Some holidays are all about family gatherings, some involve elaborate decorations, and others somehow require buying enough food to feed a small army. 😂 Which holiday tends to take the BIGGEST bite out of your budget each year? 🎆 New Year's — Starting the year with a bang (and possibly an expensive party)! 🥧 Independence Day — Fireworks, food, and festivities! 🎃 Halloween — Costumes, candy, decorations, and spooky surprises! 🦃 Thanksgiving / Black Friday — Feasts, family, and shopping deals! 🎄 Christmas — Gifts, decorations, travel, food... the list goes on! 🍩 National Donut Day — Both of them. My donut budget requires its own emergency fund. 🤣 🌍 Another holiday! — Easter, Eid, Diwali, Lunar New Year, or another celebration that's important to you! (Let us know in the comments what it is!) 💬 Bonus question: Is your biggest-spending holiday also your favorite, or are those two completely different? Vote below! 👇

If you are on my email list, you'll get an email later today with a cute coloring page/activity pack freebie about an adorable sloth family (the Slothingtons) as they get prepared for Christmas. That's a gift to my email subscribers from my freebie swap partner, Deborah Cocks. You can see her stuff here: https://payhip.com/TheSlothingtons. I also created some new coloring pages for her audience too, which I will share with you here! (They are also getting added to the Classroom under the Color Your Way to Savings and the Everything Bundle.)

A budget is just today's priorities written down with dollars attached.

What expense still sneaks up on you even though it really shouldn't be a surprise anymore? 😂

What if your spending rules weren't restrictions you had to follow forever, but little experiments to discover what works for you? Sometimes the hardest part of spending wisely is making a decision in the moment. A simple rule can give you a default answer until you've had time to think. For example, I love Pepsi! 🤩 So I could experiment with two different rules: 🅰️ Rule A: I only buy Pepsi when it's on sale. 🅱️ Rule B: I don't buy Pepsi if I already have at least a 12-pack at home. Neither rule says I can never buy Pepsi. They just give me a reason to pause before purchasing more. Your challenge: 1. Pick one spending habit you'd like to experiment with. 2. Come up with two different rules that might help. 3. Try Rule A for a few opportunities, then Rule B. 4. Notice which one feels easier, saves you money, or fits your life better. And if neither works? That's useful information, too! Adjust your rules and try again. The goal isn't to follow more rules. It's to discover which ones make your life easier. (Think of it like an automatic default that simplifies your choices and reduces your need for willpower.) When I was student teaching, I used this concept when buying "teacher clothes". I only bought black and white outfits. Not because I didn't like color(!), but it made it super easy to find outfits without getting distracted. 💬 Your turn: What's one spending rule you'd like to test? Share your Rule A and Rule B below!