Our family has been living on a paper or digital budget for about eight years. Achieving our financial goals without this tool would have been incredibly difficult. Our budget has been our plumb line, and an intentional way to align our spending with our values. That being said, there are places within our budget for extravagance. Here’s where we “splurge” and how we do it.
Vacations - One of the most tangible changes in our budget after retiring our non-mortgage debt is that we began taking family vacations. We began setting aside money that would normally go towards debt towards making memories away from home. Each month, cash went into an envelope for trips, and sometimes we’d allot extra money from side work, bonuses, or refunds for a yearly trip. Using these funds, we have visited Minnesota’s North Shore, Bayfield, Wisconsin, Belize, and Washington State.
These adventures are even more relaxing for us because we funded the trip, including activities, food, and entertainment, via a cash envelope. A Visa bill doesn’t follow us home, and we are able to fully enjoy our time away and feel like we are splurging, even though the spending was all accounted for on the front end. Mindful splurging has allowed us to make wonderful memories without sacrificing our bigger financial goals.
Christmas - Our son was six weeks old for his first Christmas. (He and his twin brother were six weeks premature, and for other reasons, our son Jack had passed away on Thanksgiving morning.) As new and bereaved parents, our first Christmas was scant. Our boy received a single book from us, our families received a framed picture of our twins, and that was it. Using that first Christmas as a reference point, our current Christmas gift giving feels extravagant.
Each month we sock away money for an incredible day of shopping in early December. My husband takes the day off work, and we find care for our children while we spend hundreds of dollars buying gifts for the people we love. It is fun, it is over the top, and it doesn’t break our bank account. Since we have been saving since the previous January, we are able to enjoy all parts of the gifting experience without worrying about next month’s bill.
Giving - I have found that giving generously to people, places, and ideas that we value is what I enjoy most about spending money. We regularly give to our church and other missions working for good in the world. This giving is drawn automatically from our checking account and has been on the top line of our budget since we began applying Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps in our life. This planned and measured giving reminds us regularly that the money is ours to manage, and the world ought to look different because of the wealth that has run through our hands each month.
The most fun I have with money is to giving an unexpected gift that addresses the need of a person I love. We have purchased so many Financial Peace University kits for friends and family that we should consider buying them in bulk. Hearing the stories about how this class changed the trajectory of their lives is incredibly fulfilling. Sometimes we do this anonymously and it is a hoot hearing a loved one talk about receiving a gift never guessing that it had come from us. Sending flowers, gift cards, or a meal to help out a struggling friend gives hope when we feel powerless. I am grateful to have married a man who believes these opportunities should be regular occurrences, and agrees that they are a big part of the reason we ought to earn money and build wealth.
Our regular monthly offerings are a line item in our budget, and, at this point, involve little discussion or thought. There was a time that we had a line item in our budget called “The Big Give,” which we’d contribute to regularly to set aside money for addressing needs in our tribe as they presented themselves. However, we’ve steered away from that and have decided that funding our “spontaneous” gifts ought to come out of conversation, and a deduction from a different budgeted category. (Sounds really spontaneous right?) For instance, when we give an extra offering for Global Missions at our church, we often forgo a month of restaurants as a family to fund that gift. By doing so, our kids get to participate in generating the money by skipping something they enjoy.
Our money follows our values, and we ought to spend more on the things that are most important to us. People matter most in life, and so they should show up in our budget as places we can intentionally be extravagant. Mindful splugring has been a wonderful way to use the money that we’ve been given, and I am always looking for the next way we can pay it forward.
No comments:
Post a Comment