If you were down to your last $500 during the holiday season, would you use it to pay for a needed tooth crown or for kids X-mas presents?

If it were my tooth, the money would go to presents. I could wait and take care of the tooth as best I could, being careful with it and hope for the best until I could afford the work. If it were for my children?

I'd probably try to find a way to do both, perhaps borrowing from someone to do so and buying a few smaller gifts. Christmas isn't a huge deal in our family for presents. We prefer the meal and family and a few things to show we thought of one another, but spending huge amounts of cash and going into debt isn't our way of celebrating the holiday.

Because of this, maybe someone in my family would give me a crown for a Christmas gift? My mom was always good at practical gifts like that. But no, in the end, the kids win out over my own tooth comfort (and this is something I now to be true, because back when I was a single mom with two kids, this was a decision made quite frequently--wasn't always a crown and Christmas, but living paycheck to paycheck, it was frequently something I needed versus somethign the kids needed or wanted.).

Christmas presents. While my health may be important I will always place my children above myself. I remember years where I got nothing for Christmas, and though I loved my parents very much going to school and being asked, "What did you get?" was always an unpleasant thing.

I would not want my children being teased for being poor.

I would get the tooth crown, if you don't it could result in an even more expensive bill down the line. Plus there are many programs, including the Salvation Army's Angel Tree Program that allow families living on a limited budget to provide presents for their children at Christmas time. I've actually volunteered at an Angel Tree event in the past and you'd be surprised how generous the donating families are and the number of nice toys and bicycles that are donated every year, your kids will never know the difference.

As long as the root canal was done and I wasn't in agonnizong pain. The tempcrown would suffice but my kids would have 500 dollars with of presents on Christmas morning!

I would never let my children go without Christmas because I need dental work. My children would always come first, and always did. That's why my teeth need so much work today, because their needs always came before mine.

That is as it should be.

Well, the kids would probably come first. I'm never extravagant at Christmas and make a lot of gifts myself, but $500 isn't really much money in the whole scheme of things. I'd ask my dentist if he were willing to do the work if I made a down payment and make monthly payments afterward.

If not, then I'd just be extra vigilant about my dental care until I could afford to have the work done.

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