Lent: Giving Up and Giving Back

“Hey, what are you giving up?”

Giving up is almost synonymous with Lent. Growing up Catholic, it was a topic of conversation every year at this time. “What are you giving up?” Even my non-Catholic friends would take part in this custom of taking up a sacrifice.

Every year was the same old things. Priests would fill their homilies with the classic, “Try to give up more than just chocolate this year.” the Sundays leading up to the season. Sincere, and true, but there has to be more to this season of the Church, and there is.

Beyond the minimum requirements of abstaining from meat on Fridays, giving up is as important as giving back. In fact, in Lent we should give back not only to others but also to God. All of this is done through the three pillars of Lent, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

Why Give Something Up?

Lent has been around for a very long time and even before it was officially established, there were seasons of fasting and feasting. This practice helps us to be aware of our limitations. It humbles us and shows us our dependence on God.

In addition to a greater awareness of ourselves and closeness to God, there are other reasons that would lead us to temporarily sacrifice things we like. One side effect of sacrificing, though hopefully not our primary goal this Lent, is saving some cash.

Here are five ideas of Lenten sacrifices that consequently save you money (and time). These in turn will help us with the other two pillars of Lent.

Lenten Sacrifices Can Save Bank

1. Give Up TV

If you haven’t already gotten the message that has been blasting from the rooftops over the past few years, and most recently from Apple and Disney, but cable is gone. It has been surpassed by less expensive streaming services.

No longer do you need to drop money on hundreds of channels that you might turn on once in a while.

But I need the news!

No you don’t. Most of it is junk anyways. Here is a fantastic article, titled Why You Should Quit the News, explaining this.

There are so many streaming services out there that are significantly cheaper than cable and provide better quality entertainment. Often, that entertainment is commercial-less too which can save you even more money because there will be significantly less advertising being pumped into your household.

That leads us to number two.

2. Give Up TV Streaming Services

Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV, Youtube TV, HBO… If you have half of these, you are essentially paying for cable. There are so many options for entertainment now that no one could possibly watch all of them. Pick one. Maybe your spouse or siblings can pick another and you can share a password. At around $10 each, these streaming services are adding up in your budget. Consider adding up how many shows you have watched in a month and see what the cost is per show. I’d be interested to hear that.

So whether you wanna give up all or a few of your streaming services, it is as simple as going to your account settings and hitting cancel.

From experience, I have found that when you cancel subscriptions, you can also expect emails each week from the company begging you to come back. Some of these deals end up giving you a free month or even a half price subscription. Once Easter comes around, you can surely find a discounted offer in your inbox to sign right back up.

3. Give Up Music Streaming Services

It occurred to me last year that I had been listening to a lot of podcasts. Like, a lot. At least one or two hour long shows each day. This got me thinking that I haven’t listened to music lately. If it wasn’t a podcast, I was also listening to a book on CD in my car.

I paid $10 / month for two months of music streaming on Spotify that I didn’t even use a single time!

So, I canceled my subscription. This meant that I had access to all of my same music and playlists, but for each 30 minutes of music, I had to listen to a 30 second ad. Time for some math.

I was listening to about 30 minutes of music per week (one of my ten trips to and from work), so I listened to 30 seconds of ads each week.

30 sec / week * 4 weeks / month = 2 minutes / month of ads.

To get rid of those ads, I could have paid $10 / month, but instead I chose to save that money.

Therefore, I kinda got paid $10 for 2 minutes of ad listening, or $300 / hour!!! That’s a pretty sweet savings for such little time!

Again, after a month, Spotify was emailing me with offers to get me back. However, I saw an ad for Amazon music that gave me 4 months for $0.99. I used to assume that Spotify would be in my budget forever, but now I found that Amazon music is as good, but cheaper for now.

Canceling services is definitely something I will continue in the future, so why not to start off Lent?

Lastly, the hardest part of giving up music is silence. We all could use a little more silence this Lent. I have heard great things about this book called The Power of Silence, but I haven’t had the chance lately because of all the noise in life!

4. Give Up Soda and Junk Food

This one doesn’t hurt me particularly bad, but I still like to stop by the vending machine now and again if my day at work seems long. This was significantly cut back when I started keeping a jar of peanut butter at my desk, but maybe I’ll cut back the snacking a few days of the week.

Don’t drink soda? Try coffee or another favorite. I doubt that I will notice any significant savings, but I would like to cut back on how much of those flavored creamers I put in my coffee. Dang, those are addicting.

5. Give Up Pretty Much Anything

Almost anything can be a practice of discipline and fasting. I didn’t intend for this to be a “bash TV and media” post, so here are some other quick ideas off the top of my head and how much it would save me (cause everyone’s different).

• Alcohol – $35 / month
• Take-Out – $60 / month
• The Snooze Button – A lot more time in the morning
• Amazon Purchases for Myself – $25 / month

Feel free to add to this list in the comments!

More to Lent: Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving

Okay, so we have talked a lot about giving things up. Although that is the most talked about aspect of this season, there are actually three components to Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

The reason I mentioned all the ways you can fast first is because each way you fast can help you do the others.

As I mentioned before, Lent is for giving up and giving back. Giving up helps us to give back more.

Prayer: Giving Back to God

Say you give up TV. Now you have an additional hour each night that is free! What should you do with that time? Maybe you can find a chapel to go to for prayer, or you can pick yourself up a spiritual book to read and reflect on. There are many ways to pray, including adoration, petitions, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise.

If you are new to prayer and spiritual reading, I’d recommend one of Fr. Jacques Philippe‘s books, especially Time For God.

In the end, challenge yourself this lent to take aside some time to be quiet and talk to God. Be concrete with your goal whether it is 20 minutes or an hour each day aside to pray and stick to it. Also, when you talk to God, don’t forget to listen too. Silence is difficult, but so many of us, including myself, lack this in our lives. Now, that can change.

Almsgiving: Giving Back to Others

Now that you aren’t spending money on drinks, TV, or take-out you have an extra $100 hanging out for the next month and half or so. What should we do with that?

Well, Lent is also a time to challenge ourselves to grow in giving. This extra savings can go to helping others.

Jesus is God. He had everything when He decided to become poor on Earth. Lent gives us an opportunity to be more like Jesus. Here is a great video from Ascension Presents laying out some awesome reasons for Almsgiving.

Many parishes will have extra collections in Lent, such as the Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl. You can also find other ways to give extra to your local community or favorite charities, like food pantries or coat drives and such.

“What Are You Giving Back?”

I hope you grow closer to God through all of your prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. All three of these areas deserve our attention in these coming weeks. Small or large, try to pick something special to do in each area. Give up and give back this Lent.

Next time someone asks you what you are giving up, you can challenge them and ask, “What are you giving back?”