My daughter had a violin performance yesterday. My husband and I were both starving afterward and although we were about 9 miles from home, in our previous spending life, we would have driven straight to the Hardee's across the street. However, we stuck it out and went home to eat. I realize that this may seem like the obvious thing for some of you, but not too long ago, I had troubles avoiding eating out for convenience, especially when I am with someone else. This was really a huge thing for me. I have found that my cravings for the fast food have died down too.
I am also having a hard time making the right decision on another issue. My best friend has MS and has not been able to work for quite some time. Her husband has been saving for Christmas and I thought it was all taken care of. She told me last night that although they have the big presents, they don't have any presents under the tree(oogling presents until Christmas is part of the fun for small children). Since I love her kids like my own, I am starting to feel guilty about the amount of money i spent on my children(which was a minimal amount this year). Well, not exactly feel guilty, but more like horrible that I can't help her kids more. My sisters have purchased quite a bit in addition to what I have purchased, so my kids each have more than a few presents under the tree. If my BF had told me earlier, I would have gone right out and purchased at least a couple of things per child to go under the tree. But now I have exhausted my Christmas budget...and if I do buy anything, it will seriously throw my regular budget out of whack, unless I can figure something else out. The old me wouldn't have cared. The new me is fighting a raging battle against the old me. For now the new me is winning.
Why does doing something right for myself also make me feel so bad?
Still trying to avoid eating out and another issue
December 22nd, 2008 at 09:12 pm
December 22nd, 2008 at 09:28 pm 1229981292
If you cannot do it then don't feel bad about it. There is a good chance these kids may be receiving gifts from other relatives or friends. Maybe you could bake them some cookies and wrap up some candy for them?
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:33 pm 1229985233
Of course, it's just planning. If you know roughly how long you're going to be out and about, you'll know whether you'll get hungry or not. Now when my family is going somewhere, we either time it around eating at home before and after, or we make sure we each have enough pocket money to grab something out.
So we still do eat out, but we decide when that's acceptable to us. So there's no caught-off-guard eating out, and none of the guilt and brokeness that comes with.
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:36 pm 1229988985