Sometimes it is merely the thought that counts. One doesn't have to go into hock to shower someone with attention and material love. And often a truly creative and witty gag gift can go a long way. Now don't get me wrong diamonds and fancy vacations are fabulous but so are small, even "cheap" gestures. We can all use a good backscratcher. Or a heavy duty flashlight. And new pairs of socks and underwear are imperative. And who amongst us wouldn't love a 'Golden Girls' chia pet?
Redditor u/salawm wanted to know what gifts some of us would except when money isn't the objective by asking.... What is the cheapest gift you'd love to receive?
Soiled Love....
Giphy
True story; I gave my wife dirt for our 10th wedding anniversary.
My wife and I tried to see who could give each other the cheapest anniversary gift. I called up a friend of mine, that went to the exact location we were married, and dug up a small jar of dirt and mailed it to me. I spent about $3 at Hobby Lobby on a tiny jar and some ribbon.
I won. CalmEnthusiasm
Risk it All!
I'd love to just spend time with friends and play a full game of Risk. I'm at the point now where I don't really want things... I'd just rather spend time with people. AlexanderTox
RISK is only worth it if everyone is at the same playing level or on the same page. Imagine strategy like chess with multiple people. If one person gets it way more than the rest it's no fun for anyone. SuSpence11
Pickle Tickle...
A pickle wedge.
My wife came home from work one day and announces "I have a pickle for you if you'd like it." She saved the pickle wedge from her sandwich because she knew I liked them.
I'd marry her again if I could. superredmenace
Fidget Addiction....
My son (eight) fell victim to the fidget spinner craze this spring. So of course, I bought him one, because it's $5 and why the heck not? Anyway, Mother's Day rolled around, and he was so upset because he didn't have any money to get me a present. So he went into his room and wrapped up his fidget spinner (at the time, his most prized possession) and gave it to me.
I hugged him and thanked him immensely, and then asked if maybe we could just share it, since it's no fun playing by yourself. So he was happy too, and I didn't take his favorite toy. Fast forward a few months and we now have eight fidget spinners between us, because it's become this little inside thing where we buy each other one whenever we get a chance. SoraxvDingy
Handwritten....
Giphy
A handwritten letter telling me how much i impacted a student. I get a couple a year and they are always my favorite thing. jamin342
Lifes Go-to...
When you're sick and someone shows up with an aluminum casserole pan with comfort food. I don't even care what's inside--mac and cheese, shepherd's pie, hot dish, tuna noodle, lasagna, enchiladas, scalloped potatoes, or just some cheesy grits. A little note with good tidings and the baking instructions. It fills your house with a wonderful smell and fills your belly with hot food made by a human. That is how to make a friend forever.
Next time you hear that someone's having a crappy time at life, thoughts and prayers be damned, send them casseroles! It's like a giant billboard-sized message to someone that tells them that they matter and are cared for. CurlSagan
The Ole Standard....
Socks are always great. Seems like all my socks gets holes on them all the time. MeesterChicken
I have found that in terms of quality and durability, there is a big gap between cheap socks and expensive socks. Reddit
Sturdy socks: 'Gold Toe' socks are made with re-enforced toes so that they don't wear out too soon. The socks became popular during the Great Depression when money was tight but customers had a hard time telling them apart from other socks on display. Gold thread was added to the toes to help make them stand out. IndyScent
Those eyes....
For an anniversary, I woke up and my boyfriend threw a plushy owl on my face. Out of literally nowhere. He isn't very good with gifts or anniversaries, and we hadn't at all planned on buying something for each other. Realizing that he must've just seen that little plushy, thought about me (I love owls) and bought it for me was just the sweetest thing ever. I love that man so much. KimToq
Safe Home....
12$ cash from an old Australian couple to get home. The bus company wouldn't split my 25$ ticket between the 13$ I had cash and the 19$ I had on my debit card, they were behind me in line. I never even got their names. Not that they are ever going to read this, but thank you. EconomyViolinist
Sponsored by Pepsi....
Giphy
i got a bottle of pepsi my little brother knew i was low when i was asleep so when he went shopping he snagged me one made my day. Ithasbegunagain
Hold ME!
A hug. They're the greatest things on the planet. UnPhayzable
A sincere hug is even better. My crush gave me one about 4 weeks ago and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy. It also helps me sleep. (I have trouble sleeping due to anxiety, not because I am kinda creepy lol.) HappyGoLuckyFox
A Correspondence...
A hand written letter or postcard, like, actually in the mail. MorasEscritoras
Love is in the Air....
For my son to say "I love you" for the first time. He's very good at hugging and kissing, so I know he does, but he hasn't really gotten around to learning the phrase yet (too busy talking about everything else, I suppose). I just can't wait to hear him say it. He's my favorite person in the world. Rainbowcoloredpoop
Time after Time...
Time. There's never enough time to do everything that's needed let alone relax. ThisHandIsMyHand
Rock With You...
Giphy
As silly as it sounds I really love rocks (and also crystals fossils). I'm always happy when someone finds a neat rock (and occasionally fossils) to give to me, I'm also the easiest person to shop for if you're going off on vacation cause I just ask for rocks. Once my friend brought me back a bunch of dead coral from vacation thinking it was just rocks which was also really cool! artificialn0cturne
You Gotta eat!
I love getting food, it´s my favorite gift. A chocolate, a bag of chips, a beer ... that makes me genuinely happy, specially if you can share with the person that gave it to you. feto_ingeniero
Being Nailed!
Someone mentioned back scratches. YES.
My wife will simply not scratch my back the way I want for fear of hurting me, and I cannot convince her to do it harder or longer, despite the fact that whenever she does give me a bit of a scratch, I moan as if Heather Brooke is working her magic.
I'm not that physically fragile, love! Dig those nails in and WORK IT. xenobuzz
That's my Ice Cream!
Giphy
Ben n Jerry's Ice cream. Some limited edition flavor. loganlogwood
A couple months ago I grabbed a few pints of B&J pumpkin cheesecake right before I figured they'd stop stocking it. A couple weeks ago I went to get my last pint out of the freezer and it was gone. Turns out my sister ate it. I was crushed. IcarianSkies
Love is in the Air..
Love. wildadragon
Thank you for going through and responding to all of the love ones saying "I love you" I noticed your name on an earlier one, and on this one too. Just wanted to thank you. QuitePugly
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That kind of thinking, however, does little to keep us from feeling dejected for days on end.
Curious to hear from heartbroken strangers on the internet, Redditor whitecheeks-24 asked:
What's your sad love story?
Death never comes at the right time.
A Difficult Decision
"The love of my life and soulmate who I was married to for 20 years and together for 24 passed away about 8 months ago. I feel alone and empty inside. I have nobody to love or to love me. My life is an empty waste of space now."
"I took her off of life support because I know that's what she wanted and I had to respect her wishes but I sometimes wish I was a little more greedy. I just want my doll face back."
Deep Despair
"I am so sorry. I had to do the same thing with my love, married 40 years. It's been 28 months and I'm sinking deeper into despair. We had so many plans, did everything together, and I am honestly lost without him. I send you warmest regards."
The Shy Admirer
"I was a shy teenager, in love with a cute neighbor. His sister and my mom were friends. He died in a car accident. Nobody knew how I felt about him. I overheard his sister tell my mom that he was in love with me. We never got to share our feelings with each other."
The Illness
"I think a guy I found on match.com died but I have no way of knowing. We had only been dating for 2 or 3 months and we were taking things slow. Then he got sick..tumors in his back and he needed surgery. We still hung out but he was in a lot of pain."
"At the time I was frustrated because I felt he was pushing me away. I just adored him and he was sending mixed messages. Now looking back.. I'm thinking he was just trying to survive. He went in for surgery and I never heard from him again. I didn't know his family and he didn't have social media."
"My mom would check the obituaries in the paper for me and I just always wondered. I hope he didn't know how to end things and just felt this was easier. It's been 5 years and I have a family of my own now but Michael..I hope you're okay."
It's hard for these Redditors to accept the fact their love was never meant to be.
Long Distance Fizzle
"I had to leave my first boyfriend behind because I moved out of state and didn't even get to say goodbye because I didn't know we were moving when I left. We left to see my aunt who had been traveling and was diagnosis with brain cancer in another state, she was too sick to travel home so they rented a house and stayed there essentially until she passed away."
"My mom liked the area better than my hometown tho so we ended up staying, our stuff was shipped to us so I never got to say goodbye to my boyfriend in person."
"We kept in contact for a couple years but being 16 and 18, it wasn't easy for me to just pack up and head back to move in somewhere with him. We both knew we weren't ready for that so we tried our best to keep the long distance romance going."
"Eventually he messaged me one day and told me that he can't do it anymore and he didn't want to hear from me again because he couldn't handle it."
Unrequited Love
"When I was in my early 20s, I've had a love at first sight experience. It completely broke me. He actually was into me too, but not in love like I was."
"I had never had a boyfriend before and I got so excited, I came in like a wrecking ball to cite a great poet. Long story short, I scared him off, he broke up, I couldn't get him out of my head and couldn't imagine a world without him, so I tried to kill myself."
"Though let me reassure you all, it's been years and I'm over him (as long as I don't see him IRL, I just know that I'd fall back in the spiral), I even had a long-term relationship after him."
Tough Reality Check
"I got left out of a 5 year relationship. I got injured, lost my job, and had to go take care of my dying mom. I was not in a good way. I come back from the ER and she calls our entire relationship off because I was not 'passionate' any longer. Right."
"My entire life fell apart. Lost the house we had gone in on. Lost the dog we had gotten together. And I lost my girl. She was my bestfriend, my first love."
"Huge reality check but at least I'm only 22. I'm glad I saw her true colors when things went bad. Easy to stand by someone when times are good. Saddest part is I would take her back in an instant. I lost a piece of my soul with her."
Some of the biggest heartbreaks come when someone shows their true colors.
Deception
"FOUND OUT MY BOYFRIEND WAS MARRIED WITH KIDS ON THE INTERNET. I was happy and in love for two years. One day while doing my research for a client work, I come across a research paper. The research paper matched what I was looking for, scrolling through it, I realized the owner had some names as my boyfriend."
"But this time he acknowledges his wife and two children for being patient with him as he was busy doing the thesis. I got curious, I took a screenshot and sent him a picture and asked if it's his paper."
"Also, I asked if it's true that he has two kids and a wife and he why didn't tell me. He answered 'DOES IT MATTER '. That was the end of my relationship. Never talked about it, never told any soul what happened."
– MURKOMEN
Heartbreaker
"I finally got with my best friend and soul mate. He knows more about me then anyone and knows what I've been put thru my whole life. When we first got together he promised he would never do anything to me that others have."
"One year later he cheated, lied and and broke my spirit. Something i never thought was possible with me, yet he accomplished it. It's been a year since i left him and he still tries to get back into my life. The sad part is I know he doesn't love me and I can't stop loving him."
Ungrateful
"After four years of supporting my lover through his depression and alcoholism, he announced tonight that he is leaving me. I'm pretty depressed."
A Devious Scheme
"Wife moves our small family across the country for a promotion at her company. When we arrive and settle into our house, she leaves me for her boss."
"The move was a scheme for her boss to leave his wife and kids, and for her to leave me, while being able to be close to all their children. So I unknowingly left my career, family and friends behind to move to a state where I don't know anyone so she could be with her new guy."
Unexpected tragedy will always be, to me, the saddest break up story.
A co-worker of mine used to date a young man who was a patron at the store where we both worked.
Their budding romance was new and exciting and absolutely adorable to watch.
He told me he planned to propose to her before he went away on a family vacation, but sadly, my friend never got the proposal. The guy drowned in a horrible boating accident during his trip.
Although my friend is now happily married with two kids, I wonder if she still thinks about him.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/Want to "know" more?
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I swear if every single person was forced to work in the hospitality industry for at least one month in their life, y'all would be beside yourselves. The amount of craziness and laziness could keep you eating at home for every meal until death.
Play Big
martin scorsese casino GIFGiphy"Casino dealers really do want the players to win. We don't work for the house. We get paid crap hourly rates and rely on tips. Unless the player is super nice they only to tip if they win so we really do want you to win." ~ thedevilsgame
Not the Good Stuff...
"That you can take a gallon of paint and give it a different label, price point, and warranty depending on the store it is sold in." ~ big_d_usernametaken
"My professor told me the same thing. He was a job coach and erased the due dates on food products with I believe acetone or some product in nail polish remover."
"Would slap a new date on it, and the food would get shipped to poorer neighborhoods. That crap blew my mind." ~ Additional_Bar_2013
"Oh crap, I may actually go to jail."
"That if everyone being charged with a crime insisted on it going to trial, no plea bargaining, the system would crash." ~ mikenyle
"When I was a juror, the judge also commented before everything started that trial by jury is the only thing causing people to plea bargain and "getting the system moving."
"Many trials sit in limbo for years, and it's only the threat of "Oh crap, I may actually go to jail."
"That really negotiations start. That's exactly what happened in my case - jurors got selected, and that afternoon (after being 2 years in the system), the defendant pleads out." ~ zealeus
Fake Care
"Safety. It's not really about your health and well being. It's about saving the company money from medical expenses, lost time, lawyer costs, etc. Very rarely does your company actually give 2 craps about you, no matter how much they preach safety, they just don't want to pay if you get hurt/killed." ~ WhenThePiecesFit
"pen to paper"
New Girl I Give Up GIFGiphy"TV/screenwriter here. If you're established and well connected, it's very easy to coast and be a TV writer for YEARS and do very little actual writing. Most of TV writing is just talking in a room with other writers spitballing."
"This is why there's so many old, unfunny dudes still "writing" on TV shows. They're hired by their friends and in TV, a lot writers don't actually do much "pen to paper" writing. Plus everything gets rewritten to death." ~ GardenChic
So much mess. Someone hire me to write for TV. Why are you just giving away jobs to unqualified people? Life is so unfair. This list makes me mad. Let's continue...
Carbon Copies
mail GIF by RabbidsGiphy"I work in the print industry, we print cheques for companies and there is so little security involved in hiring, or keeping the materials secure, or running the actual work, or shipping the work to customers. I'm shocked we haven't had a problem with stolen cheques." ~ Jeff_Cunningham
Followers
"Advertising. I keep reading that advertising is leading people to be more woke, or multicultural. Companies don't lead, they follow. They do lots of research and know where the future markets are."
"I worked for a very conservative global brand. 5 years before gay marriage became legal, they told us it would happen and we needed to start targeting the LBGTQ community." ~ leftside72
"connection"
"Visa agent and I've seen people be refused because the manager didn't like their face." ~ Ok_Albatross9395
"Omg this happened to my sister. She couldn't start her semester in time because she kept being refused a visa even though she fulfilled all conditions."
"Finally my parents found a "connection" in embassy to see what's going on; turns out someone just didn't like her when she came to give her papers the first time. I never knew if I can fully believe that story." ~ animal7239
So much typing...
"I'm a writer, among other things. I used to ghostwrite. You'd be amazed how many popular books are partly or fully ghostwritten. I specialised in taking people's crappy first drafts and rewriting them so they were actually good. Not "good" according to people's taste, which is subjective."
"But objectively better in the sense of being properly spelled, not having gaping plot holes, making sure characters were consistent. By the time I was done there was often very little left of the draft the "writer" had created, but there was a marketable product."
"Pisses me off no end when I see all the bull the publishing industry comes out with about how writers submitting a manuscript must make sure it's perfect because only excellence will get you anywhere."
"I don't know how they can say that and still sleep at night, knowing full well that they're hiring people like me to do large-scale rewrites (or to take a half-baked plot and create a draft from scratch)." ~ iwillckingbiteyou
Thieves
Joseline Hernandez Facepalm GIFGiphy"I work in payroll. The number of payroll reports I see where people are conned out of their overtime is saddening."
"Also, taxes paid by a business shouldn't actively dissuade them from paying employees less. The system shouldn't be based on paying a percentage of employee salary in taxes (FICA, Workers Comp), in other words." ~ ThongofSekhmet
I think some investigations need to be launched. I always knew payroll departments were running a scam. Too many people are being ripped off. Time to expose some people.
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