By Jordan Sapir
The phone rings. I can’t pick it up. The incessant ringing persists, but the phone won’t connect. I can hear my aunt, in Maryland, on the line. She’s trying to get her message through the white noise. Each and every time, she fails. I fail to answer, to hear her frantic pleas. Beads of sweat drip down my forehead. I awake in a state of panic. My nightgown is drenched and I’m in a cold sweat. I soon realize it’s a dream. A recurring dream.
I imagine that I’m not alone in my fears. As an ex-pat, I often feel helpless and alone.
Whenever I call my mother unexpectedly late at night, she answers with a frightened, “Is everything okay?” The dual anguish of being far away from home, and unable to react in case of emergency, looms over me. It often keeps me awake at night. That, and the availability of disposable funds to manage a potentially urgent predicament.
This past year has been a whirlwind of emotions for me. I’ve gone from waves of hopelessness and despair to bursts of optimism.
Those fears, though unsettling, have helped me understand the importance of an emergency savings fund. Flights are expensive, last-minute, as are hospital expenses.
My doomsday logic might have been an exaggeration in 2019, but in 2020 my fears are pertinent and looming. Over the past months, during lockdowns and quarantine, I’ve been thinking of the holidays and beyond. How do I reasonably celebrate from home, with my immediate family? Now is the time, for me, to make sure that everything I do is easy on the pocket.
At Über Moms this month, we’re discussing “Making the Most of Your Money.”
Meal-prepping, homemade gifts, children’s craft ideas, buying locally, and saving for emergencies is on our holiday to-do list. What are the ways you’re saving or cutting back this month?
I’ll be having the kids make our annual holiday card and family gifts this year. I’ll be handmaking self-care gifts for my friends. There will be no excessive feast, nor will I give my partner a present this year. That may be revenge for the vacuum last year, but I am confident that it’s a great way to save where we can.
Someone once told me that once you become a mother, you will worry forever. The best gift I can give myself this year is peace of mind.
As you prepare, send us your money-saving tips for the holidays!
Join us for our wreath-making workshop, or learn how to mix a holiday cocktail and save.
We’re looking forward to what 2021 brings, and grateful for what 2020 has taught us.
Jordan Sapir
Jordan Sapir, mother of two glitter-laden girls, 3 and 6, studied Journalism and International Political Science in NYC, a place she once called home. She can slaughter five languages fluently. She has worked in a newsroom or two, walked a catwalk or three, and is all for an impromptu adventure. Having traded in her Prada for pretzels, the founder of Über Moms lives in Munich, where she is a stay at home mom and studying to become a certified nutritionist. She is a mommy on a mission and wants to help fellow mothers raise healthy happy families, and beat a PR here and there.