by Ashley
Our Father’s Day this year was really low-key. Unfortunately (or fortunately, considering our no-income month of May!!!), hubs had to work the entire weekend, including a full day on Sunday.
Also, my recent travel last week made it feel like Father’s Day really snuck up on me this year. I’ve gotten pretty good with frugal gift-giving, but I hadn’t adequately planned or prepared for anything this year so I was left scrambling at the end of the week to figure something out.
Just one of the many, many reasons I’m grateful for this blog!
I blatantly stole –ahem- “borrowed” Matt’s idea and decided to do something that I knew my husband would really appreciate, but wouldn’t take a lot of time or money. I made him a bag of his favorite things!
I went to the store pretty last minute (cough, Sunday morning, cough) and got all kinds of goodies that I would never normally splurge on at the grocery store (e.g., expensive nuts, cereals, pudding snacks, etc.). All in, I spent less than $30 for a bag full of stuff that hubs loves.
Plus, this was my third annual Father’s Day D-A-D picture! I think this is the best year yet!
For the other Fathers in our lives, I did my usual thing – I made the girls do a craft! It was a little more low-key than some of our other crafts simply because I was out of time! I didn’t even get our cards into the mail until Friday afternoon so I knew they were going to be late and I really just needed to get the project done! I had the girls color on some white paper and then I cut the paper into rectangles. I glued the rectangles onto heavy cardstock to give it a more “finished” look, and tucked it into the card envelope along with a couple recent pictures of the girls. Easy-peasy, DONE!
I’ve said it before, but one of the biggest changes I’ve made since starting to blog here has been in scaling WAY BACK on the amount I spend on gift giving. When my sister and I were visiting my Dad we talked about what our plans were for Father’s Day. My sister took her hubs to a hotel on the San Antonio River Walk and was contemplating whether she could swing his “dream gift”: An Xbox One. AN XBOX ONE!!!!! We’re talking a $350 gaming console. Add the hotel, eating out, and they’re looking at about a $500+ Father’s Day. I love my sister and am saying this not to pick on her, but because I would have been in the same boat! Before blogging here I would have thought nothing of spending a couple hundred on a Father’s Day gift for hubs ($500 would have still been a little pricey for me, but I could definitely see spending in the $150-200ish range!). For his first Father’s Day (pre-blogging days) I bought him 6-week long golfing lessons! I know he enjoyed it, but talk about pricey!
Cutting back on the amount we spend on gift-giving was a little scary at first. I know its silly, but I was kind of worried at first. It’s like we equate dollars spent to love. If I went from spending $50-$100 on gifts down to $15-20, would people be mad? Offended? Upset?
You know what? Overwhelmingly I feel like they don’t even notice! Many of these gift-giving occasions are bulk gift-giving things (like weddings and baby showers). Recipients write down the gift so they can write a thank you card, and then promptly forget who gave what and how much it might have cost. Also, I’ve gotten a lot better about writing personal and heart-felt notes. Instead of just sending a $50 gift card with a generic “Congratulations” card, I send a much cheaper gift (but one that I actually put thought into to make sure the recipient will enjoy/use), and a really nice card. I’ve even taken time to think up little rhyming poems that are funny and sweet and match the occasion.
So if anyone is reading that’s just starting the debt-reduction journey, might I humbly suggest really taking a knife to your gift-giving budget? I’m not suggesting you be stingy or cheap. But I AM suggesting that you could spend more time actually thinking about a meaningful (and less expensive) gift and writing a really nice card. It’s made a huge difference in our budget! I hope it can make a difference in yours, too!
What did you do for Father’s Day? Do you send gifts to all the fathers (or grandfathers) in your life?
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Freshly 40, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
I have a sister who is in big time debt. She spends more a month on all her bills than what was comming in. She has declared bankruptcy twice, and at least consolidated her credit cards twice. I cringe when she gives gifts. Most people I know hate it when she gives them gifts too. I see a gift and wonder what bill hasn’t been paid. You are doing the right thing by paying off those student loans first. Some day you will be able to buy the gifts you want without wondering how will you pay for them. Cheryl