Squeezing the Last Drop

Squeezing the last drops out of your budget… that’s how it feels sometimes when you are trying to fit something else into a budget that feels overloaded already. I mentioned the other day that I would love to get to have someone to clean my house once a month. My friend Amy does this and it has been a huge success for her. She cleans her house every week, but once a month it gets a good deep clean. I think the good “deep clean” has been missing from my life recently. My little kiddos just keep me running and …

Decisions…

The other day, Noah was drawing pictures at our kitchen table. “What should I draw Mommy?”, he asked me. I made some suggestions like a car, or a house, or a transformer (he loves transformers). No, none of those were right for him. Finally he looks at me and gives a great big sigh, “Mommy, I am very good at doing lots of things, but I’m not very good at making decisions.” I just burst out laughing, because Noah and I have so many things in common, and once again I was reminded that he exactly my son. In one …

Debt vs. Savings: A Shopping Cart Dilemma

Imagine trying to grocery shop with ten children. They are all different ages with all different needs. Now these are not the nice orderly children that you sometimes see in large families, these kids are whiny, and wild. They are not there for you, they are there for themselves. And it is just you, trying to get something done… and trying to keep them happy. The little ones start to cry, the older ones are complaining, everyone wants something for themselves (that is not on your list!). At the end of the grocery shopping trip you are exhausted, frustrated, and …

A European Adventure

When my husband and I were newly married, we got a sort of crazy dream into our hearts. We dreamed of going to Europe. We knew that it would not be long before we would want to start a family and we knew that having a baby would push the dream back by a lot of years, so we decided that we would start saving and go. At the time, we were not making very much money. We were going to Bible school together and both only working part time… so not exactly wealthy… actually, far from it. But we …

Giving Your Money Purpose

When my husband and I have money in limbo, it always disappears. By money in limbo, I mean money without a purpose that we aren’t sure what to do with. Not that it’s just extra money. There will always be something that is grabbing in urgency at our money, like debt, or repairs, or dentist visits, or groceries. Something always wants that money, and unless we have a plan in place for that money, we rarely accomplish something that we really want to accomplish. It feels more like it just disappears. So in answer to this limbo disappearing act, we …

Small Beginnings

When my Mom first began saving, it was in an envelope beside her bed. She and my Dad had gotten the revelation about God blessing their storehouse, and she just knew that she had to start a storehouse no matter what. At that time, there wasn’t a lot left over each month and it seemed impossible to save. So each time my Dad would give her grocery money, she would take a percentage of that money and put it in her “storehouse” envelope. It was such a small beginning, and many people would have thought, “How is this ever going …

The Power of Agreement

So what good is a budget if you are the only one using it? What if you are trying to be budget conscious and your wife keeps handing you piles of receipts from her purse? What if your husband is constantly impulse buying, and even though you would love to be out of debt, you feel like you are powerless to do anything, or you feel like a nag because you try? How do you make a budget work when you have two very different people and personalities trying to come together in their financial life? Marriage is a lot …

Directions for the Journey

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak at a ladies retreat in New York with my Mom. It was such a fun thing to get to do together and we had a lovely time. We flew into Newark airport and were picked up by three very sweet ladies whom we had never met before and the plan was then to drive to Long Island Beach where the retreat would be held. Well, my Mom and I were in the back seat with one of the ladies in between us, and let me just say the conversation from …

Finding Balance

“God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) As we face your budget today and try to determine how to bring balance. I just want to remind you of this verse. This is the time that many people want to get into fear when it comes to their budget. Fear that there isn’t enough, fear of deprivation, fear of knowing… None of this fear is from God. He is not in your fear. Neither is He controlled by your fear. Let go of your fear of the unknown …

Parties, Taxes, and a Plan for the Infrequent

I had a question from my dear friend Kim posted on Sunday’s blog, and I just wanted to take today to answer it. Kim wrote,“Tracy!!! I love your blog. I have my notebook and I started my spreadsheet today. Where do I put things that are paid every few months?” I am so glad you asked this Kim. To illustrate my answer I am going to use my car insurance. Matt and I pay our car insurance every six months because we get a discount for paying it in advance rather than paying it monthly. So every month I have …