Testimonial from Chelsea from Stay At Home{Made} Mom (inspired by the 31 Days of Giving on a Budget series):
Growing up, my husband’s immediate family always gave very small Christmas gifts. Some years, it was all they could afford. Other years, it’s all they felt was necessary — they didn’t see gift-giving at Christmas as essential as recognizing the meaning behind it
While my husband did (and still does) respect his parent’s perspective, he secretly struggled with why others families could afford to give more. Because of this, my husband decided at a young age that it was important to him to find a way to generously gift at Christmas.
The only problem was, he failed to share that perspective with me! So, throughout the first year of our marriage I bought small gifts I found marked down and tucked them away. When it came time to wrap everybody’s presents, my husband was appalled at the items he saw.
I reasoned with him by saying something like:
“We don’t make a lot of money. Nobody is going to care if we give small gifts. We might have a nice cushion of money, but that’s only because we’ve worked so hard to save. We need that money in case something unexpected comes up. They’ll understand. They’ll probably give small gifts themselves and it will even out. You’re being prideful by wanting people to think more of us because of what we buy.”
His response was:
“We may not make a lot of money, but we have been truly blessed with the income we have. We have no debt to worry about, we keep our monthly bills low. We do a good job saving our money, and because of that, we can afford to give in return. It doesn’t matter if others give us small gifts, I want to be able to bless them in a big way. We will still have plenty of cushion leftover, we’re not spending unwisely, and God will always provide. You’re being prideful because you want to spend as little as possible so we can have more money for ourselves.”
As much as his words stung, I knew he was right. I wanted to spend $5 or less on each person because nobody would think anything of it. Even though we both understand that the true gift behind Christmas is Jesus, my husband still wanted to use this time of year to greatly bless others. Not to impress them. But because it brings so much joy to his heart to do so.
This year, I asked my husband if we could go gift shopping together. We had a great time: we laughed, smiled, and enjoyed each others’ company as we shopped.
As we wrapped the gifts, I couldn’t help but notice something felt different. I noticed a joy inside of me that I had never really felt while wrapping gifts the previous years. Something truly was different about wrapping the gifts we specially picked and stretched our budget to buy.
Finally, I was very excited to bless others, and I understood my husband’s heart.
There aren’t many secrets as to how we were able to afford the gifts we did. We set reasonable limits as to not deplete our account, we used Amazon gift cards earned from Swagbucks, we made homemade items like granola and chex mix to supplement our store-bought gifts, and we shopped around using deal blogs for the best prices. Admittedly, we also ate out less and made fewer Starbucks runs in order to accommodate our new gift budget.
The point of this post is not to discourage you, or to say there is something wrong with giving small and/or handmade gifts — as long as you’re giving these gifts with joy. When I was giving less, it was because my heart was in a selfish place – not because it was outside of our means.
What I’ve learned, more than anything, is how essential my giving attitude and heart are to giving the perfect gift.
Chelsea is mommy to Lainey, wife of Joe, child of God, compulsive list-maker, and dreamer of huge goals. She shares her own budget-friendly recipes and creations with you on her blog, Stay at Home{made} Mom.
