Hey friend,

We've got about two weeks left before school starts back up, and I can already feel the calendar filling in around the edges. Sports sign-ups. Practice schedules. The group text that starts with "so who's doing carpool this year."

Everybody talks about the school supply budget. New backpacks, new shoes, the fifty-seven glue sticks the list swears you need. But nobody talks about the two budgets that actually wreck families every fall.

Budget one: your actual money

Here's what sneaks up on people every single August.

Gas costs more during the school year. All those extra trips add up, drop off, pick up, practice, forgot-your-cleats-go-back-home. Lunches cost something whether you're packing or buying. Class parties, field trips, spirit days, and sports. Sports are not one price. Registration is just the entry fee. Then there's the cleats, the travel team hotel, the fundraiser you get guilted into, the "just Venmo me for the team gift" text in October.

Before you say yes to anything, ask the boring but important question: “What does this actually cost for the whole year, not just today?”

Budget two: your actual time

This is the one I want you to sit with for a second.

Not everything that fits in the budget fits in the calendar. You can have the money for three sports and still not have the family for three sports.

Ask yourselves before you sign anything:

- What time-wise would stress our family out right now?

- Are we saying yes because our kid loves it, or because we don't want to be the parent who says no?

- Does this leave any actual time for us to just be a family?

Friend, hear me on this. You are not ruining your kid's life if you limit what you say yes to this year. I promise. Kids don't remember every activity you signed them up for. They remember whether their family actually saw them.

So before the calendar fills in for you, fill it in on purpose.

Sit down together. Look at the money. Look at the time. Decide what's actually a yes this year, and let the rest be a loving, calm no.

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens." Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)

This season doesn't have to be the season you're maxed out and resentful by October. It can be the season you actually got to choose.

Cheering for you,

Jenny

P.S. If your family budget could use a real reset before the school year hits, my fall group coaching program is opening soon and this is exactly the kind of thing we work through together. Watch your inbox.

P.P.S. Tell me one activity you're saying no to this year and one you are saying yes to. I want to celebrate that with you, not talk you out of it.

Let's Talk

See you next week!