Yes, I am quite frugal. I'm not ashamed; actually I quite enjoy it. Too much apparently. See, almost all of our friends are in this class at church by Dave Ramsey titled "Financial Peace". When we were propositioned to join I secretly thought, "This is not for me, I already know how to stretch a penny". I wasn't wanting to crowd my schedule, so we declined. Well, I knew that the Lord was dealing with me, but I was choosing to ignore his subtle promptings... After all, we weren't in debt, so what's there to learn? Mistake number one...
Last week I was paying bills (just started online banking--incredible!) and was so excited that our Visa was on budget (or so I thought) and we had money left over! Until I looked at my calendar...we had already gotten our 1st check of the month...so we had actually dipped in to half of next weeks' salary! Yikes. Reality check. When your house payment increases several hundred dollars a month (can't they estimate your taxes right the first time??), and business is slow... adjust your budget accordingly. But no, I chose to live in this wonderful little dream land called "denial" and keep on charging. No biggie, we have some money stored away... just make a teensey little transfer... It can only go on for so long. After all, we refuse to live in debt. So here I am, sobbing at my computer, wondering how this happened. Duh, a few too many swipes for things I don't even remember buying the next day!!
So I was immediately reminded of the last few conversations I'd had with Mel about this great class (that I'd snubbed as "unnecessary"...) and knew exactly what I was supposed to do. And I did it. SOOOO hard. I called our mortgage company to have our payments taken out automatically every week (we get paid weekly and it totally saves $ in the long run--bonus!), then I wrote down all of our bills for the month, and how much we needed to put in savings, to calculate a weekly budget. The left over money would be what we would live off of. Yikes. Let's just say it wasn't nearly as much as I thought we had. Sad really, that I just estimated our way month to month hoping that all would work out in the end. And it sometimes did. But mostly it didn't. I was totally convicted. How irresponsible I'd been...we'd been (Jus too...for trusting me!!) God has given me so many blessings, such a wonderful life...and this is how I thank Him? By spending his gifts without even thinking about it first? Yeah, I needed to be humbled.
So here's the real kicker. It's only been the first week but I'm already feeling like a thousand pounds has been lifted off my shoulders... I went to the bank and took out all the cash we could spend for the whole week...and when it's gone it's gone. I'm adopting Dora's catch phrase "Swiper no swiping!!". I put my credit card in the drawer so as not to even be tempted. But really? It's quit liberating! I don't even want to spend it because...when it's cash...? So much harder to part with!! So this weekend, when I'd usually go out and "relax" by heading to the discount stores by myself, I stayed home and organized the boys' whole room...closets with outgrown clothes, drawers overstuffed, junk that just needed to be tossed... And that's when it hit me, even if it's all purchased on clearance, is it really saving money if you buy ten times more than one kid actually needs?? Good lord, they have way too many clothes! (But I'll never turn down hand-me-downs...I'll really need them now!) And since we're on this budget, whatever money is left at the end of the week, I can spend on myself (what a novel idea...) even if it's only $10! (That's at least two tops at Ross!) I do love a good challenge, so stretching the budget every week is actually kind of fun. Ask me next month
and I'll tell you if I still feel the same...So... so far so good. We stayed home all day and I wasn't even tempted to head out on one errand to entertain myself, because I didn't want to spend my money! I've started making lists again, as idle time bores me, and you should see my house! It looks amazing! And the kids were actually very pleasant today. I think they too enjoyed not being carted around all morning. This "financial peace" thing seems to be paying off (no pun intended) all the way around it looks like... So I guess being humbled isn't such a bad thing. I hope I've learned that when I embrace His gentle nudgings, rather than challenge them, life just seems to go so much smoother...Hmmm, again, Father knows best... :)
1 comment:
There is definately a sense of freedom when being responsible with your budget, but the class is called "Financial Peace". I like the way that sounds even better. For most, financial and peace are rarely in the same sentence unless we are talking about the Lord's portion. But when you are being a good steward of your money like God instructs us to (just read a couple Psalms) then every penny your hubby brings home is attached with peace. I tell everyone I know about this "freeing" class and pray that others will find the freedom we have!
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