This post was inspired by Trent’s post over at The Simple Dollar on “Ethical Frugality: Regifting”. I was struck by the absurdity of people who said things like:

• “re-gifting in any form is rude, thoughtless, and downright disrespectful.”
• “(re-gifting) just tells me about that person. Lazy, shallow, thoughtless.”
• “Regifting is fine when doing a “Chinese” gift exchange.”
• “ the consensus seems to be regifting is only OK if you can plausibly lie about it “

And then of course, there is my wonderfully diplomatic, tactful response:

“For those that consider re-gifting to be gauche, wrong, whatever . . .

Have you considered that you are allowing advertising and marketing firms to form your opinions for you? That it hasn’t been until the last 40 years that most gifts weren’t necessarily new (they were usually hand made and/or remodeled/repaired re-gifted items) and . . .

That by NOT re-gifting you are conforming to consumerism, waste and landfill/environmental issues.

I find it funny that many of the same “you are an idiot if you re-gift” are also the ones that think that anyone using anything but a bike or hybrid is a drain on our natural resources. What hypocrites.”

No, tact is not my middle name.

Ok, here are 6 reasons why you MUST re-gift.

1. Re-gifting gets rid of the clutter in your life you don’t love.
2. Re-gifting gives you the opportunity to take more time and care in determining who can best use (and love) something you already have.
3. Re-gifting leaves you more money to help those in need.
4. Re-gifting shows you haven’t succumbed to mass advertising and marketing pressures.
5. Re-gifting shows you aren’t influenced by consumerism.
6. Re-gifting shows you are doing everything possible to alleviate waste and landfill issues.

I had something set that required people to already be logged in to post a comment, which effectively turned commenting off for most people.  I apologize for that!  Comments are now open, enjoy!

I love having a full pantry, especially when I’ve found things for phenomenal prices (such as free or almost free!!).  Anyway, having a full pantry enables us to help others when they are in need.

I’ve been going through my pantry and freezer today pulling out “meals” in order to help friends of ours going through a tough financial situation right now.

While I’m working towards a monthly grocery budget of $300 for our family of 6, I’m still able to pull from our pantry and give to those in need.

Financial responsibility gives us so many opportunities, thank you!