Top 10 Unromantic Gifts

With Valentine’s Day coming up soon, you may be wondering what to buy for your new date. Instead of providing a list of presents that you could buy, we’ve asked people what their worst gift was, in the hope that nobody else makes the same mistake.

From the responses that we got, we’d highly recommend that you don’t purchase a vacuum cleaner or anything practical for the kitchen!

Here are some of our favourite ‘worst gifts’ that we were told about my real Muddy Matches members:

1. “A chopping board” – Unless the chopping board is covered in handmade Belgian chocolates or luxury cheeses, this a decidedly disappointing gift.

2. “An abdominiser” – Even if your partner has been talking about ‘toning up’, this gift just seems rude.

3. “A vacuum cleaner” – Three people said vacuum cleaner as their response to ‘what’s the worst gift you’ve ever received?’. The one that really shone out though was a lady who received a “Dyson hoover that said on it ‘ Get rid of the bag’”.

4. “An iron” – This is on par with buying a vacuum cleaner, but at least it would cost less.

5. “A wormery” – A wormery is a great thing if you’re keen to create your own compost, but it’s hardly a romantic gift.

6. “Bicycle inner tubes” – This lady received the inner tubes as an advanced birthday present, but as they split up before her birthday (not sure if it was related to the present) she never did find out what her main present would have been. We’re wondering if he still owns a bike with no inner tubes.

7. “Waterproof cassette player” – This conjured up images of swimming with a portable cassette player attached to your cossie, but apparently they weren’t even swim proof.

8. “A kitchen sink drainer” – We don’t even know where to begin with this one, unless it came with the promise of washing up for the month!

9. “My ex bought me an Xbox 360, which I didn’t want, on my own credit card, which I then ended up paying for myself!” – It should go without saying, but don’t use your date’s own credit card to buy their gift!

10. “A cheap plastic alarm clock (on my 50th birthday from my partner of 20 years)!” – Sometimes it’s better to get nothing at all.

So what is the best present to get for your Valentine? In a poll we conducted last year, most of our ‘muddy’ members said that they would prefer a home cooked meal to a present. Get the chopping board out and show off your kitchen skills, rather than giving the chopping board as a gift.