A low balance can still change who I am by dinner

Dear Delyara, I become tighter, narrower, less generous in spirit, less playful, less patient with nonsense. It frightens me how quickly financial pressure changes the atmosphere of a house through me. Not because I want money to define me, but because I know too well what money trouble can grow into if it is ignored or badly timed. That fear gets there first. Before logic. Before calm. Before a plan. I don’t only dislike the stress. I dislike the version of me that the stress lets into the kitchen.