Sunday, October 14, 2012

Financial Peace

This is something that I debated about writing down.  I was scared because I know that it will be in cyberspace FOREVER and it is a topic that I am ashamed of.  I have a horrible habit of overspending.  When I was younger, it was clothes, shoes, and a car I could not afford.  The older I got it turned into meals out (which goes into another topic I need to take control of) extravagant gifts, and clothing for my children just to name a few.

Recently we made the decision for me to leave my job.  It is something that I wrestled with because I saw the dire ramifications that it could have for my family.  I asked for prayer from my church and felt more than ever that this was the right thing to do.  Even though we lost over half of our income, we took a leap of faith and I quit.  Fast forward and I have been home for awhile now and loving it.  One thing I realized though was that if I was going to truly be the wife and mother I am called to be I had to take control of my spending.  I heard of a book America's Cheapest Family and new I needed to get my hands on a copy.  I've learned a lot about saving money in the last few years but I still had this area of overspending that I had to take control of.  One of the topics that the book addressed is budgeting.  I have NEVER had a budget.  I realized right away that this is something that needed to change.  I wrote out a budget and within a week of living on that budget I was able to pay off a small credit card.  It wasn't much but it was something that made me feel so good.  I know that honoring God with our finances is key to living in him and I know that in order to set a positive example for my children I have to do this.

As I was driving home from paying that bill off I stopped to grab our mail.  After going through it I found a notice informing me that I had another retirement account that I didn't know about left over from my job.  It's not going to make us rich but it will take care of several more bills.  I realized that we are on the road to financial peace.  We are on the road to being the parents that God wants us to be. The events of the past week led me to realize that we can do this, not only can we but we will!

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