How To Buy Gifts

By Lev Novak

When it comes to birthdays, there are tiers. There are strangers, those you’d never know had birthdays beyond a vague assumption. Then there are the distant, half-met persons who fill up the distance of your life. Maybe you know them on Facebook with the icon to remind you. And there are friends. Then good friends. Then good friends who got you something for your birthday, so now, you know, it’s on.

There are levels to the gift-game, but we here at uCribs want you to be prepared. No matter your level or budget, you’re going to win.

1. Mix It Up

You can’t buy them alcohol for every single gift.

I know, I know. A bottle of cheap-enough champagne is a classy and simple way to say happy birthday/ graduation / whatever else you have left to celebrate these days. But if you do that every time, it’s going to catch up to you.

Cheap-enough champagne is a great gift, and one you should hold on to remembering for next time, but depending on how well you know someone, there could be better options. Get creative and think thoroughly. Do they like rap? Do they have a sense of humor? Go on Amazon and buy them the autobiography of Vanilla Ice. Wrap it up super nicely. Present it. Laugh.

That’s super memorable and cheap. You can switch it back to champagne for the next one.

2. You Can Spend More On Something You Get To Use

If you’re buying something for a good friend, an easy way to solve two problems at once is to buy them something you want to share with them.

Really want to go to a steakhouse? You’re taking them out for dinner there! Yum! What a great gift- and it is, really- but you also get to do something you’ve been dying to do.

It’s expensive, sure, but it’s fun for you and memorable for them. Consider it, at least.

3. Group Gifts

It takes a little bit more effort to organize this sort of effort, but when correctly done, you can all coast on one awesome present that makes a big impact.

If you have enough friends “we all pitched in…” can be the lead in to a single show-stopping present. Two tickets to a Jay-Z concert, for example. Getting everyone to pay up is harder than it sounds right now, but if you all pitch in you can all share the credit for a gift far more impressive than you’d be able to put together on your own.

Just be careful: there will be a friend who tries to get credit without paying for it. Make everyone pay an equal amount or else resentment might pop up in your friend-group.

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