What is a Holiday FUN FUND?

Well, I thought I'd start today with a question.

We got this listener question as we're doing this 30 day series about how to have a joyful holiday.

It said this, it said, ralph, I love the holidays, the parties, the concerts, the school plays.

But it all adds up fast.

How do I enjoy the season without going into debt for it?

Well, guess what?

You need my solution.

And today I've got a solution for you.

Because here's the truth.

Holiday joy shouldn't turn into January regret.

So many people tell me, Ralph, I, I love the holidays, but man, when it gets to January, I just regret it.

So on today's show, let's talk about how to prepay for your joy so you can celebrate with peace and not panic.

This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence.

Welcome to this show, I'm Ralph.

I'm today going to help you find joy in the holiday season.

As always, this daily show is all about helping you break that cycle of financial financial shame and living in confidence.

And today I wanted to start off talking about food.

Yes, we're going to talk about seafood soup.

Now my father in law, now he's passed on at this point, but every Christmas Eve he had this great goal.

He wanted to make this wonderful seafood soup dinner.

I'm talking about this soup was amazing.

It had every single piece of seafood that you can imagine.

The problem was it cost him a mint to do it.

I'm talking about probably for a family of eight of us that was all of us got together for the holidays and it would cost him about $250.

Now I don't know about you, but that's a lot of money for one meal.

So I remember year after year he would always start credit.

He's like, oh man, I love to make my seafood soup but every year it seems like it gets more expensive.

I mean he had shrimp in there, he had scallops in there, he had fish in there.

I can't even remember all this stuff.

Heavy whipping cream.

Now look, it's not very good for you, to be honest with you, but it sure tasted good.

And hey, one night a year it's okay.

But anyway, this thing cost him 250 bucks.

So I remember one day he said, Ralph, he says, you're a finance guy, you're one of these financial gurus.

What should we do?

What should I do?

He said.

I said, listen, here's what I would do.

Start in September and every week.

Set a couple bucks aside for this.

Go to the grocery store, buy the stuff.

Now listen, you can't buy the seafood that far in advance, but you can buy the cream, you can buy the this, you can buy the that, all the things that went into it.

Or on the other side, just start saving $25 a week because in 10 weeks, guess what, there's your $250.

And then you don't have to worry about that stress at the holiday.

And listen.

So if you're listening right now and you have these holiday traditions that cost a few bucks, think about that.

You can start saving for these things.

And I'll talk about that in my action item later, but you can start saving for these things earlier.

Now, never forget it.

Once he did this, he said, ralph, I'm going to embrace this this year.

He said, this was the first year I enjoyed the holiday without guilt.

Well, that's fantastic, isn't it?

And I love what this quote says.

Now we couldn't find who this quote was from it, but it says this.

It says saving is, is the quiet way joy prepares for its moments.

I thought that was brilliant.

So let's get back to the question of today.

How do I enjoy the season without going into debt for it?

Well, here's what I'm going to encourage you to do.

I'm going to tell you to create something.

Now this is going to be a bit of a tongue twister, but we're going to do what's called the Holiday Fun Fund.

The Holiday Fun Fund.

Now what does that look like?

Well, here's what I want you to do in September, October.

Now listen, we're in November right now.

It's not too late to do this.

You can still do this, but decide on that budget early.

Write down the things that you want to do.

Like for my father in law, it was all about that seafood soup.

So he needed to write down the ingredients, he needed to write down all the things that were going to go into that, and then he could start to budget that.

And here's my encouragement for you.

You can save a small amount, maybe $10, $20 a week.

That stuff won't be so bad when you're going to the grocery store.

Let's say you go to the grocery store every week, pick up a couple of things for this.

You can do this for Thanksgiving, you can do this for Christmas, but start to save.

Maybe you come up with some envelopes, put some labels on it.

Maybe if you're one of those folks that likes concerts, put A concert fun fund.

Or maybe it's a party.

Fun, fun.

Or the.

I keep saying fun, fun, man, I'm gonna.

It's almost like a song we're gonna jump into here in a minute.

But the fun, fun, you can do it for all the different things.

Because here's the truth.

Joy is richer when it's prepaid, not charged.

Which leads us right to our Bible verse today.

I always want to give you some scripture to reinforce what we're talking about here on the show every day.

That's the thing that set.

It's faith and finance.

And we meld those two words together to give you confidence.

So here's a verse for today.

It's From Proverbs, chapter 21, verse 20.

The wise store up food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down.

So what's your moral of the story today?

Don't be a fool, be wise.

Choose up budget things.

That's the key to this.

It's the perfect verse for today.

Don't be a fool, but take your time and plan.

Well, as we talk about that, how about we pray together?

Father, we come to you right now and we ask for wisdom to help us plan joyfully.

Lord, help us not to be fools.

And I know that sounds kind of harsh, but we also don't want to live in fear.

We want to have a joyful holiday.

And we're so grateful that you give us the opportunity to prepare for these things and you give us the holiday in the first place.

So Lord, help us to have a heart that values presence over presence.

Yeah, that's another tongue twister, isn't it?

But we want to value people's presence, our family members, our loved ones, Lord, greater than the presence that are under the tree.

And we ask this in the precious name of Jesus.

Amen.

All right, so you ready for your one action item for today?

Here we go.

It's going to be to open or label that holiday Fun, fun.

Do that today and put $20 aside or whatever that looks like for you.

Plan that out.

That can be a seed that will grow a beautiful joyous garden and a stress free time for the holidays.

And I just want to encourage you right now, you can do this.

Let's all together have a joyful Christmas.

We've got time to prepare.

Let's all go out there and be financially confident Christians.

I want to encourage you to do that.

Stay financially savvy.

God bless you.

I'll see you tomorrow.

Because when joy is playing with wisdom, peace always follows you.

Have a great day.