My view today...

Since leaving my full time job its been very tough for us financially.  There are many days when I have no idea how the bills will be paid.  I never had a lot of faith before. I can say that over these past few months my faith is growing in ways I never expected.  During the month of December some things happened and I had no idea how we were going to afford Christmas gifts.  I prayed and then went to the mail.  Not sure if it was that day, or a few days later.  At any rate, I found a check for $300 that we had not been expecting.  Christmas...Done.  When I first left my job i wasn't expecting to be paid for the month of vacation time I'd accumulated.  I picked up my final paycheck....vacation...paid for all 24 days.  I cashed out a profit sharing plan that I had while working.  Several months later, boom...received a notice of yet another profit sharing plan that could be cashed.  

Most recently, my husband and I were both offered positions at a small private school in our area.  We don't make a ton, but the money comes at a time during the month when we would otherwise be very short.  The job is 3 days a week, Sydney goes to pre-k there, and we are able to take Gabriella so childcare isn't an issue.  So my view today is this...a classroom in a tiny little school that symbolizes one of many blessings on our family. 

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!