I turn 45 this month. I've always liked having a May birthday because it's far enough away from Christmas.

Once I became a mother, Mother's Day became another day of celebration for me.

I don't like to spend a lot of money on myself, and feel guilty when I do. But when my birthday's around the corner, I find myself easing up on the restriction and actually buy myself a few things I have wanted.

I typically find myself giving myself permission to buy for myself for the entire month of May, and a week or so after my birthday! Although to be very honest, I do generally limit my purchased items to money I've received for my birthday from my mother and mother-in-law. They both admonish me to buy something for myself, and they insist on knowing what I got. They don't want me to spend the money on the family, or put it toward debt. I'm okay with this, as I don't really like the idea of spending my birthday money on our debt either.

In spite of that, I want to be very sure this year that I do limit my expenditures to the amount of money I've received. This means I need to wait until AFTER my birthday to start spending the money.

I'll keep you posted on how I do with this.