Budget, Bills, Bank

One of the first things on my to do list the week I did not have to go back to work was "budget, bills, & bank."  (And it was clearly not time management or blogging since I have not posted in well over a month!)  Because I have the option to have my checks stretched over the summer, Sept. would be our first true one income month.

I have always been a saver and am also frugal.  As luck would have it, I married a frugal man!  Having two full time incomes while waiting to have a family allowed us to look at priorities and make decisions.  We even took a financial class and thought about how we could swing extended maternity leave.  We made paying off debt a priority and are debt free aside from our mortgage.  We also saved what we could.  All this took sacrifice, discipline, and delayed gratification.

When it came right down to it, I still panicked.  We were prepared but losing an income is huge.  Though we plan our financial big picture together, my husband gladly lets me take care of the month to month and day to day details.  I have spent a lot of time making sure we stay in the parameters of our budget (though this is much tougher to do with 2 little girls around) and was feeling added pressure of doing so now.

This is really a blessing in disguise.  It's a call to live simpler, to buy and use what we need, to waste less, to be responsible with the resources God has blessed us with.  It's refreshing to not feel as much pressure from a material driven world and satisfying to plan meals that will stretch leftovers for days.

The gift in this is to have to lean in to the peace of God's provision for our lives.  I pray continued openness in my heart to fully trust God in this area.

A life lived abundantly does not come from wealth.