I won't start by pointing a finger elsewhere. If there is a finger to be pointed at someone, then that "someone" should be me. "I used to fall" under the category of broke asses whenever a new year begins because I believed the Y.O.L.O lie (YOLO means you only live once). To be honest, I was not groomed that way by my parents but somewhere along the line, I encountered wrong associations and started acting out what I was listening to. It took me many years of struggling to come to terms with the fact that I was negatively influenced and so I had to disengage from such association and do better with myself.
All the influence began when I was admitted into the University of Lagos aka "great akokites". I wanted to belong and so I went on to mingle and the social group I found myself entwined with were not frugal at all. As long as there was money, it must be spent to the last dime after all you only live once and more money will come. Back then, I recall that it worked just like we believed but the reality of life hit me after I finished with school and began to hustle for my own money.
Anytime it was Christmas, I would go all out on a spending spree, like a spendthrift with that "YOLO" slang ringing in my ears. I would literally ignore the voice of reasoning telling me that January would be a long month. I believed the "charm" I used in school would still work 😁. December passed and here comes January, smiling at me so wickedly because it knows that I had not listened and my purse was dry. For some odd reasons, it felt to me like January had 48days rather than 31 days and I barely manageed to make it through till month end. You would think that I would learn from my error and mend my ways but no, the trend continued the next Christmas. Old habits dying hard right?
The yoke broke when I had an additional mouth to feed plus a huge load of responsibility falling on my shoulder to cater to my young ones. I had to learn financial wisdom by all means and so far, I have been able to overcome the dryness in January and not borrow to survive when a new calendar year clocks in.
One major tip that has helped me is budgeting. Planning what money to use for what and what money to keep for when is very helpful. Another thing I do is to buy early on before the market prices increases tremendously and I end up being pressured. Buying my necessities earlier helps me save some money.
Cat fish peppersoup instead of chicken for Christmas
Lastly, I don't compete with anyone and I have been able to instill this same idea into my daughter and siblings. No showing off! After all, you are not the celebrant of the season. As long as they have all that they need, I teach them to be happy and content for better days will are ahead.
Thank you all for reading..shalom.
This is my response to the hivenaija weekly prompt for week 75.
Images used are mine.