I have a confession to make: before I found infinity calendars, I messed up birthdays on a regular and consistent basis.
I would get so frustrated when I found out that I had the wrong day by just a day or two. Or my personal favorite, I would miss the birthday altogether. These were the special people in my life, the ones that really mattered, and I felt like such a schmuck not celebrating them on their special day.
This problem happened frequently when I used a paper calendar. I would try to be efficient and transfer the birthdays from the paper calendar from one year to the next, but I would mess up by writing on the same day of the week (Wednesday) instead of the date that the birthday was on. I learned later that this is partly due to my learning style (visual) coupled with my desire to be efficient, and well, it always ended up a mess.
The other thing that would catch me off guard is when people’s birthdays fell at the beginning of the month. I would turn the calendar page and be totally surprised that it was so and so’s birthday and I had either missed it, or was now left scrambling to get the gift and card sent out that is now already late.
This doesn’t happen now since I use an online calendar, but I still keep and use the infinity calendar that I created. The infinity calendar was a game changer for me! Having everybody’s birthdays on the wall for everybody to see is so helpful for when:
- I’m trying to remember when a birthday is
- Somebody asks me when somebody’s birthday
- I’m trying to remember how old someone is (because I can put the year that they were born on it)
I also find that family and friends enjoy coming over and seeing their name and birthday listed. It makes them feel special and loved, and that’s what we want in this world. So, if you’re like how I used to be and you struggle trying to remember everybody’s birthdays, try using a combination of a digital and an infinity calendar, and you’ll no longer be caught by surprise when your loved ones’ birthdays come around!
Bonus Tip: You can also put holidays like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, and things like wedding anniversaries, so you don’t forget those special days either. Then you can help celebrate the special couples in your life and the bond that they have.
Here are a couple of options for you to look at:
Or you can buy a pretty one like this one, or make your own! This one is pretty similar to the one I created years ago:
Having all the birthdays listed like this lets me see ahead of time which months I am going to need more money for birthday celebrations and gifts.
Speaking of budgeting…
For my family, May, June, and October tend to be very expensive months, and when I look at my infinity calendar I can see why. In May, we have Mother’s Day and my birthday. June is my youngest son’s birthday, my daughter-in-law’s birthday, and it was my mother’s and my mother-in-law’s birthdays, Father’s Day, not to mention graduations and end of school year events, PLUS teacher gifts…WOW! Then there’s September and the beginning of all the school registration fees, back-to-school supplies and clothing, which then rolls into October where we have my husband’s birthday and our oldest son’s birthday. All of these things really can catch you off guard. Seeing them all laid out on an infinity calendar helps me plan ahead and budget accordingly.
If you are not planning ahead for these expense items, it will show in your budgeting and spending. You may be stuck buying items at full price instead of having the time to shop for the item you want to buy as a gift at a good price or on sale. You may also end up spending more money by emotionally responding to forgetting someone’s birthday – when we forget about a birthday we have a tendency to buy a more elaborate gift to compensate for our guilt of forgetting. We can also get caught up in thinking that since their birthday happens only once a year, we can spoil them a little, and we end up buying more and more expensive gifts. These thoughts and feelings can cause us to overspend on gifts and throw away our best laid plans for our spending and budgeting.
If the holidays and gift-giving is catching you off guard and messing up your finances and contributing to the credit card creep, consider downloading the Blue Collar Budget that I created. This comprehensive budget has a savings bucket/planned expense line item for birthdays/gift-giving. That way, you can decide ahead of time what your spending limit is for gifts, and have the money saved up for when you need it.
Creating a budget, following a plan, and saving a little each pay period gives you the power over your finances. This helps avoid using a credit card to purchase gifts, and stops the highs and lows of having money, not having money, having money, not having money, while eliminating the struggle to come up with money on really short notice for those expensive and busy months.
The best gift you can give someone is the gift of being your best self. We can’t be our best selves if we are stressed out and struggling financially. When you are financially sound, you are calm, reliable, happy, aware, and intentional.
Take the first steps towards financial stability and download the Blue Collar Budget today. Or, if you’re ready to get started with the help of a financial coach, you can also schedule your free 15-minute Discovery Call with me here!
