Originally Posted by VTEC_Junkie,Dec 22 2006, 11:59 PM

you're missing my key point which is: "if you are in a giving mood and want to help someone out."

giving gifts to friends, family, and/or loved ones is different. being generous by tipping someone (particularly a stranger) when it's not required or necessary is a different form of giving. also, if you want to spend on yourself, then you are being selfish and are not in a "giving mood", and thus you are exempt from my point in those situations. i am not trying to say that everyone should be frugal and donate all their surplus cash to charity. i'm merely saying that if you're in a holiday spirit and in a giving mood, and want to spread some joy to strangers or non loved ones, might as well be giving it to the ones that need it the most. besides, many gifts given to non loved ones (and probably also a good portion of gifts given to friends, families, and loved ones) tend to end up being unused (aside from gift certificates/cards, of course). that makes the whole "casual" gifts an even bigger waste of money with that money being better used for something else, such as charity. for instance, one of my coworkers, who i do not consider to be a friend or loved one, gave me a t-shirt, while another one gave me a mug, both of which i find hideous and would never use that will one day end up in the trash. so basically those 2 are just throwing money into the trash. even worse, out of social etiquette, i ended up returning the gesture by giving them crappy gifts, which will most likely also never get used and end up in the trash.