OUR FAMILY SPENT TOO MUCH MONEY LAST YEAR
Author: Patrick Blair
Late last year, I noticed our family checkbook was getting very light. Dread filled my mind as I realized that we would need to borrow money to pay our bills for the next few months. In addition to dread, I felt frustrated because I had carefully planned our family’s vacations that year to be cost-efficient.
Starting a year before that, we had planned and budgeted to take a February 2018 trip to Disney World. We drove; we stayed at a timeshare that had been pre-paid the year before; we cooked most of our meals at the timeshare and packed lunches to eat in the parks; we bought discounted tickets to the theme parks; and we had 2-for-1 coupons to one park. We also did a few mildly extravagant things. We weren’t overly cheap, but we worked hard to moderate the cost of the trip. It turned out to be a great trip.
In the summer, our family took a 3-day trip to New York City. Again, we drove and stayed in a pre-paid timeshare. At the end of summer, I took my kids for a long-overdue visit with family in Minnesota. It was a 2-week trip. We drove and had no lodging costs. I figured that all this wouldn’t add up to too much.
So, what happened? Why were we thousands of dollars off in our budget? How can the author of a financial book so grossly miscalculate his family’s spending?
What Really Happened Last Year
I spent hours poring over the receipts from the trips that we took to find out what really happened. I racked my brain trying to see where the hidden costs were. I annoyed my wife by tainting an otherwise terrific year of family travel. My final analysis was that we actually didn’t overspend on the trips!
So, why were we so short on funds? After a few more weeks of thinking about it, I realized that my self-employment income had severely dipped during the vacationing months. I was new to being self-employed and underestimated the effect it would have on my income. Also, we had some large, unexpected dental expenses.
So, it wasn’t that I messed up the calculations on the expenses that I anticipated. It was what I didn’t know and what I didn’t expect that got me. For a few months, I felt worried, frustrated and ashamed. I’m not a frugal person by nature, but I’ve really tried to work hard in this area of my life. We all make mistakes, so the best we can do is to learn from them and make changes.
What We Are Doing This Year
Failure is not fatal. - Winston Churchill
After some prayer and talking about it with my wife, we decided that we were going to recover financially by not taking a family vacation in 2019. At first it seemed like a harsh decision, but upon reflection, we had to ask ourselves: do we really need to take vacations to be happy? Were there other things we could do to meet those getaway needs?
The wicked borrow and do not repay,
but the righteous give generously;
those the Lord blesses will inherit the land,
but those he curses will be destroyed. (Psalm 37:21-22)
Although this passage wasn’t written in the context of modern overspending and borrowing, I believe its spirit still held true in my family’s situation. Would my family have the integrity to quickly repay the money we had borrowed? Would we shortchange our financial future by not responding to our overspending? Would we allow our church offerings and gifts to the poor to fade?
We talked with our kids about it and explained the situation. They felt fine about it and hopefully learned from our decision. We, as a family, came up with lists of things we could do during the summer (both staycation and short getaway ideas). Here are some of the things we did: hiking, biking, camping, Wet’n Wild, baseball, a day trip to the beach and touring Washington D.C. (staying with family nearby).
Although it would have been nice to take a week-long or two-week-long family vacation, we still had a great summer. We made memories and got closer without compromising our financial and spiritual goals. We are looking forward to taking a great family vacation when we can afford it.
More about budgeting and contentment are discussed in my book Faith and Finances. Please see www.faith-finances.com for more blog articles.