How much for Christmas Gifts for Significant Other?

[Inner_Evil_Voice]

I say Black Swan should refer his girlfriend to this thread shortly after she gets the laptop so she can see that half the AF regulars had an opinion about her gift.

[bchad]

Wow. A MacBook Air. That sounds over the top to me, especially if the GF is new. If you’re going to buy something in that price range, I suspect jewelry or a trip somewhere would make her happier/feeling warm and fuzzy inside.

But you seem like a nice guy, when it comes to presents. What are you doing Saturday night?

[cleverCFA]

@numi

…things like that. It’s the tought that counts and the reason I like Tiffany is because there’s just something that makes a girl melt when she sees the blue box. For example, with one of my recent girlfriends, I presented her with a blue box during Christmas Eve dinner. She knew we weren’t getting engaged (too soon), but nonetheless she flipped out at the sight of the blue box, ran to the bathroom to fix up her hair and re-do her makeup, and came back looking hot as all hell and asked our server to take a few photos of us with her memorializing the gift. This was before she opened up the box to see what was even inside!!

Great story Numi. Good suggestion about Tiffany’s less than $250 section, I’ll check it out.

I was thinking of getting one of these bad boys as Christmas present for my wife but I might take your advise before I pull the trigger on this purchase.

http://www.bigw.com.au/home-garden/storage-laundry-washing/sewing/bpnBIGW_0000000083979/singer-2250-traditional-sewing-machine?utm_source=GoogleProductFeed&utm_medium=cpc&origin={adtype}&id={adwords_producttargetid}

She’s been begging for one of these for about 2 years. I don’t understand it but it’s what she wants.

[former_trader]

BS is definitely in love.

[ohai]

Also, pretty extravagant for a “broke” person.

[Palantir]

You could go th e regular laptop route…a lot of great laptops for around 500 or so.

[cleverCFA]

@Palantir

You could go th e regular laptop route…a lot of great laptops for around 500 or so.

I think that’s a bad idea. If she’s a Mac fan, spending $500 on a PC will just look cheap even though you’re spending $500.

[bodhisattva]

@numi

@ChickenTikka

I agree with the others that a MacBook air is a wasted gift on a chick. They have zero appreciation for that stuff. You’d almost be better off buying them a vacuum cleaner as they would at least use that. MacBook air will just be a very expensive 2k charger for her iPhone/iPad.

2k earrings would equal definite bj.

In terms of how much I’m cheap. I never give gifts to really anyone unless a great idea pops through my head. But yeah, you probably don’t want to be like me but hear out my rationale for being this way. Never in my life, either as a boyfriend or a manager, has being generous with money been rewarded in the long run. In fact it invariably works against you for the moment you cannot afford to be generous, which happens to all of us at some point, your past kindness is completely forgotten.

While I’m different from ChickenTikka in that I do believe in getting a decent gift – especially one that they can talk about with their friends – I do believe it’s a disaster to overspend on a girl. They’ll either take you for granted, not appreciate it as much as they should, or continue to expect that you’ll do the same going forward. Plus, if you don’t have the money (i.e. you’ve fallen on tough times, need to save up for grad school, or whatever your personal reasons are), you shouldn’t put yourself in a tough spot. The girl will respect you for what you do rather than how much money you dole out…at least that’s the kind of girl that we all go for.

But since you ask, I generally spend about $150-250 on Christmas gifts for girls that I’ve been dating for a year or two and where I think things are really promising. If you care about social validation (which probably should matter since girls ALWAYS compare notes), get her something she can show off to her friends. Some of the “talked about” gifts I’ve given, which I felt totally comfortalbe with but didn’t feel like I was burning a hole in my pocket, included:

• iPod

• Digital camera

• Ski jacket

• Tiffany necklace / bracelets

…things like that. It’s the tought that counts and the reason I like Tiffany is because there’s just something that makes a girl melt when she sees the blue box. For example, with one of my recent girlfriends, I presented her with a blue box during Christmas Eve dinner. She knew we weren’t getting engaged (too soon), but nonetheless she flipped out at the sight of the blue box, ran to the bathroom to fix up her hair and re-do her makeup, and came back looking hot as all hell and asked our server to take a few photos of us with her memorializing the gift. This was before she opened up the box to see what was even inside!!

These things happen. If you want to get somtehing that will be special without going overboard, check out Tiffany. They have a specific section for $250 and below and no girl will complain about a Tiffany gift, however big or small.

Quoted for truth.

[bodhisattva]

@CFAvsMBA

As much as you can comfortably fit in a brown paper bag, light on fire, and toss out the window on FDR while doing a buck ten.

yo son, if i ever move to harlem we can do some kick ins and use cash that to start up a dopeline together. It’ll be like a fucked up new jack city with excel spreadsheets, we’ll have shit on lock son!!

[Rambus]

I agree with Palantir - a regular laptop should be ok. BS mentioned that her current laptop is a “1980s looking non-functioning brick of a unit” (or something along those lines). If she’s accustomed to a Windows system, it’s not easy switching to a Mac. And the specific applications she uses (nursing?) may be different. Even MS Office 2010 in my work laptop and MS Office 2011 in my home Mac are different.

[system]

@Black_Swan

How much do you guys pony up for Christmas gifts for the person your dating (and how long have you been dating)?

I’ve conveniently managed to be broken up each of the past couple Christmases and I’m thinking I may have gone overboard. I’ve been dating this one girl for just under a year and knew her since I was in middle school, so it’s not a fling, but I just picked up a MacBook Air, but now I’m starting to wonder if that was too much and it’s going to look weird?

Spoken like a true beta. A Macbook Air. f*cking LMAO

[itera]

for a 1 year relationship, def. overboard.

and as others said, not a good idea to set the bar too high

[revaccountant]

@iteracom

for a 1 year relationship, def. overboard.

and as others said, not a good idea to set the bar too high

^yup. also really don’t want to start a relationship on a “you have a problem, i’ll fix it” note.

To completely contradict the above:

I crashed at a former gfs place part of a summer and then all winter for an internship during college. She was a graphic design major with a ishty laptop that stressed her outa ll the time. Bought her a new laptop in lieu of rent. As far as I can tell it didnt hurt the relationship dynamic at all. She didn’t expect huge gifts in the future or anyhting(positive effect if at all)

I didn’t get her a Macbook Air though because she needed a computer that could run programs more intensive than Microsoft Office and I didn’t feel like flushing money away.

[Black_Swan]

@Blake McCallister

Spoken like a true beta. A Macbook Air. f*cking LMAO

I’m gonna let that one go because I like you, and you’re sensitive. I don’t want to scare you off the boards for another month.

@revaccountant

@iteracom

for a 1 year relationship, def. overboard.

and as others said, not a good idea to set the bar too high

^yup. also really don’t want to start a relationship on a “you have a problem, i’ll fix it” note.

To completely contradict the above:

I crashed at a former gfs place part of a summer and then all winter for an internship during college. She was a graphic design major with a ishty laptop that stressed her outa ll the time. Bought her a new laptop in lieu of rent. As far as I can tell it didnt hurt the relationship dynamic at all. She didn’t expect huge gifts in the future or anyhting(positive effect if at all)

I didn’t get her a Macbook Air though because she needed a computer that could run programs more intensive than Microsoft Office and I didn’t feel like flushing money away.

Yeah, I view this as a more of a one time deal because she has put up with an enormous amount of sh*t so far and been a real saint. I honestly was only planning on doing like $100-$200, but the laptop thing has just been bugging me this whole year watching her struggle with it, so I finally just said f* it. I hate compromising. Every other present just felt cheap because for the past year the laptop was what I knew she needed and it was the present I actually wanted to get. MacBook Air just because she’s always borrowing mine and talking about how it’s the coolest thing since sliced bread.

I think Clever_CFA seems to generally get where I’m coming from on this one.