I always stayed within a budget. It wasn’t a written down budget. It was more like I needed to have a certain amount of money in the bank before I let myself spend on anything more than the absolutely necessities. I would always save money until I felt like I had enough of a cushion, and then I might ease up a bit.
It’s three decades since I started being on my own and I started treating money that way, and I am finally to a point where I can spend in ways I never could have imagined back when I just got out of college. But I never let anything pressure me. My bottom line was my own financial security, and I would always do without until I could purchase it and still know that if everything went to hell the next day, I’d still have enough in the bank to keep me for six months (that was my cushion in the beginning).
Later, my cushion extended to a year, then two years, then five years, and now probably more than a decade.
There are always presents that fit the budget. They may not be yachts or gold pen knives or the latest boxed set of whatever, but you can afford them within your safety budget. Letting social pressures make you feel like you violate your budget is what gets you into trouble. That’s how people get into financial trouble. They either don’t know what their safety budget it, or they don’t believe it is more important than anything else. Then they spend too much, and it ends disastrously with homelessness or something.
Know what you can afford to spend, and only spend that… preferably less. Don’t let social pressures make you do things that could cause you serious trouble in the long run.