It’s been brewing for a few months. It was bound to happen. The holidays, American’s Mecca of Overspending,
was the catalyst.
When Beau-Hunkly and I sat down to discuss Christmas
spending last month, I was upset not that there was not enough money, but that the
wish lists of Son I and Son II were too small.
Together, their Christmas lists added up to no more than $600
total.
“We need to spend more on the kids,” I said to my Beau-Hunkly. He didn’t comment. I
tried again.
“It won’t seem like Christmas, even if we buy every single
gift on these lists. There will not be
enough present to fill the tree. The
lists are too small. The kids are going
to have to try harder,” I told him.
Nothing. So I stared right back at my husband until he
drew a big breath and grabbed my hands. “Stop, “ he said quietly.
“This is all they want. Are we
asking them to want more?”
And that’s when we started really talking.
We started talking about living within our means. About how much money we make and how much
money we spend and how outrageous it is to always buy a bunch of stuff only to
realize that we can’t put our kids through college. Talking about how we don’t want our kids
growing up getting everything they want.
Talking about how crazy it is to work so hard just to buy more stuff.
We formed a plan. Not
like “we sit down with a calculator and together form a plan." More like, "Caroline sit down with a calculator and formulate a budget and Beau-Hunkly promises to follow the plan and
encourage the children."
And then we went Christmas shopping. And we didn't buy everything on the list. That entire Christmas came out of our checking account and we knew we weren't going to have a January hangover of credit card bills.
In the end, Christmas was a success. This budget is going to be a success.
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