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Money Matters
From Chaos to Calm: Day Thirteen
Money Matters
Scripture Memory: “The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.” Proverbs 31:11
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Yesterday we discussed being dependable and trustworthy. Today, I want to focus on the second portion of the verse above.
In some families, mom takes care of the majority of the finances. In others, dad is the one who makes the decisions. Regardless of who pays the bills or manages the budget, it is up to you to be faithful with the money that your husband has given you control of.
I have known wives who simply ran their husbands into the poor house because of the “need” to shop and have pretty, new clothes or household items. For a husband, money is always a concern. Will he make enough to pay for all the expenses? Will he be able to save for a nice retirement? Can he provide his bride with all the pretty things her heart desires?
Most men, at least in the beginning, want to please their wives with nice things. It can be demoralizing for man if he feels his wife is not pleased with the amount of material possessions he is able to provide given his talents and career.
So, it is important that you use money wisely and with discretion. Do not purchase items that you truly do not need. If your closet is already packed with clothes that fit and are in good shape, resist the urge to go shopping for excess.
If you have been given a budget of $500 to purchase groceries and other household items each month, see how much money you can save and put in the bank. Just because you have been given that much money, does not mean you must spend every penny! It is always better to save money than to spend money.
Do you ever feel guilty after a purchase because you know your husband would not approve? It is never a good idea to hide your spending from your husband. Show him that you are capable of making wise financial choices and he is more likely to give you greater freedom in spending money.
If your husband has a difficult time controling his own spending, you can help him by being practical and faithful with your own spending. Discuss the possibility of setting up a household budget with your husband. Write up a possible budget that he can tweak in order to get the ball rolling.
One of the easiest methods of controlling spending is by using the “envelope” system. Determine the amount of income you have. Allot monies toward bills and other regular spending categories such as tithing, groceries, rent, insurance, and gasoline. Place the allotted money in a marked envelope for each month. When the money is gone, don’t take from another envelope, you have reached your limit. This method can be helpful for both the husband and wife. If your budget allows, give each spouse a practical amount of money that is for his or her own enjoyment and that you do not have to be held accountable to the other spouse.
The Proverbs 31 woman’s husband did not have to worry about his wife’s spending habits because he knew she was frugal and sought out the best value for her money. He also knew that she would not make decisions about large purchases without consulting him. Give your husband the respect he deserves and discuss large purchases with him before the fact! Honor his decision, even if you do not agree.
Whatever you financial situation, ask God to hold you accountable AND help you to be content. List any resentment or difficulties you have when it comes to money. Add these to your daily prayer list for the next week or until your feel in your heart that the issues have been resolved.
Family Keepsake Plate
Only a few more days until Christmas! I can hardly believe it myself. We’ve had a crazy month – two weeks of traveling in Florida followed by a week of the flu. So, I’m trying to get in the mood!
This plate is just too cute to pass up. Looks easy and cheap to make! What’s not to love? And the penguins are just too sweet!
Check out the instructions over at Craft Jr and have some Christmas fun! Oh, and while you’re at it, you could make several to give to grandparents, aunts and uncles…
Coffee Filter Trees for Fall
One of things I love the most about Autumn is the colors! This craft embodies the colors of fall perfectly and looks incredibly easy! In the tutorial Nadja used liquid watercolors, but think you could get the same effect with regular water colors on a damp coffee filter, or by using colored markers and spraying lightly with water to bleed the colors.
This Autumn Tree would be lovely decorating your buffet for Thanksgiving! You could even use it as a “Thankful Tree” on Thanksgiving. Just cut out paper leaves or even squares of autumn colored paper and provide pend and clothes pins. Have family and friends write what they are thankful for on the paper and then pin them to the tree. Be sure to check out the tutorial for this beautiful project over at Path O’ Dirt Farm.
Spool Pumpkin Craft
This is a sweet and simple idea. I think you could use these little pumpkins at each place setting on your thanksgiving table – maybe take home favors or even use them as place cards. You could do these with your children as part of your homeschool, too!
These little pumpkins are frugal, too! Check out the tutorial over at I Can Teach My Child.
Homeschool Freebies – May 11, 2010
- Worms are Fun! Recycling with Worms
- Online Field Guides
- Earth Day Mini Lapbook Helper
- The Trellis and the Seed Lapbook
- The Tale of Three Trees Lapbook
- Botany Unit Study
- Earth Day Word Search
- Nature Words
- Reed Basket Craft
- Handprint Butterflies
Homeschool Freebies – April 6, 2010
- N is for Nest
- Snail Lapbook and Unit Study
- Rainbow Lapbook
- Birds of Paradise Unit Study
- Bird Orders Chart
- Birds Notebooking Pages
- How to Make Magnetic Pom Poms
- Jello Jigglers Recipe
- Sketch Tuesday
- Colors Activity Box
Being Finacially Faithful
Stewardship is about more than simply paying your tithe each month. Stewardship is about being responsible with all the blessings God has given you.
When we are faithful to God with our time, money, and possesions He will open up the floodgates of Heaven and bless you. Remember: You cannot out give God!
Christmas Clearance
Every year, after Christmas has ended, I go shopping for CLEARANCE ITEMS to decorate with the following year. Christmas decorations can be so expensive that purchasing them after Christmas really pays off! Some of the items I have purchased for 50% – 70% off over the years:
- ornaments
- stockings
- garlands
- lights
- books
- stocking stuffers
- candy
- bath soaps and other “gift baskets”
- nuts
Wal-Mart always has a whole section devoted to Christmas Clearance – you can really get good deals! I will purchase gift sets of bath gels, lip gloss, makeup, etc. and seperate them out and stuff stockings with them. We always have our Christmas shopping done by November each year – sometimes earlier! We are always shopping the clearance items in any store we visit with a mindset of – “This would make a great gift!”
Since we have nine children, 2 daughters-in-laws, 2 son-in-laws, eight grandchildren, not to mention grandparents, aunts and uncles, neices, and friends to buy for (and our family seems to grow every year!) we have to be frugal! We never give “junk” gifts and our gifts are always thoughtful – something we know the person will love, can use or needs.
Often we will give similiar gifts to family. One year we gave beautiful patchwork quilts to everyone which we had found on sale for super cheap at Kohl’s. Another year we purchased beautiful scrapbooks and I filled the pages with scrapbook layouts using photos of their family.
One more tip I want to share – look for nuts after the holidays are over. Two years ago we went to Wal-Mart and all their leftover baking nuts – walnuts and pecans – were on clearance. We bought the entire supply and put them in the freezer. I have been able to use those nuts – to my heart’s content anytime I wanted - for two years now and I have finally run out. I am hoping to get lucky again this year!
Setting Financial Goals
by Teresa Kaufman
Setting financial goals is the single most important thing you can do to take control of your finances. Your life can’t go according to plan if you don’t have a plan. You will continue to spend every penny you earn if you don’t plan for where you want that money to go.
Now more than ever we have to plan for our own futures. Approximately 70 million baby boomers will reach retirement age within the next 10 years. That is going to put an enormous strain on the already strained social security system.
Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, has stated that in order to keep this strained system going, the retirement age will have to be raised or the benefits will have to be cut back. The ever ballooning Federal Deficit is the main cause.
It would be my guess that both of those things will happen and more. If social security is even around in another ten to twenty years, I’ll be surprised. The government’s plans for it are kind of up in the air right now. The President would like to have us invest our own contributions. I would imagine that a program like that will take quite a bit of time and money to set up.
If you are looking at those social security statements you get every year a few months before your birthday, and making that part of your future financial planning by expecting that money to be there, you could be left holding an empty bag when you reach retirement age.
There was a time when our parents and grand parents could survive on their pension and social security and have it pretty good. Especially, if their homes were paid off. This is no longer true.
Many companies do not give pensions anymore, they have 401K plans instead. Due to inflation and an increasing amount of consumer credit card debt, many people do not contribute as much as they should or they make withdrawals when the have a problem come up.
It is for this reason that setting financial goals and having a plan to work toward, is so important. You need to set short term, medium term and long term goals.
The short term goal might be paying down your credit card debt, the medium term goal might be planning that family vacation you’ve always dreamed about but could never afford because of the debt, the long term goal might be a certain dollar amount set aside for retirement or that piece of property that you want to build the home you want to retire to on.
In order to start setting goals you need to ask yourself some questions. You also need to be realistic. If you set the goals too high at the beginning, you won’t stick with it. You can always raise each goal and set new ones as you reach them. You won’t do that if you set them too high at the beginning and then give up because they were totally unrealistic and unreachable.
If setting goals in new to you and you don’t have any idea where to start, get a piece of paper out and make a wish list. Again, be as realistic as possible. If you are only making minimum wage and your wish is to buy a BMW or a Jaguar in the next year and you already have other expenses, it’s not going to happen unless you also plan on increasing your income.
When you are making your wish list, you should also write down in how many years you would like to see it happen and approximately how much money it will take to fulfill this wish. Then decide the order of importance of your list. Which wish you would like to work on first, next etc. If you are single, this is your starting point.
If you are married or have a partner, you should both work on your own lists. Then you should compare them and make compromises so you can both get as much of what you want as possible. Then work on the order in which you will work on these goals.
The most important step in setting goals is implementing them. Making a list is fine, but if you stick it in a drawer with your paperwork and forget about it, it won’t do you any good. They have to be something that you really want and are willing to make changes and adjustments in your life in order to set money aside for them.
A dream will always be just a dream if you don’t have a plan of action to turn it into a goal and then to make that goal a reality. You need to keep that list with you or keep it where you can see it a few times a day. Look at it as often as possible. Keep thinking of where you are now and where you want to be in the future. Think about what it’s going to take to get there and the ways that you can accomplish those goals.
You don’t get a promotion or a raise at work without putting in the effort to prove you deserve it. Your dreams will not turn into reality if you put them someplace and forget about them. You have to be willing to put the time, effort and motivation that you use in other things into making your financial goals come true.
You can face your financial future and make it better. Whether your finances are in okay shape and you would like them to be better or whether you are having temporary difficulties. You just need to have a plan and the determination and desire to follow it through.
Teresa Kaufman Owner/Creator: http://www.yourdollarsandsense-budgets.com/.
Budget Weddings
Weddings are holy events – a celebration of the moment a man and woman enter into a sacred covenant with one another and God. Planning a wedding can be exciting…and potentially expensive. In fact, Bride’s magazine estimates that the average wedding costs more than $19,000. Don’t start off your marriage by getting into debt over your wedding.
The minute he slips a ring on your finger don’t rush out to buy bridal magazines. Instead, spend time talking with your fiancée about what you want your wedding to be. Discuss questions like:
• In 10, 25 or 50 years what do we want to remember most about our wedding day?
• What can we do during our wedding to communicate to our guests who God is to us and what He has done in our lives?
• What have we seen in other weddings that we liked?
• When we show our children pictures or video of our wedding what do we want to be able to say?
• How can we be wise stewards of money as we plan our wedding?
It can be easy to start spending money quickly on things that, in the end, don’t really add much to your wedding day memories. The best thing you can do is to: (1) decide what is important and (2) settle on, and stick to, a budget.
Following are some tips to help reduce the cost of the most expensive categories of wedding-planning:
Your Wedding Dress
• Call local bridal shops to see if they have any special one-day dress sale events.
• Consider looking for dresses in local consignment shops or finding a gently-used dress on online auction sites like Ebay.
• Consider checking out outlet centers. If you find a great deal it’s worth the drive and the cost of gas.
• Instead of buying a veil, which can be upwards of $200, make a veil with materials from local crafts and fabric stores.
• When looking for a dress, consider a less-expensive material like poly satin rather than silk satin.
• If you find a bridesmaid’s dress that you really like, see if you could order the same dress in white.
• Groom’s tip – have your groom (and his groomsmen) wear nice suits and matching ties instead of more expensive rental tuxedos.
The Invitations
• Comparison shop for invitation printers online instead of ordering premium-price invitations through a stationery shop.
• Keep them simple. The more detailed the invitation, the heavier the paper, the more colors you choose…the more expensive your invitations will be.
• Choose return reply postcards and standard-size envelopes to reduce the postage costs.
• To make it really inexpensive, use a free online invitation service like Evite.com.
Flowers
• Check at your wedding site to see if another wedding is scheduled for your same day. Call and ask the other party if they would like to discuss ordering flowers for the venue jointly and splitting the cost.
• Consider using fake silk plants at the church and reception site – they are much less expensive than cut floral arrangements and can be re-used.
• Rent plants from a local rental shop or florist instead of buying live arrangements.
• Choose flowers that are in season.
• Skip flowers all together for your centerpieces and think outside the box with items like groupings of candles, pictures of you and your fiancé as children, glass bowls with shells or floating petals in water on top of mirrors
The Reception
• Because most weddings take place between May and October, consider holding your wedding on an “off-season” date which may reduce your reception costs
• Instead of an expensive hotel site, look into hosting your reception in your church atrium or fellowship hall or at another local site such as fraternal organizations (Elk, Moose Lodge, etc.) or fire hall.
• What could beat the beauty of the great outdoors? National, state and local parks and historical gardens can be wonderful wedding sites.
• Don’t overlook the option of a private home or backyard for your reception.
• Skip the limo and get a rental car…or cheaper still, use your own car!
Catering
• Weekend evening receptions are the most expensive — instead of full-service catering for a sit-down dinner consider having your reception at another time. Breakfast is less expensive than dinner and buffets are typically less expensive than plated dinners. Or consider a light hors d’ouevres or dessert reception.
• Most supermarkets offer nice deli platters, even salads and side dishes that can simply be transferred to a fancier serving dish and no one will be the wiser!
• Ax the alcohol. It’s expensive and isn’t necessary for your guests to enjoy the reception.
• Hire high-school or college students as servers and waiters
• Get napkins, tablecloths from party stores or local restaurant supply stores
• Forget the guest gifts – the wedding and reception were enough!
Pictures
• Call around to a local college or art school to find a student to take your photos
• Ask your reception site for a list of recommended photographers – they may be willing to give you a discount for the site’s referral.
• Contract with your photographer to shoot photos at your ceremony and then for a limited amount of time at your reception. The longer he/she is there the more you will have to pay.
• Find a photographer that works alone (so you don’t have to pay for 2 photographers) and who will give you copies of all your photos instead of just the few you order for your album. Check to see what their reprinting charges are ahead of time so you and your family aren’t surprised when you go to order additional copies.
• Ask friends to shoot video with personal camcorders instead of paying for professional videographer
With a little planning, a little budgeting and a lot of prayer you can have a wonderful, memorable wedding day!
Photo Credit: Noelle Franzen
