like to have some extra food around during the holidays? I figured if people didn't want to eat them, they could bring the treats I made to a party or whatever and serve them to other people.
But I think most folks were a bit disapointed with their goodie baskets in lieu of a gift. My in-laws didn't even get it, and since they didn't eat the banana bread I brought, told me to bring it back home. Oh well. At least I tried, and I didn't break the bank buying gifts that people may or may not even like. My sister and one of my good friends even got really into it. We agreed to only exchange home-made stuff this year. My sister made us some gingerbread cookies and a tasty honey mustard sauce. My best friend made us chocolate candies and peppermint bark. So that made me feel pretty good about the whole thing, even if most people didn't get what I was trying to do.
And speaking of material things, why do things break every 5 seconds now? Husband and I just had to get rid of our washing machine, which died after 25 years. My parents gave it to us as a freebie, and we got about a year's use out of it, so that's pretty good. I can't complain about that. But then our vacuum died, and that was only about 4 years old. The thing is hopelessly clogged, and I've tried everything, but I just can't take the thing apart enough to actually fix it. So, we are in the market for a new vacuum. And of course there is the car, which I feel should go to at least 200,000 miles. But I'm not sure that it's going to make it there. I've put so much money into it this past year. Pretty soon we are going to have to decide if paying out a couple thousand dollars a year in repairs is worth not having a monthly car payment. And there is the dependability issue. We only have one car, and if it is unreliable, then that is huge problem.
Anyway, it just seems to me that things are not built to last any more, and everything is so consumer-centric, companies want you buying new stuff all the time. So, no one makes quality products any more, they make products that will last a few years, so then you will have to buy another one sooner rather than later. I hate that. When I shell out a big chunk of money, like for a car, or even a washing machine, it better last more than 5 years. I hate that everything is disposable now.