December 21, 2007

Pre-Christmas penny pinching

What a miserable git I am. It's a Friday night, and while everyone I know is out celebrating Christmas in one way or another, I'm staying in and studiously not spending money.

As an atheist, it's ridiculous to like Christmas as much as I do, but I really do love this season. I love that while it's cold and grey outside, town is lit up with decorations and people are getting dressed up and having fun together. I love the buzz in the office on the last few days before the holiday, I love the over-eating and I love getting to spend a good chunk of time with my family. But unfortunately, for about the fourth year running I have no funds to properly enjoy it all and am finding myself ducking out of social events for fear of going over budget... which makes me pretty poor company at the moment.

Don't get me wrong - I fully plan to go out on Christmas Eve, I've managed to buy what I think are decent presents without spending a fortune, and my closest friends and I are planning to share a cheap home-cooked meal tomorrow that will cost next to nothing. But it would be nice, just for once, to get to this point in the year without worrying about how I'll finance it.

Clearly, I either need a better-paid career, a wealthy benefactor or to stop moaning. And in the absence of millionaire friends or a job I would rather do for more money, I guess I should start thinking about a New Year's resolution to be a little more positive... so here's to some festive cheer and goodwill!