On Money... Budgeting... Spending

Rebecca at Renaissance got me thinking this morning. Read her post on Act Your Wage, Wage Your Actions.

Holiday spending is out of control in this country. My co-worker scrambles to find every last thing that her children desire. Frantically she makes numerous calls to find the hot items on the list. Meanwhile, I fuss over the idea of purchasing an additional gift that I know my hubby wants instead of using some unexpected funds to either pay off a bill, save for our some-day home, or spoiling someone else. As I muse over my options my coworker says "Just charge it" and is amazed when I respond that I do not use credit cards. We are quite focused on getting out of debt and have made huge strides in the past couple of years. With each month I see us climbing hand over fist up up up out of the hole of debt and closer to our goals.

In regards to money... we figure that it is NOT our money, but what we have is provided on-loan from the Lord. We are thankful for such blessing. Managing it is not always easy. We have a budget. We've re-done the budget many many times. The hard part is sticking to the budget! I think keeping the focus is the biggest obstacle. Gift giving is part of the budget. It's HARD to stick to the budget when the desires of ones heart wish to spoil someone BEYOND the budget!

In our household, we usually purchase a sensible gift for eachother, something for a needy family or two from the church angel tree, and a gift for each child in our family. We have 10 precious ones so we have to carefully budget the expenses in order to choose one modest gift for each niece and nephew. Contrary to what some may think... we do not have a large budget for gift giving at Christmas time.

We have decided that TIME is actually a better gift than any. This year we spent one Saturday taking my parents to the Soldiers and Sailors museum, out for dinner, and to a holiday show of the Ralaigh Ringers. We proclaimed that this was their gift from us.... a little spoiling on a night of togetherness doing something interesting and festive. Having a few hours of undivided attention was gift enough for me... and based on their responses we understand that they enjoyed it as well.

I am thankful that our family intends to celebrate with us in our home this year. For me... TIME is the greatest gift and thus I shall be mighty spoiled this Christmas!!!!