Budgeting humbug looms large this holiday season

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/12/2023 (666 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I’m embarrassed to admit I haven’t finished Christmas shopping yet.

And when I say “haven’t finished,” I mean I started on Tuesday and picked up about four items, distracted and deflated by a recent car-repair quote.

I’ve always thought the “last-minute shopper” was someone who went shopping on Christmas Eve, and I’m learning, a bit late, the window is wider than I assumed.

This year is different, though. I’m not late to the game because of my normal procrastination and dislike of crowds.

Instead, this year, with current budget pressures, I’ve developed some anxiety around spending money in general, and it seems safer to wait for just one more paycheque before jumping in.

I hadn’t realized how much I’ve changed until this moment. In hindsight, I’ve made a lot of changes over the last year.

Most of that energy has been spent looking long and hard at our grocery list. I’ve cut down on meat and cheese. Increased our potato-to-protein ratio. I’ve started making our own lunchbox snacks and sandwich bread.

I know we’re not alone in this. It seems no matter what our starting point was at the beginning of this year, it’s a different landscape for many families at the end of 2023. And now, in the “season of giving” it feels like there isn’t much to spare.

Hearing first from the premier last week, and then more recently from the mayor, that our civic and provincial governments are also looking at empty pantries and a lean new year is further discouragement.

Collectively, we’ve opened the cupboard, found it bare, and are standing here, still gripping the door handle, sighing and shaking our heads and wondering what the future may bring.

Painful stories like the overspending and under-performance of the surgical backlog task force seem worse than irresponsible — they are wasteful: a Scrooge-like siphoning of public money into private salaries and American services while many of us are using every creative faculty to preserve normalcy in our little lives.

So where do we, individual citizens, come into the scene? Do we perpetually get walk-on roles in the Christmas pageant of responsible governance, while watching the stage scenery topple around us? Are we forever relegated to roles of barnyard animals, dressed in old bathrobes, mere bystanders to someone else’s plan?

At this time each year, we are asked to contribute and to do our part for those of us on a different rung of the socioeconomic ladder. For the last 26 years, Manitoba has led the nation in charitable giving; a fact we should be extremely proud of. In these times of financial uncertainty from the household budget up to the halls of power, we have a reputation of banding together for one another.

We’re often asked to “bring a tin for the bin” at local events this time of year, and local charities like United Way, Harvest Manitoba and Siloam Mission make online donation a breeze. But in a season of unusual penny-pinching, it’s not as easy to part with the can of soup or the extra few dollars.

If we widen the view a little, though, there are ways we can strengthen our city and province and provide a bit rosier view for the new year.

Unlike the surgical task force, we can keep dollars in our province by choosing to support local grocers and businesses when we do our holiday shopping.

We can help one another by making decisions to donate our winter clothing and boots directly to local agencies that work to keep our neighbours warm.

We can serve meals, deliver hampers or otherwise give our time, energy, driving skills or other personal privilege to an array of worthy organizations in our city and province.

There most certainly is a need for this type of generosity. Last week, the Salvation Army reported that 70 per cent of its volunteer shifts are unfilled. Operation Red Nose is desperate for drivers, the volume of which it says has not rebounded since the pandemic. The Christmas Cheer Board has its sights set on delivering 19,000 hampers.

Despite the bleak outlook and irresponsible habits of some of our leaders, we still possess the power, within our own generous Winnipeg hearts, to write the script for the ghost of “Christmas Yet to Come.”

With a bit of optimism and creativity, a feast of warmth, community and friendship can be made for our neighbours, despite the cupboards being bare.

rebecca.chambers@freepress.mb.ca