Money & Mental Health Club: Finding Your Financial Calm This Holiday Season
I want your interactions with money to be neutral—not something that sends your heart racing or makes you want to hide under the covers. Yet for many of us, especially during the holidays, our relationship with money becomes anything but calm.
The pressure of gift-giving, travel expenses, and social expectations can transform financial decisions into emotional battlegrounds. One minute you're excited about creating special memories, the next you're reviewing credit card transactions at 2 AM. Sound familiar?
When Money Becomes Emotional
Here's the thing: money itself is neutral. It's a tool, a resource, a means to an end. But somewhere along the way—through family patterns, societal messages, and personal experiences—money became tangled up with our sense of worth, love, and belonging.
The holidays magnify this entanglement. We're told that spending equals caring, that the "right" gift proves our affection, that abundance looks a certain way. No wonder so many of us feel anxious, guilty, or overwhelmed when the season rolls around.
The Path to Financial Calm
At The Pledgettes, we believe the antidote to financial anxiety isn't just better budgeting (though that helps). It's about developing two essential qualities: Financial Clarity and Financial Confidence.
Financial Clarity means knowing your Big Financial Goal—the one that's truly aligned with your values and the life you want to lead. Not what Instagram says you should want. Not what your family expects. What actually matters to you.
When you're clear on your financial priorities, holiday spending decisions become simpler. You're not reacting from guilt or keeping up with others. You're choosing based on what genuinely reflects your values.
Financial Confidence comes from three key ingredients:
Knowledge: Understanding how money works, learning strategies that fit your life, and having access to expert guidance when you need it
Practice: Taking action, even small steps, and building momentum over time
Your Financial A-Team: The support system that makes it all possible—people who understand, encourage, and hold space for your financial journey
The Holiday Money Challenge
This holiday season brings unique financial stressors, from inflation to family expectations to the comparison trap of social media. Dr. Ashley Allen, a licensed clinical psychologist and Pledgettes Money and Mental Health Club Host, explores these challenges in depth in her recent blog post: Money and the Holidays.
Dr. Allen offers practical tools from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), including the concept of "Wise Mind Spending"—balancing emotional needs with long-term wellbeing. She addresses the guilt, pressure, and internal narratives that make holiday spending so fraught, and provides actionable exercises for setting financial boundaries during this complicated season.
Her perspective reinforces what we know at The Pledgettes: your relationship with money is deeply personal, often emotional, and absolutely worth examining with curiosity and compassion.
A Space for Honest Conversation
That's exactly why we created the Money & Mental Health Club—a facilitated discussion space where you can explore your relationship with finances alongside other women who understand the complexity.
Led by Dr. Ashley Allen herself, these sessions create room for open conversation about how money and mental health impact one another. Whether you're navigating holiday spending stress, processing long-held money beliefs, or simply looking for community as you refine your financial approach, this club offers collective learning without judgment.
It's important to note: while Ashley is a therapist, our Money & Mental Health Club is not therapy. These discussions are about sharing experiences, exploring resources, and supporting one another through the financial challenges of living in an unpredictable world. Facilitators are here to guide conversation, not provide financial or clinical advice.
Join a Community That Gets It
The Pledgettes community is built on the belief that women thrive when they have both clarity about their financial goals and confidence to pursue them. With access to 100+ webinars, workshops, and specialist guidance, you'll find the knowledge you need. Through practice and community support, you'll build the confidence to take action.
Your Financial A-Team is waiting—women who understand that money conversations deserve to be calm, neutral, and rooted in your authentic values rather than external pressure.
This holiday season, what if instead of anxiety and avoidance, you approached money decisions with clarity and confidence? What if you had a community that normalized these conversations and helped you build skills for managing financial stress?
That's the space we're creating at The Pledgettes.
Ready to join the conversation? Get involved with The Pledgettes community and discover what Financial Clarity and Financial Confidence can look like in your life.
The holidays will always bring financial decisions. But with the right tools, community, and mindset, those decisions can align with who you are and what you truly value. That's not just better money management—it's financial peace.
