At the Leadership Summit last week, someone (Lee Schlesinger, maybe) spoke about how you can't predict financial future based on past market performance. Kind of like how Bill and I bought at the top of the housing bubble saying you can never lose money on a house in Bergen County. You can never be certain of what the market will do.
With God, however, its different. We can be confident of our future in Him precisely because of past performance. He is constant, unchanging, unwavering. I am so grateful for that. Over the years I have seen Him do what only He can do. Not just once, but time and time again. And it is because of this, because I have seen what I've seen and know what I know about God, that I know I can trust Him to get us through this.
In all reality, our checkbook may be unbalanced right now, but in the grand scheme of things, we are ridiculously well-off. Even after cutting out my salary. Of course, we are still going to have to make some major spending cuts to get things balanced again.
Later this week, we will be looking over the figures together and taking a much closer look at wants versus needs, costs versus benefits, to see what we can cut and where we can't. It is going to be challenging and hopefully we can agree on what to cut and what to keep.
If any of my thrifty friends have suggestions for cutting costs (without cutting coupons) please share in the comments.
We've been in a similar position most of our marriage. Do you mind if I ask why you left your job? I used to work in a corporate job and made good money (probably would have gotten promoted) but left because I was miserable. We are SO MUCH happier doing ministry or other odd jobs together. We have less money, but more time together as a family. It's so worth cutting our budget.
ReplyDeleteAnyways. Some things that come to mind:
1) Make your own.. anything. I make our own dishwasher fluid (super cheap and cleans fine), we use vinegar and water to clean surfaces (with some peppermint oil to cover the smell a bit, but you also get used to it... again, super cheap and toxic-free!), toothpaste, facewash, etc. etc. I highly recommend maybe finding one or two things you could make yourself. It WILL be cheaper in the long run.
2) Find creative ways to save money on groceries: for instance, we love fruit and veggies but it gets expensive to get a ton of fresh produce. So we get what's on sale and then stock up on frozen veggies and fruit (frozen mangoes and berries are delicious, esp. in the summer).
3) Clothing swap: if anyone in your house needs new clothes, first check around with your friends if they'd be interested in swapping some clothes. Everyone has stuff in their closets that they don't wear any more, and it might be something you'd really enjoy wearing! You can also rest assured that you're not supporting additional slave labor in other countries too.
There's also this thing called FreeCycle that's online. They have it in Philly and probably would have it in the NYC area. You just sign up online (for free) and you can find lots of free stuff. My brother actually got some really nice furniture from FreeCycle.
That's all I've got for now!
So here's a fun idea for you. Do a swap. I did it when I was low on money at one point, and it was so much fun (and I got new stuff!)...
ReplyDelete~ Invite your friends (and their friends).
~ Everyone brings 3-5 (or more) things with them that fit the theme (ex: Household Items, Things You Wear, Kids' Clothes, Toys, etc.).
~ Lay everything out & give everyone a chance to look over the items.
~ Number as many slips as you have people (i.e. 10 people? 10 slips of paper, each with a number 1-10).
~ Everyone draws a slip.
~ #1 goes first and chooses an item. #2 goes next but can steal #1's item if desired. And so on.
~ Keep doing this until everything is gone or no one wants anything else.
~ Donate the extras to a local charity.
Ii got a great pair of sunglasses, bag, and jewelry when I did this with ladies from our church's moms group. It was at a time when money was super tight, and it was such an uplifting thing for me. I just thought I'd share it!