Money Obedience

This time around, I’m writing about budgeting and expenses, but I think this post fits the holiday season very well. Find out how by reading to the end.

Our two youngest boys are “fortunate” that they have a cousin who is about 2 years older than our oldest. This cousin is a playmate, and the main source of our boys’ hand-me down clothes, too. Kids grow out of clothes even faster than they outgrow toys. So most of his hand-me downs look perfectly fine, since he too outgrew them so fast. It seems to me that kids hardly ever wear out their clothing! Our littlest boy is the third (or fourth or fifth?) child to wear these shoes, jeans, or sweaters. In return, we give his parents a little money, which helps them out. They never like to take it, but we figure if they invest it in their son’s clothing, we’re getting some of it back anyway! So we all win in this “trade”.

Another way we saved money is buying a breastfeeding pillow called ”My Breast Friend”. (Yes, we know – horrible name, but great product.) Breastfeeding is good for the baby and for mom and it is also cheaper than formula. When mom stopped breastfeeding baby boy number one, we washed the pillow cover and lent the pillow to a friend of mine, whose wife used it to feed her baby boy. When she was done, she gave it back and we used it again for our baby boy number two. Now, that friend has just had a baby girl, so that pillow will go right back to my friend’s family. See? We will have used this pillow for at least four babies. That does not make the pillow any cheaper, but we all certainly got good use out of it.

Why did I lend my friend and his wife the pillow, especially when I knew that we were trying right away to have a second child (and that’s exactly what happened!)? Well, the short answer is that we did that “just for nothing.” The couple we loaned it to are very nice people, and truth be told, we have been very fortunate that a lot of people have helped us. (Remember the hand-me down clothes?) I figure that passing out the kindnesses evens things out a little. The giver and the recipient may not be the same (like in that book and film “Pay It Forward”) but if everybody shows some kindness and passes it on, perhaps grace will balance out pretty well over time, and we can all get our share.

In that spirit, we wish you Happy holidays!