My wife and I have been on this kick of intentionally buying more “experiences” than gifts for the last year or two. We’ll get tickets to a show, Cardinals game, spend a day in STL, etc before we just buy each other “stuff”.

This article from Time magazine confirms what we’ve found which is the experience, and the memories derived from it, are a better option than a material item (most of the time).

There are some other really good suggestions on this list too. I thought the list was very relevant given that Valentine’s Day just passed, and it’s typically a time where people just go buy more “stuff”.

We started out doing it here and there, but now do it for just about every event you’d normally buy a gift. Eventually it becomes a deal where how much more shit can you buy each other that you haven’t already bought for birthdays, holidays, etc.