Do You, Miss Saver take Mr. Spender to Be Your Lawfully Wedded Husband?

I don’t claim to be an expert about finances. I’m just a natural saver. Well, this natural saver married a natural spender. How does that work? We both had to make changes. I see too many people struggling with money and my heart breaks. I just wish I could help. I guess one way I can do that is by telling you what works for us. This is not the way anyone has to do it. We are not better than anyone else. (It’s sad I have to put disclaimers, but people are too sensitive these days). In fact, I still have changes that I want to implement.

I am a stay-at-home mom. This has been my dream for as long as I can remember. My mom was home with me and I wanted to have the same for my children. Evan works hard to make sure that can happen for us. (Note: This is not a debate about stay-at-home vs. working moms. This is just about how we do things here.)  Since we want to live on one income, we need to make wise and frugal decisions.

I have taken Crown Financial and Dave Ramsey’s courses. I like talking about budgets. I like talking about saving money. Thanks to Evan, I am learning not to hoard all our money. I’m learning that it is okay to buy things for myself – if I have the money.

The biggest thing for us is that we live within our means. We have a list of bills we pay each month. I know when these are due and they are put into my budget, which is a spreadsheet I made up. We have bills that bill collectors would come after us if they are not paid. And, we have our more flexible bills.  Although, they are flexible, they are still assigned an amount in the budget that we don't want to go over.

Examples of Set Bills:

Mortgage

Utilities

Cell Phones

Cable

Car Payment

Flexible “Bills”:

Tithe

Groceries

Haircuts

Gasoline

Allowance

Target/Walmart

My goal (self-imposed) each month is to save money in some of the flexible areas. Groceries and Target/Walmart are areas where I use coupons to make these areas smaller. Anything saved here is money in the bank. I have had months where I have saved $50-100 in these areas by making lists, using coupons, and not buying non-essentials.

Our tithe is very important. First, I believe that our money is God’s money. Therefore, we are committed to giving him 10% each month. This was not always easy for me. I usually did it begrudgingly or because I felt obligated. Not anymore. I just feel like God gives us so many blessings. The fact that Evan has a job is a blessing in itself. He lets me keep 90%, so is it really hard to give 10%? I also feel like the church isn’t just about money. Our tithes support’s the church building’s expenses and the workers he has called to that church.

I think another big item on this list is our allowance. Even though we are adults, this works for us. Every two weeks, we each get a set amount of money to do with whatever we want. If we want to spend our money on fast food, then we can. If we want to see it grow in our wallet, we can. I usually don’t spend very much of it. I end up paying for things like Nicholas’ haircut, an extra gallon of milk, or a book that I wanted with mine. Evan’s allowance gives him the chance to spend money, which he is prone to do. If it’s gone, it’s gone.  Sometimes, if I've saved a lot, I won't even take my allowance that pay period.  I choose to save it in the bank instead.  Evan, on the other hand, would like it regardless.  I respect his decision.

We also use cash for our gasoline purchases.  Evan knows how much gas he uses on average and gets a certain amount every two weeks.  If we find that he is starting to average more, we will examine the reason why and tweak the amount, if necessary.  If he uses less, he can save it for the future, in case we have more driving to do.

What Do I Do With This Information?

The first thing I suggest is making a budget. It will take a couple pay periods to really get the hang of it, but it can actually make you feel more freedom. You’ll also be able to see where your money is actually going. I think you will be surprised. There are plenty of budget templates out there, or you can create your own. The biggest goal is to bring in more than is going out.  You want to see which areas you can eliminate or at least get to a reasonable amount.

If you can’t pay your bills, then you probably shouldn’t have “luxuries” like cable or the latest and greatest electronics. If you can’t pay your bills, then you shouldn’t be eating out all the time. It is important to make sacrifices in order to get yourself financially healthy. Once you have yourself in a better place, then maybe you'll be able to budget in for eating out or add cable back into your budget.

Like I said at the beginning, my goal for this series is to offer those struggling financially with some ideas for change.  You're also going to find as this series goes on that God is really doing a heart change in me as well. 

Before I get to that change, I have a few other areas I want to touch on.  The next topic is an area that takes away our freedom and leaves many of us sleepless at night.