Friday, May 25, 2007

Room in the Budget?

I'm a stay-at-home mom. We are operating on my husband's income alone. He works very hard and does a wonderful job of providing for our family. But it's tough and the money is tight.

A couple of months ago I begged my husband to put me on a budget. He didn't want to. He wasn't comfortable with the idea of restricting me. He would just tell me to be more aware of how much I was spending and to please just try to cut back. But I knew myself, all too well, and I was having trouble. I was in a bad habit of spending too much money, on a very regular basis, and I knew it was really starting to hurt us. My husband was becoming more and more overwhelmed with the burden of trying to provide for our family, and I realized that I was contributing to his stress and anxiety.

I am a very structured person, and I need rules and guidelines. I begged, "Honey, please, put me on a budget. I need it. Tell me how much I am allowed to spend each week. Give me a number!" He did and it's been great. I have done such a good job of adhering to that number, and I have even come back to him twice, telling him I could survive on less, and we have lowered that weekly allowance significantly.

Not only has this budget saved us a lot of money, but it's helped to strengthen the relationship between Mark and I, it's forced me to re-set my priorities on what I spend money on, how I spend my time and what things are most important to our family. It's motivated us to really take a hard look at why we were spending money on the things we were and what we were really trying to gain.

Our church is in the middle of a Capital Campaign to raise money for some building renovations and some important and exciting mission projects. When I first heard about it I was worried that we were not going to be able to contribute to the work that our church wanted to do for the community. I thought to myself, "We are barely getting by right now, how are we going to give anything!?!?"

I realized that God has been preparing me for this Campaign for months. He lead me right into this place, at this time. Through all of this budget stuff and new priorities, He made me see that I can cut back, easily, in my own life. He helped me to realize that as I am spending less, I am needing less, I am appreciating and enjoying more, I am living and loving more. And from that place of love, I will cut back...even more....so that I can give!!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, Kim- Nice blog! I completely understand the budget thing. When I quit my real job (I consider managing the church nursery a blessing and mission, not a job) my husband and I cut our income by well over 50%. And amazingly, God provided. I've learned that through tithing, those blessings are given and we've done our best to stick to our commitments. A while back we finished paying off our commitment to the first building campaign- ahead of schedule, a total shock! I'd love to talk to you sometime about all of this, maybe after a preschool board meeting :-) Jill D.

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