Clever Posts Of The Week – December 6th
Over the last ten years, certain traditions have been created in our neighborhood. Our house is where we get together for football games, another neighbor hosts dinner before the kids go Trick-Or-Treating on Halloween, someone else has a pool party every August, and another couple always hosts the neighborhood Christmas party. Nobody has ever said any of these traditions out loud, it’s just how it’s done. In past years, there have commonly been gifts given to all the neighborhood kids. As our circle of friends has grown, so did each child’s present haul. Quite frankly it’s become ridiculously expensive with each kid leaving the neighborhood Christmas party with more presents than they can carry. I’d imagine it’s also become a little embarrassing for new comers who show up and didn’t know that gifts were commonly given. So this year we took a stand.
We’re not bringing gifts.
One of the other neighbors asked what we were giving out this year, and we said, “Nothing.” I would bet that as word spreads, it will be a relief to all. It usually just takes one person to say something to topple something that everyone knows should be stopped. I hope we have fulfilled that role.
On the other hand, I’m not above giving you, my readers, gifts. This week you get five! Check out my gifts , er I mean my five favorite posts of the week.
- High Deductible Car Insurance and Emergency Funds from Money Ahoy
- Personal Finance: Are you living below your means? from Dojo Blog
- Are You Richer Than You Thought or Poorer Than You Feared? from Money Rebound
- Top Personal Finance Apps from Free Money Minute
- Are you being bullied over money? from DINKS Finance
Bonus gift! I guest posted over at Money Bulldog this week with a post titled Your Emergency Fund Strategy Could be a Waste of Money.
CleverDude was included in the following carnivals this week:
- Carnival of Financial Camaraderie at Micro Missions
- Carnival of Financial Independence at Budget And the Beach
- Aspiring Blogger – Personal Finance Carnival at Aspiring Blogger
Brought to you courtesy of Brock
Brock is a software engineer by day and personal finance blogger at night. He is a fitness junkie and enjoys grilling and smoking meat. Married with two children, Brock strives to improve his skills as a husband and father, and is always on the lookout to stretch his family’s budget as far as he can.
Wow, probably tough to take a stand like that when all the kids are expecting a present and all the neighbors are probably planning on giving gifts. I am all for giving, but that does sounds pretty insane. We can all give each other a gift by getting our financial situations under control so we are no longer a debt nation.
By the way, thanks for the mention!
We give gifts to a few close neighbors’ kids, but we keep them small. That actually started because the people across the street gave our kid Christmas gifts years ago. They have since divorced and moved, but the tradition lives on.
@FreeMoneyMinute – You’re welcome! Word must have gotten around because……NOBODY brought presents! The hosts gave little gift bags out to each set of adults and each child but that was it. There wasn’t one complaint from the kids, they had a great time hanging out with each other. It turned out *perfectly*!!
@Bryce – as long as everyone’s comfortable with it it’s not a bad tradition. it had just gotten out of control in our neighborhood and it was time to stop. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!