Marriage Mondays-avoid the holiday budget blowout

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.  Decorations are hung, the lights are strung, and presents are wrapped and tucked neatly under the tree.  Last minute gifts have been purchased, and you’ve checked your list twice and thrice.  Now it’s time to sit back, enjoy a cup of joe, and snuggle by the fire in front of a classic Christmas cartoon.  Then the phone rings.  You’re invited to yet another holiday party and there is a white elephant gift required. 

You already know it's tight, but you hate to turn down an opportunity to go to a party.

Begrudgingly, you open your bank ap to find that you’re overdrawn and the fees are racking up.  You realize that there is a purchase of $200 from a store you never went to.  You turn and look at your spouse, who is oblivious to the hellfire brewing inside of you.  Trying to hold it back, you sip your coffee and stare at the screen stewing and wondering what gifts under the tree have to go back to the store to make up the overdraft charges.

Then it happens.  Your spouse says something to you that under normal circumstances would be sweet, and you unleash the beast.  By not giving your spouse any warning that the person they married has been replaced with a hot lava monster, they are immediately activated and put up the wall.  Then the missiles of blame are launched back and forth, weakening the foundation of your partnership.

Finances are one of the top reasons relationships don’t work, and the holidays add a lot of pressure to the situation, creating the perfect storm of holiday failure.  People are so excited to please each other during the holidays that all rules and morals of budgeting fly out the window, and this can spell disaster.

There are steps you can take to prevent this from happening:

·       
Set a budget together before Christmas shopping happens
·        Make a list of people you want to buy gifts fore
·        Make it a rule that any spending over $25 will be communicated before completed to make sure you don’t both spend too much on the same day and overdraw your account.
·        Agree that you can say no to any holiday parties requiring gifts outside of your budget.
·        Host your own holiday party with a true white elephant that requires everyone to bring things they already have.
·        Have budget talks before and after you go out shopping.  Maybe you can’t spend $50 on a gift you really want to get someone today, but it will work in a week when a paycheck comes in.
·        Remember that gift giving isn’t the reason for the season

Putting a plan in place can save your relationship from the holiday budget blowup, and it keeps you from spending beyond your means.  Working together to keep your finances healthy will also keep your relationship healthy.


Trust me, you’re gonna’ love it!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The paths we choose

Image
There’s an amazing movie called ‘Facing the Giants’ in which a small underdog football team from a Christian school starts playing by the principals of the Bible and they take on the #1 unbeatable, unstoppable, and dirty playing Giants. If you haven’t seen it, I suggest you log onto your Netflix account right now and add it to the #1 slot. In this epic movie, there’s a scene where a new inexperienced kicker is trying to get the ball between the posts to no avail. The assistant coach then uses scripture to explain that making a field goal uses the same biblical fundamentals, and in the tradition of a southern preacher says, “Now what does scripture say about this? Scripture says wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many that be there find it. Now to us; that's wide left, and wide right. But narrow is the gate and straight is the way that leads to life, and few that be there find it.” He’s talking about Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narro
Keep reading

Just add water

Image
There are a lot of references to filling up your life water bottle on this blog. You'll see it in almost every post, in the explanation section, and off and on, well...everywhere. Water is the one thing that most of us have a hard time keeping under control. It has always been a problem for me. I've tried a billion different things to remind me to drink my daily allowance, but I was always left with a choice at the end of the day-go to bed dehydrated, or chug the four remaining glasses I am supposed to have today and spend all night walking back and forth to the bathroom. That is not really the work out plan I was intending. In my spiritual walk, I have also made it a goal to pray 8 times every day. I have always prayed at night, or as the roller coaster got to the top of the first hill, or strapped into the sling shot right before the operator pushed the button that would send me flinging 250 feet into the air at 5 G's, but I was lacking in praying when I didn't n
Keep reading

Women of Faith Talk Back-The gift of telling stories

Image
I believe that we are all blessed with gifts. Some have steady hands for delicate surgery, some have an eye for creating things of beauty, and others, like me, have the gift of putting things into words. I have always been a writer. From the moment I picked up a pencil, I was creating tales of cats flushing dogs down toilets or some other random calamity. My teachers often entered my work into contests and I would get a certificate or trophy, but that didn’t really matter to me. It was more embarrassing than exciting to have the spot light put on me. To a true writer, writing is like breathing. You have to do it or you’ll die. It’s that simple. What you can get because of it is only a secondary benefit. When I was a little girl, I wanted to grow up and be just like my mommy. I made the same faces she made, I wanted to work at the phone company, and I wanted desperately to read Stephen King books. She’d read them all, and they were stored in a box in her closet. When I was 5,
Keep reading