You won’t remember most of what you bought this year. You’ll remember who you were with when you were broke and laughing.

Purchases vanish from memory at a rate that would surprise you. What stays is oddly specific and almost always social: the walk, the stupid conversation, the night everybody was out of money and it was somehow fine. Those were not budget versions of better evenings. They were the evenings.

When you are short this month, spend the little you have on being somewhere with people rather than on a thing. A cheap evening with your friends is not a compromise, it is the part you will still have.