Financial Pancake Tuesday (woo hoo!)

Get out your flapjacks, it’s Financial Pancake Tuesday (or Mardi Gras if you are in New Orleans or France) again, or to add clarity it is Shrove Tuesday. Why do they call it Shrove Tuesday, well it is the day before Lent, as I have written before, and just to remind you, Shrove is a derivation on Shriving.

To Shrove is:

… the past participle of the English verb to shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one’s sins by way of confession and doing penance.

Not a big fan of Church, or the Christian religion in general? That’s OK, but you can still use this in your financial well-being plan, by attempting to obtain absolution from your previous financial sins and doing financial penance.

You feel you don’t have any financial sins? Good for you, but remember, the only people you hurt by not admitting your sins in this case (financially that is) is yourself, so if you think you are trudging along happily financially, you can ignore this idea and keep on trucking, the way you have been.

I know that I have sinned financially (and in many other ways, but let’s not wander down that rat hole), so I will be spending Lent paying financial penance for my financial mistakes/sins/blunders. I find paying financial penance as a cleansing activity (no not like the folks that flagellate themselves with whips and such, just a financially spiritual cleansing).

Some Examples

What kind of financial transgressions do I speak of?

• Simple things like buying coffee out, or buying dinner out a little too much in the past year.
• Big things like not having a real financial plan for the next while in place
• Huge financial transgressions like using debt in a bad way
• The list could continue on, but you can get the concept of what I might mean

What will I be doing to pay penance? I still have a day to figure that one out (Lent starts on Ash Wednesday), but I have a few ideas in mind. Until tomorrow, I will enjoy the pancakes and ruminate on the possible ideas.

Other Shrove Tuesday Thoughts

• Financial Shrove Tuesday not just another pancake Tuesday
• Happy Shrove Tuesday
• Happy Shrove Tuesday
• Financial Pancake Tuesday (woo hoo!)
• Mardi Gras is here