Gifts for Mom

Hey, I don't know if we need to give Mom gifts when we arrange for a great surprise party, but I've always wanted to invest some money for Mom for later when she retires. Right now, I can't afford it yet but until then I've hopefully saved enough up for that. I wanted to invest $5,000 for her, and maybe if we all put together, we can invest a bit more for her so she has something when she retires? Just a thought, let me know what you guys think!

Phew.... That's a lot of money, which I definitely can't afford at the moment! I'm just trying to save some money myself and have no where near that amount... That's like my life's saving in RBC. Maybe if I get the money from Grandfather's insurance (if) I could pitch in. But honestly at the expensive live's I don't know if I can afford that... Sorry??

Hey Bee, no worries. You do not have to put in as much as I do, if you want to participate. I just want to make it that much because Mom has paid my first year in the practical nursing program (I paid my whole four years for the BScN though), so I thought it would be nice to repay her something. It's okay if you do not want to participate at all, too. It was just an idea.

Yeah,I think I might have to skip this present idea. Just for me to come see you lot is going to cost me roughly £1500 (3000can $)that's without buying PARTEY accessories. lol I can try and save up some money anyways, I might be able to put in 1000 $? No where near as much as yours.... but you know something...

Everything counts. I'm just seeing how it's not looking very rosy for Mom's retirement, and if we invest it, when she turns 60 for 5 years, it will still accumulate some interest. Not humungous amounts but better than nothing. We'll have to look into banks and interest rates then, too, but that'll be on our agenda when we go for the deko and stuff and settle all of that - if you guys participate.

Yeah, Bee, I know your trip is going to be expensive. But if you could arrange flying to Ottawa (not as expensive as the Sault) and then we take our car that we definitely will have until then to drive to the Sault, it might not be that bad. (Hopefully). It might just be a bit cramped in the car with the big baby seat.

ok that sounds good, we could invest it for her for 5 years, so that when she turns 65 she'll have some money. That is a really good idea, I'll start saving now. Hopefully I'll get quite a bit together..

As I said earlier, every little bit counts. It doesn't have to be a huge amount.
Thanks for supporting this idea, I've been playing with it for a while.
Love

Hey Ruth and Bee,
I Love the idea, but as you guy's know I'm in the same boat as Mom working for mininmum wage, currently I get 25c more... I'll try to get some together, but I can't promiss anything. Now I wish I would be buying coffee at Tim's everyday! So I could take that money and safe it insteat! That would make more than $200 in a year! Anyhow, I'll see what I can do...

Love you; Esther

Okay, everyone, I agree with Bee that we should not make a joint account and put monthly transaction fees and things into it just to save up for the big day. If you, Esther, want to do that that would be awesome! But the stuff I'm putting away monthly at the moment is for Seb's tuition fee. LOL. I will be able to save some more until 2012, though. However, I think that saving up monthly is a good idea, so I might make myself a little "Mom piggy bank" And Esther, as I said previously to Bee, it does not matter how much you will have contributed to our shared gift in the end, the thought is all that counts and we all know that all of us have different circumstances etc. so it won't be the same for everyone. Every little penny counts
Love, Ruth

Right Girls, let's make a rough list re. what we will need to pay for to make sure we can add rough or exact prices to it closer to the time..:

Mom's flight to Germany - (we'll obviously all have to pay for our own also...; should we think of booking you 5 together as we could maybe haggle a discount?)

Birthday venue - Restaurant is the best idea for that I think? (normally free as you pay for the meal)
Birthday food - I reckon that'll be the most pricy out of everything depending on how many ppl, normally you can negotiate about a 10- 15% discount on large tables. (especially if we do a set menu)
Misc.- invitation cards, postage, mom transpert to & from airports etc