What do you think?

My hubby and I were discussing this. I had redeemed my Coke Points for a Dasani Breakfast Tray. It's very nice, tasteful wooden Breakfast tray 18x13 with some luxury bath and body products, looks really fancy. I was telling him that I was thinking of giving it to one of the SIL's for either their B-day or x-mas (depending on how they plan on doing gifts for x-mas). He asked me if I thought it was tacky to give SIL a gift that I hadn't technically paid for. I told him "no" that technically we paid for a lot of Coke Zero to get to the amount of points that the tray set cost, second it is new, and elegant looking, third I know that I would be thrilled to recieve it as a gift. Plus SIL won't know that's how I got it. I did photomug and photobook credits from Coke Points through snapfish for both SILs and made them photogifts of their kids pics and they loved it and technically I didn't pay for those.

How do all of you feel about this, do you think it's tacky to give something as a gift even if you didn't pay for it ?

Where does the Dasani come into play> does the tray say that? Just wondering what it looks like. Did you get it yet?

If so, I am super tacky. I make baskets of free toiletries. I used survey points/money to pay for almost all my Christmas gifts etc...

I don't think there is a Dasani logo or anything on it, not by looking at it anyway, I wouldn't give it for a gift if it did. This is the link to it:

http://www.mycokerewards.com/index.jsp?adParam=1#windowType:catalog/isDetail:true/rewardID:8689/Skin:true/SkinType:category/SkinID:rewards

Yeah, survey money/Amazon gift codes/MyPoints gift cards make excellent gifts. I actually stuffed Christmas stockings with freebies and the guys loved them. Everyone's was different, depending on their tastes. DS had golf balls, DH had Gorilla Glue, other DS had some shaving creams, etc. People will have no idea where stuff comes from, but if it's branded, they may suspect. That will bother some people, and some people it won't. It takes forever to build Coke points, though, so whoever gts it should be flattered that you were willing to redeem so many points for them.

First off... I just noticed when I followed the link to the tray that you can also donate your points for women's heart health. But would the women helped by that resent that you didn't technically pay for the research that kept them alive?

Of course it's not tacky to give someone a nice gift out of the generosity of your heart. People act like birthdays and Christmas gifts are supposed to be an exchange of items with reciprocal monetary value. They aren't. The word 'gift' means, "something given voluntarily without payment in return, as to show favor toward someone, honor an occasion, or make a gesture of assistance." How would the tray not fit that definition? You saw something you thought she'd like and decided to give it to her. In what way does how you acquired it matter?

Each year our Newcomers Club holds a silent auction and all members donate the items (well some businesses too)... and so I've made really nice baskets (bought at a dollar store) and filled them samples, all kinds of samples) put shrink wrap and a card attached calling the basket "Sample Me" and list a few of the items in it. Well I did that for at least 3 years, and every year, the same gal would bid higher and higher on it. This year I just didn't do it... and when she couldn't find any Sample Me baskets was so disappointed. She'd bring them home and take lots of the stuff and put in a basket in her guest bathroom... the stuff her daughter didn't grab & run with LOL...

One year, I had a bunch of Makers Mark freebies. I also had a cute little mini picnic basket with a red checked cloth liner. I filled it with plastic glasses, napkins, stir sticks and who knows what. My gosh, there was a bidding war going on for that!

Lots of freebies I get, I save for the auction... tote bags (doesn't matter it says TV Guide on it), T-shirts with who knows what logo, you name it... I donate it to the auction.

The money we earn at our auction, we give back in bundles to the community non-profit groups.... to the tune of 13-1700, which gives at least 10-12 agencies money they might not otherwise have gotten.

I continue to do similar on a smaller scale and put in gift bags (always recycled)... and donate them to the Newcomers Club to be given as door prizes at our lunch. The girls LOVE them! and they know everything was free to me... but they look forward to winning a bag!

So hell no, there's nothing wrong with giving away a great freebie as a gift, especially when you can add something personal to it.

Sorry to ramble on... but your DH needs to understand, re-gifting of sorts, is not a bad thing!