Anticonsumption and gift giving
This is honestly the hardest part about anticonsumption for me.
I love giving people gifts. I take pride in feeling like I'm good at finding thoughtful gifts, but the pressure I feel from society to purchase new items only for gifts is real and I hate it.
I dont see anything wrong with gifting used items or gifting handmade items when thought it still put into those gifts. As an example, my mom likes Barbie so for Mother's Day I am gifting her a vintage 1960s Barbie doll case I found at the thrift, and a vintage Barbie sweater purchased for myself about 10 years ago, but it's lightly worn and she has expressed before she likes it a lot.
I'd rather be given a thoughtful used item with low monetary value than an expensive item that someone bought new but put no thought into it. I'm always worried my friends and family are going to think I'm some cheap tightwad who isn't willing to spend money on them or something :/ Honestly, I think gifts are over normalized in general for all sorts of occasions when they shouldn't be expected.
How do y'all deal with this? How has moving towards anticonsumption affected your gifting habits and has anyone looked at your hand made or not brand new gifts as a sign of you being "cheap" or less considerate?
Posted May 5, 2025, 2:05 AM UTC