This past Christmas was one of the most blessed I've ever had. I found the perfect gifts for both of my siblings, ones that I knew they would love - and I took them back on Christmas Eve before ever having a chance to give them to either one.

I'll try to make a long story short as to the financial blunders that lead to such an act. Currently, I scrap by on minimum wage and sometimes the ends don't quite meet from one month to the next. I actually chose to be in this circumstance that I'm sure many people know all too well. I'm serving for one year with a non- profit in what is essentially a paid volunteer position - enough is made to cover basic expenses, but that is all. And while I have absolutely loved everything I have been able to do during this experience and would never say I regret my decision, my budget planning going into it was, at the very least, naive and unprepared. Halfway into the year, rent went up at the apartment and it seemed like each bill suddenly became a little larger. Fast food slowly became a rare treat as the $4.95 combo meal just didn't seem to be worth the money spent (do you know how many packs of Ramen I can get with that? Or how much spaghetti I could cook at 50 cents a box and my coupon for the sauce?).

During the holiday shopping time, when materialism smothers visions of the Christ child with blinking lights and signs proclaiming "SALE!", it's easy to get wrapped up into thinking that what your loved ones really do need most is something you can buy with the swipe of a card. And so I did.

If I had actually stuck to my original and intended shopping budget (which should have been much less than what I had made it), it may have been fine. But the danger of paying with plastic is that it's very easy to swipe and forget how many times you have already swiped before. When I checked my balance early on Christmas Eve, I realized the damage I had done. Even though the bank would be closed until the following Tuesday and most of my purchases would not be added to the account until then, I was looking at the very real possibility of having spent about $70 more than what I actually had available once all of those swipes finally took effect. What about my credit cards, those would surely save me! But no - I had nothing left on them. It was one of those moments where you kick yourself for the sheer stupidity of your own actions and the fact that there is no way to fix what you have done. In this case there actually was,

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