Travis told me I'm not allowed to pay the bills any more because of how they, along with Suze Orman on Oprah and the financial experts on the Today Show, are freakin' me out.
I just read the post a Conversion Diary about money and living beyond our means and I guess that needs to be added to the list of things freakin' me out. But I'm going to make a guess that many of my friends are in a pretty similar boat as Travis and I - living paycheck to paycheck and currently putting nothing into savings. The savings thing is what really scares me. But THANK GOD we have MVV living with us. With his awesome rent (and I mean, seriously - $200 a month for your own place and the best landlords ever!) and 1/3 of the utilities we are spending less than 50% of our monthly income on fixed expenses. This is good.
So now, instead of freaking out, I'm going to make a list of all the VERY GOOD things we are doing to be financially smart.
- cutting up extra credit cards and paying off all balances
- spending no more than $65 a week on groceries unless it is a stock up week.
- begin using only cash or debit cards
- finding more recipes for tuna
- making my own bread products (this includes wheat bread and tortillas)
- buying store brands
- using coupons
Along with those things we are also
- trying to be generous with what we do have
- working on increasing our tithing to a full 10%
- making a point to thank God every morning for everything we have: our home, insurance, our cars, our health, Travis' job and job security, my job, MVV, our friends and family. This last bit is the most important, I believe.
4 comments:
We were scared too. We actually had started saving money (the price equal to weekly daycare tuition), but then Avery came, and the money went towards all our extra expenses during a non-paid maternity leave. We're just getting into the swing of things- we're not eating out anymore, we cut our cell phone usage in half, we only pay 40/week on groceries by buying milk, bread, and fresh foods at Aldi's. It's a lot of work, but we're finally putting back the money we need to. You'll get there!
Oh Bonnie, we're right there with you! It's a very scary time now. Sounds like you are doing all the right things though.
yes, i try and force myself NOT to watch O when Suze is on, because she's crazy. Not that being financially sound isn't a good idea, but if we did everything she said we wouldn't be able to buy a house for like 20 years or something. Plus, she wouldn't have wanted any of us to have kids in the 'financial conditions' that we were in. I really got mad at her last week or the week before when she told a mom she couldn't stay home with her 2 kids under 2 for some stupid reason. When I do watch her, I freak out the same way and Ryan doesnt like it. We are trying our best and really we're all doing pretty dang good is what we have to keep telling ourselves.
~Veronica
ps-is lydia dressing up for halloween? you should post pictures about that. :-D It's much less depressing then money. ;)
Trust me on this, when you begin to tithe fully, it is SO liberating. Especially when you don't have any money and you write the check anyway. You always think "am I crazy!!" And the answer is "yes, and it is Faith." During these times, God has NEVER failed us. Ever! We always get a mysterious check in the mail, some rebate we didn't know we could get,etc.
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