Money Obedience

Today I thought about my three-year old's birthday party, which we had at our home last Saturday. When I remember the party, to be honest, I think about my wife. I have to write this post about her. Bear with me – this really is about personal finance, and what getting our finances under control can achieve for us. I say all the time that the point of doing all the work we do is to make sure we use our hard-earned bucks to lead a happy life. So, don't worry – I'm getting to that happiness bottom line…

But I have to add some thoughts to the post my wife wrote about the birthday party and how she fit it into our family budget. She kind of skimped on some very essential information! She didn't say how much time and effort she spent organizing this party from start to finish. She didn't say that she got up in the middle of the night to bake those inside-out carrot cake cookies herself. She didn't say how hard she worked to find out which kids were our son's friends, and how she also brought cupcakes to preschool on the day of his birthday (which was not this past Saturday). I say all this because you probably don't know how busy this woman is, but I do. And I find it remarkable that she not only (for example) finds enough time to bake these cookies, she arranges them in a pyramid atop a cake platter on a pedestal, and places three candles on the top cookie in a frosting button. I'm amazed that we – no, she alone - presented such a good-looking and unique birthday "cake". It was quite a change for our guests who I suppose are accustomed to the store bought birthday sheet-cakes.

So, here is where personal finance and happiness come together. If you read her blog, or know anything about how we have to try to pinch most of our pennies until they scream, you already know that my wife did not spend a ton of money on this party. But I'm here to tell you that beyond keeping the costs down, I see a couple additional benefits to how this thing was organized. First, I have to say that I am very proud to have such a supportive partner, who is also such a good mother that she goes to such lengths to create something unique for her child. The fact that she did it for less makes me happy, but no money in the world can buy me the kind of pride I felt when all that happiness came together that day at the party. Second, after all was said and done, there were some left-over cookies just begging me to eat them. I wasn't foolish enough to say no! Man, were they delicious!

Having a wife like that makes it a lot easier for us to tackle any issues a family encounters including personal finance issues. A solid and reliable partner in life is worth more than a pot of gold....