My wife and I have reached the stage where we buy each other things we KNOW will be used. Like garage door openers and can openers and DVDs of each other's favorite movies. (I get her "chick flicks" - she gets me "action flicks".) The best gift I ever got her, though, was a gift program with a major USA computer retailer that had an educational department. I bought her a six month membership to take as many computer courses as she wanted because she was preparing herself for a career in office work. Needed to update her skills. I thought it was a good idea so I bought the program.
I did the math and told her that if she had bought courses a la carte we would break even at five courses when comparing individual sessions to the cost of the program. So if she took a sixth course, we started to come out cheaper. I figured, maybe six to ten courses, right? In six months, she took 37 courses not counting the retakes where she was unsure of the material first time through. Brought it down to something over $27 per course.
The punch line? She started teaching for that company part time and in one year made back three or four times the cost of the program. I let her keep the entire salary as "mad money" and just paid the house bills from the account I had set up to run the house. When she wants to splurge, it's her money and she has no qualms about spending it. She's frugal with the house money but still has money to call her own and I never ask for an accounting (except of course at tax time.)
Best investment I ever made in terms of immediate return value and also it gave her incredible self-confidence that her first husband had almost snuffed out of her. The demeaning bastard. He never knew what he had. He let go. He's on his third wife and STILL isn't happy - but now he can't afford to leave #3 and try to find #4. One more divorce settlement and he'll owe BODY PARTS, not just cash.
Me? I KNOW I got my sweetie something she liked. And like the old saying goes, "When Mama's happy, everyone is happy. When Mama's not happy, NO ONE is happy." Well, I'm happy.