Least romantic gifts

Nothing! As DH didn't go Christmas shopping! Promised me a new grill pan (which I don't really want) "next time we are in town."

However, he has today used a significant amount of money to buy me the cargo bike I have been dreaming of for ages, so I really shouldn't complain about the missing Christmas gift, which he did feel uncomfortable about.

We don't exchange presents on Valentine's day - just nice cards and a special evening. I did get a wheelbarrow once, long ago, for a birthday but usually the presents are more exciting. He says he knows what he is getting me for my birthday in April but I haven't dropped any hints so have no idea what it could be!

Every Christmas for the first few years of our marriage, I always got something I needed for the kitchen. One day, my husband walked in from the garden and said “I need a new hosepipe”! Oh, great said I, you can have one for Christmas! My husbands face was a picture, he said “I don’t want a hosepipe for Christmas” He realised what he had been doing, and it’s become our joke over 46years of Christmases. I always get a little token for the kitchen in my Christmas stocking.

I had hinted for a garden sunlounger. Christmas morning he went out to the shed & came in with a large box. It contained a clothes airer because I'm always doing washing ?

We've been together for 18 months so this is our second V-day, and the first one where we're going out together in the evening.

Our romantic destination? The local premiership rugby!

When l was down in the mouth over some romantic mishap, a friend presented me with a lemon "to cheer me up". And not even in person, she despatched it through her husband.
Well it was the though that counts....

Well, after reading a thread on GN I bought myself a soup maker. DH said ‘That will do for your Valentine’s gift.” In response, I bought him a spaghetti measurer as he said he always has trouble getting the right amount. No expense spared, 3.49p. How romantic are we!

Seven months pregnant, my ex presented me with a bouquet, a new watch and a very romantic card for Valentine's day. Found out just three months later that his latest 'bit on the side' had been given exactly the same.

One Christmas my gifts from my partner included a set of Joseph Joseph chopping boards from John Lewis costing c£75.

I can think of many things to spend £75 on, as a special Christmas present, but chopping boards isn’t one of them

One Xmas I got a potato peeler in my stocking from DH. He hated the one we had and I often ask him to peel the spuds. He redeemed himself the following year by hiding a beautiful pair of earrings as a surprise.I think he realised his error !Actually using the potato peeler always made me chuckle.

My x bought me an umbrella for Christmas once hence X.

My husband gave me a set of drain rods for my birthday, along with his helpful explanation of how to use them.

Not a present but when I was sorting our loft to move and going through the many many cards to throw out there was a valentines card from DH with his signature in and that was it. We can’t have been speaking that day. It went in the skip.

DH gave me a wheelbarrow once.
Well he did need one!

ExMiL 30th birthday, three small Tupperware containers. ExH, Mother’s Day present when children were tiny, an electric carver and another time an electric sink food waste disposal unit.

I was given an automatic tin opener which I then had to put up on the wall myself.

Least romantic? Probably the electric sander I once got for Christmas.
But I was delighted - I was renovating our house and it was what I'd asked for!!! ?

One Christmas my husband gave me a dissection kit with scalpels etc. True, I was doing a biology degree at the time but it didn't involve cutting up dead animals, thank heavens.

My mistake was to try to spare his blushes by seeming enthusiastic.

He is now my ex husband of nearly 40 years and I am fairly sure that the series of disappointing presents over the 20 years we were together had nothing to do with our break up.

My late father was absolutely hopeless when it came to presents for my mother. He usually gave her dreadful jumpers in colours she hated or something else totally inappropriate. One year, however, he surprised her by giving her a beautiful gold necklace. Naturally she was thrilled. But when his credit card statement came in, he didn't have enough money to pay for it so my mother had to give him the money.

For our first wedding anniversary (paper) he bought me the Omnibus Book of Horror Stories! He did write inside that it was no reflection of our first year

I got a stainless steel saucepan for an anniversary one year.
It was a very nice saucepan and it lasted me years but not exactly romantic.
DH is now much better at choosing a more appropriate gift.

The worst though not to me, we were on the school bus and a girl in the sixth form opened a box to find two real cows eyes and a note saying "I've got my eyes on you".We lived among a lot of farmers.

Years ago, when DH was a manager at Superdrug, he asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day. I said anything as long as it's not from Superdrug.

He got me two deodorants ("But I thought they were perfume!") and two lipsticks. I never wear lipstick. They had half price Superdrug stickers on them.

My rubbish present story isn’t about me, but my friend, a really lovely person.
For some unknown reason her MIL really didn’t like her.
She was also very rich.

For my friend’s birthday , the one gift she gave her was an egg timer in the shape of a snowman.
Her birthday is in July.

What a horrible woman.

Thankfully she has been her ex-MIL for many years.