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I don't know if just ranting here about this is going to make me feel better, but I'd really appreciate any advice anyone can give me.

I really need to let go of materialism. See, my birthday happened recently and pretty much everyone I know had their birthdays 1-2 months before me. I got everyone presents for their birthdays, but now they're all too poor to give me anything. I got one present for my birthday from my dad...$100. Which was really nice, but I had to spend it plus a little of my other money to pay the water bill at my mom's house(my parent's are divorced). I'm 21 now and I feel like I'm too old to hold grudges about these kinds of things. I mean, I still live at home, so that's kind of a present in itself...but I just can't seem to let go of being a little hurt over it.

I'm pretty poor myself now and I feel stupid for spending money on presents for people who are capable of understanding that presents can't always be afforded. It would be so much easier to help my mom right now if I had extra money. I don't want to talk to any of my friends or family because I'm embarrassed of being so materialistic and also because I don't want them to think that I blame them. It's not their faults that they're poor, one of my friends has been going to nonstop interviews and can't get a job and my mom has been working tons of overtime, but is in so much debt that it's still a struggle to get by.

Does anyone have any advice of how I can get over it?

i have kind of the opposite problem. I'm getting my friend a present for her b-day, which is 5 days before mine, but I don't want her to think that she has to get me something.

Anyway, my advice would be to just think about all they've done for you in the past and maybe somehow get yourself to make your gifts and what they've done for you equal out. . . Okay, I honestly don't know what to tell you. Sorry for not being more helpful.

I used to be the same way. I just stopped giving people gifts and told them not to bother getting me anything because I didn't want anything. Part of the reason too was because I couldn't really afford to pay my bills without struggling also. The way I see it is that I want to take care of myself before worrying about buying anything for anyone. Hope everything works out for you!

Thank (both of) you for the advice. Now that I've thought about it some more, it's really not as big of a deal as I was making it. It's not like my friends or family said "get me a present", so I shouldn't have given them something just because I was expecting to get something back.

I think that I was just stressed over money and was taking it out on the situation, but my FAFSA just went through, so it looks like things are going to be alright after all.