OK, as in all business, adventures, and just life in general, there are great days and there are days that you probably should have done something different. I am so glad that the garage sale is done, and I am glad that I did it ~ kind of. But the wind blew like crazy all day. My dear friend Deana and I were chasing down baby clothes for most of the morning. It turns out that several neighborhoods around us were having neighborhood garage sales and we only had us and one other garage sale in our entire neighborhood! At …
Going for the roses
Well, when the roses start coming, there might be some thorns, and the thorns for me today mean I’m sitting in my garage again having a garage sale. I pulled in two more friends and we are doing it again. The rose at the end is the money that I will hopefully make from just a few hours of work, but truthfully… there are a lot of things I would rather be doing. But after today, everything else is going to charity and my garage will be empty again. So, keep me in your prayers and I will be back …
Kill Your Giant
I have a 5 year old, a 3 year old, and a 1 year old in my home. They are constantly in motion, dropping things as they go… particularly food. Consequently, vacuuming is a dire need in my house. However, since every second step you have to stop to pick up a toy, vacuuming is a monumental task. I’ve tried getting the whole house tidy and then vacuuming, but without Matt’s help, that rarely works. Now when Daddy is home, he occupies the culprits, and tidies and I vacuum and so we get it done. However, it always feels like …
Managing Your Credit Card Debt
There are many different strategies for climbing the mountain of debt. Honestly, I think it is a little like dieting… I’m not sure there is an easy answer or a “right” answer, I think it’s just picking the method that works for you and then sticking with it. The important thing is to get a plan in place that works the best for you and your family and then go for it. God is with you. His heart is for you to be free, and I believe as you step out and begin, you will find His grace and strength …
Managing Your Credit Cards
So how do you manage your credit cards? We live in a world where it is difficult to travel, impossible to rent a car, and just extremely challenging to do a lot of things without a credit card. However, how do you protect yourself from debt, when financial hardship is never more than a few swipes of the credit card away? The problem with credit cards is you don’t have any tangible sense of what you are spending. With cash in your wallet, you know when you are reaching the end of your budget in an area. With credit cards, …
Doing Something Different
Have you ever seen a movie or TV show (usually a comedy) where the main character is trying to bail out a boat that is filling with water, but he never stops to plug the holes? My little Noah loves “Tom and Jerry” and they seem to have this scenario regularly. It is terribly funny to my kids, because no matter how hard Tom bails, the boat always sinks, and there is usually a very funny shark waiting. Many of you are in a boat just like Tom’s when it comes to debt. You are bailing like crazy and seem …
Baby Steps…
When Matt and I were first praying about having a baby, we felt very much that it was the right time to start our family, but we didn’t know what to do about insurance. Neither of us were on insurance, and for me to get on insurance meant that we would need to wait a year to get pregnant before insurance would cover any of the costs. We prayed about it a great deal and both felt complete peace that the Lord was going to provide for us and that we could go ahead and get pregnant. So, from that …
Worth vs. Waste
There is a really beautiful story in the Bible that I want to share with you today. It is the story of Mary and her amazing gift. John 12:3-7 says,“Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray Him, said, ‘Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?’ This he said, not that he cared …
On the Right Path
OK, I have just returned from picking my parents up from a trip to the airport, and had the most wonderful conversation about debt and finances. I knew when I wrote Friday’s blog that there was something missing. It is all true, but there was something about grace in the process that I wasn’t quite grasping and so it came across too hard. If I were writing a book instead of a blog I would scrap the last few pages, but since it is a blog… I am taking down my post from Friday. I am going to rework it …
Your Story…
Anyone ready for a little breather from debt? Me too! So for today, what I would love is for you to email me at budgetingforabetterlife@gmail.com and tell me your story. I am going to pick my favorite story or testimony and post it on my blog. I would also love to hear any questions that you might have. If you don’t want to post it in a public forum, please email me and maybe I can address your question anonymously in my blog… or just answer you back. I would also love to hear any creative ideas that God has …