It's the time of the year when expenses hit like no other. It reminds me of the ordeal I had last year when I was just barely a month into my job and got my first pay. Although I am not one to show off, I cared too much about solving all pressing financial needs which at the end of the day, put me in disarray. I sent money over to my parents and siblings while leaving little for myself to manage. I forgot that January was coming and I would need to live through it. The only thing I did for myself was stalking my apartment with foodstuffs which ended up helping me a great deal. When the whole Christmas celebration was over, the new year came and then it was work. After a week, it felt like I was living three extra months in January because I became so broke out of carelessness.
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After this I realized the importance of looking out for myself and loving myself first before showing love to those around me. I decided to create a new code of conduct for myself knowing that I have become broke when I can only afford my own needs. At this point giving out any financial assistance would be at my own detriment and worse than even a sacrifice. Living everyday for the remaining part of January was hell for me, there was no one I could turn to or ask for help and thus I had to bear my burden alone. The interesting thing about this was that it wasn't as though I was ignorant of the need to save for the new year, but I felt money would always come and that was my biggest mistake.
Money came, but because I was living from hand to mouth, it was almost never enough. I was always trying to pay off debts with what I had, making me end up with nearly nothing accumulating more and more debts if I continued meeting my daily expenses. This was when I began to understand how important it was to not give in to family pressure as even my family still depended on me to go through that month having spent all they had forgetting to save. It took me more than two months to recover and stand firm again, and also made me come to the realization that problems will never finish and thus the best thing to do is to always utilize opportunities when they come. Too much reliance on future money made me spend what I had and borrowed hoping to pay from what I was expecting, leaving me with little or nothing at the end of the day.
When my partner asked me what the plan for Christmas was, I had to explain to her that my major plans are for the new year and those plans do not include much celebrations because I wouldn't want what happened this year to repeat next year. For that reason I pleaded that we let celebrations for Christmas slide this year and if things work out next year we could have a better one. Although I could see she wasn't too happy about it, I'm thankful she agreed and was supportive. She even decided to finance the cooking for Christmas which was more than enough for me while I sent little money to my siblings to help them get the little things they wanted. This means that I would have enough to start the new year and also plan with. But then I got some little money today and decided that my partner and I went out for a little treat at least to make it up to her for the celebration we couldn't have with hope that things work out next year and we do better.
