For the last year Jared and I have been focusing a lot on our finances and stewarding our money better.  It’s been on our hearts to be good managers of our money and not have any debt.  That being said I have had to learn to budget.  It’s been a long process and I’m still not great at it, but I’ve definitely come a long way from where I began.

One thing that I’ve learned through this process of managing our finances and household purchases it that it’s insane the amount of gifts we have to purchase!  It surprises me each month to sit down and look at how many gifts need purchased for various people and events.  

Please don’t read me wrong, I love to give gifts, I’m just making the point that there is a lot of gift giving for one to consider when managing a household’s responsibities.  With that comes a lot of decision making and I am a busy mom with tons of decisions to make daily so shopping around for various gifts and/or just the right gift within our budget was just something that kept wearing me out and leaving me frustrated.  

I recognized that it wasn’t a good use of my time and decided to eliminate the stress of gifting from my life during this busy season and just give cash.  It was extremely difficult for me to let go of wanting to be thoughtful and search for that perfect thing for someone because we all want to be caring and show someone we love them with a token of our affection.  Since doing this however, I’ve relieved added worry that was uneeded and no one has complained.  People, even kids love to receive cash!  I mean come on, who doesn’t have a wish list of things they want but need money for.  

This way I am still prioritizing gifts, giving people something valuable, and making it easy and useful for everyone involved.  

Another tip is to buy some blank cards in bulk so you can always have them handy to slip the money in and be ready to go!  It’s a much cheaper way to go too!  I tend to like it better even because it allows me to personalize each person’s occasion with a special message.

Who would have thought something this simple was worthy of a post?  Hope this idea was helpful in your homemaking journey!

PS… I don’t use this strategy with immediate family like my hubs and kiddos, we still do personalized gifts for one’s under our roof;)