Family FinancesAre you a good steward of your finances? Here are 3 lifestyle choices you can make right now, no matter what your current money situation. These are things that Heather wishes she had done when she had more money!
Guest post by Heather of My Overflowing Cup
Things have not always been as tight for our family as they are now. They’ve always felt like they have been, but as our income has consistently declined over the last eight or so years, we’ve had to learn to make do with less and less.
In retrospect, we had it pretty good before. We had consistency and reliability. Now we have neither. I wish we had realized then how good we had it. Instead, we focused more on how little we had.
They say hindsight is 20/20, right? I’m sharing this personal information in hopes that you can learn from our experience.
Here’s what we wish we had done when we had more money:
1. We wish we had really budgeted.
We had a budget, but we used it more like a guideline than a rule that needed sticking to. If we had been more faithful with our budget, things might be a little more comfortable now. We weren’t living wasteful or extravagant lives, by any means, but we wish we had made better choices with our money. You can’t afford not to have a budget, whether you’re in a time of plenty or a time of want.
Note from Erin: If you need help making a budget, I have good news! The You Need A Budget (YNAB) app is offering 3 months FREE for my readers! Claim this freebie here.
2. We wish we had lived more simply.
We’ve always lived pretty simple lives, and as time goes on, things get simpler and simpler. However, if we had been living then like we do now, we’d have a little more cushion today. For some tips on living simply and frugally, read this post.
3. We wish we had been gazelle intense about paying down our mortgage.
If you’ve read any Dave Ramsey, you know that is his way of describing a serious commitment to paying down debt. If you’ve been reading my blog, you know our desire to have our mortgage paid off. For one thing, the freedom from the monthly payment would give us a lot more breathing room. Secondly, the thought of the interest we pay each month turns my stomach, as we’d much rather be spending that money on food or saving for retirement.
The main thing I would like to convey to you is that things may not always be as they are today. Because we thought things were tight before, we didn’t really consider that they could continue to get tighter and tighter.
Ask yourself some tough questions. What if our income or financial situation changes? What would we do if we lost an income stream?
And most importantly, if our finances changed tomorrow, would we be spending the money that we are at this moment? That one often stops me in my tracks.
Let me also be quick to say that I in no way think that we should live in fear. We know Who is writing our story and that it ends well. I do, however, believe that we should be intentional about being good stewards of what God has blessed us with. I believe that it is not only for His glory, but for our good.
In the future, I have plans to write more about budgets, living simply, and debt, but for now I wanted to share the things we have learned in hopes of giving you something to ponder. In the meantime, for some encouragement, please see my thoughts on 7 Things To Keep When Money Is Tight.
There are lots of posts here on The Humbled Homemaker for living on a low income! You can browse those posts here.
What do you think? When it comes to matters of finances do you live for today, or do you plan for the future?
Heather is a follower of Jesus Christ, devoted wife of over 21 years to her high school sweetheart, and homeschooling mother of their two teenage boys. She can be found blogging about faith, food, and frugality at www.myoverflowingcup.com
[email protected]
Some great thoughts, great reminder to be aware of what we are spending.
Heather @ My Overflowing Cup
It is so easy to get carried away with our spending if we aren’t intentional about it, isn’t it? Thanks so much for reading, Tobi.
Claire
I totally agree with you! Our financial situation is much tighter now that I only work part-time. We’re doing okay, but I could kick myself for some of the habits we had before my son was born. Granted, when I was working fulltime I didn’t have time for some of the things I currently do to save money (such as couponing). But t here are still plenty of things I could have done to be more frugal. I try to be mindful of that now, because we do have a little wiggle room in our current budget, although nothing compared to what we had when I worked fulltime (and I thought things were tight then!). So while I feel that it’s okay to indulge once in a while, I try to limit it because I know that there’s always the potential for our finances to get tighter in the future.
Heather @ My Overflowing Cup
You bring up a good point, Claire. It is okay to indulge once in awhile when we can do it responsibly, but being mindful and frugal is always good just in case. While this looks different for every family, I just wanted to share our experience in hopes of encouraging others in this area. Thanks so much for reading and for taking the time to leave a comment.
Anna @ Feminine Adventures
Thanks for the excellent food for thought. After three years of my husband being in school (with three little kiddos) things are much better now than they used to be, but I really want to be wise with our resources so that the Author of our story writes a new chapter, we’ll be ready to embrace it with joy.
Heather @ My Overflowing Cup
I love this, Anna! What a wonderful example of faithful stewardship. We do need to be responsible with our finances so that we can be ready to do anything and everything He has called us to. I have always had a heart for adoption, but finances are one of the things that has kept us from that dream. I can’t help but wonder if things would be different had we been better stewards earlier on. Thankfully, we are covered by His grace and He can still make that happen for us should it be His plan. Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts, Anna.
Melissa Kaiserman {A Time for Everything}
Oh, goodness. I could have written this post just about word for word. We have never been big spenders and we haven’t had debt for several years (except for our mortgage), but before we started doing our handmade business full-time and my husband was working a regular job with benefits, we were definitely not as intentional as we could have been about saving and investing. And now there’s really nothing extra to save or invest. We’ve pretty much always been a one-income family and so I,too, always viewed our finances as being tight. In retrospect, they definitely weren’t as tight as I thought. Now it’s literally month to month, trusting Him.
Thank you for sharing this and reminding us to be intentional no matter our income level.
Heather @ My Overflowing Cup
I know exactly what you mean, Melissa. It isn’t easy living month to month, but our faith has grown immensely. We truly know what it means now that He alone is our Provider. We simply cannot count on anything but His faithfulness and provision. While we wish that our situation would change, we have seen Him move in amazing ways. We can honestly say that as difficult as things are, we are still thankful for the growth in our faith. Blessings to you and yours.
DB Landes
When my husband and I were working two full time jobs and had less dependents we could have done so much more to save. Alas, we were young and stupid and hindsight is 20/20. I know what I would do now if we had more work/pay.
Heather @ My Overflowing Cup
It can be so discouraging to look back and regret the decisions we have made, but we need to realize that there is nothing we can do about the past. We try to focus on the idea that we are thankful that we are more aware now and strive to do better today and tomorrow. Blessings to you and yours, DB.
Trish
This is a great reminder that you need to keep track of your finances in good times and bad. For some reason people only want to think about budgets when money is tight.
Heather @ My Overflowing Cup
That is so true, Trish! I think it is because when times are good, it is difficult for us to imagine that things could be different. This was my point of the post – to remind us that we need to be prepared for the leaner times, just in case. Thanks so much for reading.
Shannon
One thing I would add. Everyone who has some spare funds, should make a “Oh Sh*t” fund. In polite circles, it’s an emergency bucket/fund. But it is easier to mentally save for, in my opinion, if you think of what you would do if you were hit with something that made you say “Oh…!”
Things like loss of job-related insurance (maybe you have some savings to cover things like mortgage, food, gas, but what about insurance??), your car is smashed to pieces while you shop and there’s nobody to get damages from, etc.
Heather @ My Overflowing Cup
Yes, Shannon, an emergency fund is an excellent thing to have. By sticking to the budget and living simply, creating an emergency fund is much more likely. Thanks for reading and bringing up that point.
Rick
What an amazing time we live in if we just make the right choices. what I mean is, just how powerful our communication ability is. Posts like this can point out the potholes in the road ahead for those less experienced drivers so they don’t end up with the level of regrets that allot of us have over our money management. I heard a statistic the other day that said that the average American family retiring today has $20k saved. When you compare that to average incomes over a lifetime, we are a spending nation, not a saving one. Jesus spent much time discussing the handling of money, and so it must be an important character component of our faith. I too live with much regret in this area and have to drop my stone. I have realized the best I can do is to be intentional about changing that behavior so in retirement I might limit the burden of old age. Notice I said might! I pray that God will restore not only what the locusts have eaten, but what we have…thank you for such a great post!
Heather @ My Overflowing Cup
Thank you, Rick, for sharing your thoughts with us. I agree that the communication we have in this day and age are very helpful in both warning and teaching others. That is one of the main reasons most of us blog. We have a desire to help and encourage others. I, too, pray that God will make up for our past mistakes and help us to let go of the guilt comes as a result of past poor choices. Thankfully, His mercies are new every morning! Thanks for reading and for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.
Donna
Heather,
I am so often encouraged by what you write and this one hits home! As you may or may not know my husband was without a job for nearly two years and we survived, by the grace of God, on my income alone! We have learned to live frugally. We are now facing a new issue with my husbands vision that could cause us to go back to that one income again. Thank you for sharing your experience! Love you!
Heather
Thank you for your encouraging words. I am so glad that God uses us to bless each other. You and your family are in my prayers always. Love you!
Sharon
Heather, I adopted my twins when they were 5 from the SNAP (special needs adoption program). I was a single mom. The only cost was around 200.00 for the attorney. Everything else was no-cost. Try your local social services agency. You don’t need money, just love and lots of patience!!!
Erin
Wow, Sharon! That is so awesome! Thank you for sharing!