Money, money, money...talking about such things makes us all a little uncomfortable, doesn't it? Even so, I want to be open and honest about our finances.
My husband went into the ministry right out of college and ministry in churches has almost always been our primary, if not only, source of income. The Lord has always been faithful to provide for all of our needs and even many of our wants, and we are grateful to Him. In order to make our income work, there have been sacrifices that we have made in order to live within our means and still make the choices that we believe are best for our family.
I am a stay-at-home mom, and aside from a few stints as a part-time employee I always have been. It was a decision we made early on in our marriage, because we believed it would best serve our family. However, this decision has always had a financial impact as well.
We choose to live a bit more simply - decorating is usually last on the list of things to do. At the moment, all of the furniture we own was previously owned by someone else (except our television, which we got three years ago on a Cyber Monday sale at a deep discount, and a few pieces of kids furniture which were bought as Christmas or Birthday presents). We rarely buy new clothing for the kids as we have been blessed with lots of hand-me-downs and they don't mind shopping at Goodwill. I also do most of my shopping at thrift stores and my husband will do a little shopping at thrift stores but usually sticks to clearance items as he is an unusual size.
One of the biggest ways we can 'afford' for me to stay home is that we are a one vehicle family. The one minivan that we have, we own - there are no monthly payments aside from insurance. In order to pay upfront for our van when we bought it almost two years ago, we bought an older model (2002). This means we have had to use a bit of savings this year to keep it in good running condition, and once we get the catalytic converter replaced, we hope to have all the major repairs done for a good long time!
We are currently working through a series called 'Strapped!' through lifechurch.tv (it is listed in their archives). This is a series on managing your personal finances and getting out of debt. One of the things it encourages is to do whatever it takes to squeeze out an extra $200 every month to pay extra on debts. My husband and I are debt-free aside from our student loans...and our student loans are massive, and often seem insurmountable (we have a total of 4 degrees between the two of us). So, we are trying to find that extra money to help pay down those student loans. We have gotten rid of my cell phone ($35/month) and got a magic jack phone for the house (one month of my cell phone covers a year with the magic jack). We did, however, decide to keep my cell phone for times when I travel without my husband (my cell phone was a pay as you go phone so we can reactivate it for a 30 day period at any time). We got rid of my YMCA membership, which was $42/month. We are working on getting our monthly grocery budget down to a solid $400/month (right now it ranges from $400-$500) and our miscellaneous spending (which includes toiletries, items for the house, and clothing) we are trying to get down to $40/month (currently it's around $100).
In addition to trying to whittle away at our unnecessary spending habits, this month we are trying to go above and beyond. My mom, who lives out-of-state, is going to have surgery on her wrists in the next month or so and I would like to be there to help her during the first week or two. In order to save the extra money for the trip, this month we are doing a pantry challenge. We are not going grocery shopping all month! The only things we can buy, as necessary, are bread and milk.
I've had to be much more intentional about my meal planning (usually I just check for meat in the freezer and then scour pinterest and tastespotting for main dishes that include that meat). Now, I have to take into account what veggies I have and what grains I have in order to come up with a meal plan sans internet help. It has been a fun little challenge and has also forced us to use up some of the things in our freezer that needed to be used before developing freezer burn! We did plan to cheat a little on the challenge for the sake of my son's 8th birthday, but we still did not spend anywhere near our grocery budget! It has been a challenge indeed, but we are working towards a goal now and if we just focus on a monthly goal rather than on the end goal of being 100% debt free, it seems much more achievable. Try it for yourselves, see what happens!
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