Birthday gift

For my 60th, I asked for donations to charity, as I do every Christmas. I am not comfortable with the unnecessary spending on me when I have everything. I feel good that others benefit and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

I only buy for 2 friends now. They both have enough 'stuff' & can afford to buy whatever they want (within reason) so I now tend to buy consumables I know they'd like. In the past I've bought monthly coffee & sweets, and boxes of brownies/cakes (freezable). This year I'm planning on tea for one, not sure of the other yet.
It is annoying when you've spent time & effort to select a gift, but as others have said, better not to waste money & send more stuff to landfill.

buy her a goat!

I did that once for a relative - after several years of birthday and Christmas presents that looked as if they were ones that they had recycled, I knew that she positively hated dark chocolate. Made up a hamper of all different bars of dark chocolate (with chilli, orange, rum etc) put it all in a nice basket that I had laying around, cellophane, tissue paper, ribbon, the lot and sent it over with another relative that was taking presents.
The next day I had a really excited phone call from the recipient saying how much she loved it as her GP had told her that if she was going to eat chocolate, dark was better for her than milk , and how did I know???? Doh!!!

As an add on to the person who suggested buying an animal sponsorship, I believe you can through many charities . Buy her a goat !

Is this serious? There are some amusing suggestions here, but
it seems a bit of a shame to for her 70th.
Perhaps get her something acceptable for this milestone birthday, but make it the last one.
vissos suggestion of inviting her to afternoon tea is a lovely and generous idea. I’d love it if someone did that for me.

I’ve done this many times - a book by Dale Carnegie called “How to make friends and influence people” . It’s quite famous and also an interesting read but of course the title implies she needs help.

Maybe give a present or a similar one she bought for you which you didnt like, with a card saying,"you must have liked this as you bought a similar for me"

Why not give her a voucher for a departmental store. She can then choose her own present!

Have you ever tried asking her for a suggestion of what she would like? - just a suggestion?

An item of clothing............two sizes too small! ???

I like May7s idea very much.
I would donate to a Charity of your choice.and give her name and address as if she has sent it and then she will constantly be bombarded with literature about it.

I wouldn't tell her which Charity either.

H1954 - or two sizes too large!

I was once given some William Morris note let's from my neighbour for Christmas ..
She said she had given them to me because she knew I liked Wm Morris.
As I was in her house at the time drinking her G and T,I didn't say "Yes that is why I bought you the identical present last year."

My sister was exactly the same ,so years ago I said I'm not buying you anything else you never like it anyway and I never have.

I wouldn't buy her anything and just stick a card in the post, she sounds so ungrateful.

Sorry in earlier post -
notelets.

Should have checked.

This has to be a wind up.

@CarlyD7

???

How about a down payment on a funeral plan?

An Oxfam voucher, sponsoring a goat!

Give her a hearty slap! Lol.

A pile of poo! That’s brilliant, Mollygo

Some of your suggestions have made me lol! My MIL has become very difficult of late. It was her birthday a couple of weeks ago and she’d given DH very specific guidelines about the kind of nightie she wanted. The size, type, material etc. I went with him to ensure we did what she wanted, and I was really pleased with the one we bought. When she opened it she straight away complained it was too big. I explained it was the size she’d asked for. She then complained about the material, the look of it etc, then practically threw it at me and told me I’d have to take it back! We did get her a new one but just stuck it in the post.

You used to be able to buy a cow - or similar - to support Oxfam and then send a card to let someone know what you have done on their behalf as a birthday gift! Cow would be quite appropriate maybe.

Or gift voucher for a tattoo?