Frugal Holiday Advice

My wonderful co-worker and I were having a conversation yesterday and she urged me to blog on what we were discussing.

I'm all for cutting corners: With your money, with your time, etc. But there is one area that you must NEVER cut corners on, and that's with your friends and family.

With all of the demand that we have on our time, it is often really easy to blow off friends and family because we always figure that "they are our friend/family, so they'll understand."

I've often catch myself debating this: I have a busy week. I've had to work overtime, be at committee meetings for a group I'm in, run to doctor's appointments on lunch breaks, run umpteen different errands, etc. I'm supposed to drive up to my parents for the weekend, but all I really want to do is go home and veg out. What do I do?

Part of me says: Just tell your mom and dad that you have had a rough week and that all you want to do is chill.

But the part that wins out says: Life is too short. One day you won't be able to spend time with them and you'll regret it.

Now I understand when something else happens and you just can't do something - I felt terrible this past week because my friend was graduating (getting her PhD!!!!) on Friday about 4 hours away. I really wanted to see her, to be there for her. But, alas, there is so much going on at work that I just couldn't take the whole day off on Friday. Even if I had blown off work, I'd probably be way too preoccupied with what all I had to do that I'd have an anxiety attack. So unfortunately I just couldn't physically make it.

But when you can, splurge on time and activities with your family. Those are great investments to make! And I can guarantee you that you'll get a healthy return on investment from it!