annieology

I like stuff.  Stuff is fun.

I don’t know if it is age, or maturity or the fact that 90% of the stuff in the mall would look ridiculous on me.  But I’ve gotten to the point where a few nice things give me more joy than many things.

I would rather have a comma in the bank statement at the end of the month than any other thing.  My dream, one day, is to have two commas.  Actually my dream one day is to GIVE two commas.

Other than getting my nails done, and my hair cut, I don’t spend a whole lot of money.  I do have one lone hold out.  If something is purple, it is the universe’s way of telling me that it is mine.  I have a purple phone, purple shoes, many purple tops, purple blanket, purple pillows, the list goes on and on.

One of the things that makes it easy for me to avoid purchases that would have historically been difficult to resist, is that nothing costs less than $5 for me.  A single Coke is $5 – a candy bar – a magazine.  I only spend cash.  I never use change and only in the most dire of circumstances will I use a $1 bill.  The bills go into hiding for emergency pizza’s or impromptu dessert dates.  Each day I empty my purse of change and put it in the piggy bank that we feed when the littles do their chores.  We empty it  out monthly and split the money between the littles for their “allowances” and their money training.  The change usually adds up to about $45/month and the kids are quite happy that they “earned” a $15 toy.

Other things I do to save money?  Extreme couponing, for products I always use.  Stocking up when things are on sale.  Our car is paid for, but I’m making the “average car payment”  which according to Dave Ramsey is $484 – we round up to $500.  We also pay ourselves an extra house payment.  When we get a well established emergency fund, we’ll start making the extra payment to the bank.

I pay bills in the order of priority.  I don’t know if this matters financially speaking, but it has some sort of spiritual affect on how I view money.

1. Tithe or charitable giving – but we tithe.  We put others first, realizing that no matter our need, others need too.
2. Household expenses – mortgage and utilities.  We take care of our responsibilities.
3. Savings – retirement of 15% gross, saving for car, saving towards emergency fund, extra house payment, necessary home repairs, vacations.  We plan for our future.

After those priorities are taken care of, I take the rest of the money out bank.  Leaving only money for gas, as I love to pay at the pump, and $1,000 as a mini emergency fund.  The remaining money is split up between food, allowances, and miscellaneous day to day items.  Because we know we have excess, we have food here.  If it were questionable, I would put food at number two.  What good is a vacation if you are starving?

We put all of our day to day expenses into envelopes and spend that money only on what the envelope was intended for.  Things like kid clothes and car maintenance/repair.  We add money to these envelopes every pay check.  Ideally, Hubby and I don’t need to discuss day to day money events any further.  If he needs a weed eater, and there is money in the “outside” envelope to cover it, no discussion needed.  He just writes on the envelope what he spent the money on.  The same with kid clothes.  I don’t need to discuss whether or not I can get one of the kids a new pair of shoes.  If the money is there the answer is yes.

The only other money decision that has had as big an impact as the budget, has been the cutting up of the credit cards.  Working without a net requires your attention and diligence.  When there is no net, you are forced to create a cushion.   I will clarify, as I always do, that we have ONE card in my husband’s name. We use it exclusively for online purchases.  We have been burned twice on fraudulent debit charges.  It’s in his name only by my choice.  He is not keeping me down.  I trust that he has more interest in my well being than Mastercard.

Doing things this way has been very beneficial to our marriage and to our finances.  Hubby and I give ourselves a fairly generous allowance.  I don’t care about how much he spends on Frisbees, he doesn’t care that I spend too much on my hair care.  We have three budget meetings a month when we get paid and I can’t remember the last time we had a fight about money.

We throw frisbees? Really, are thongs ungodly? With all the pain and suffering in the world, this is what we choose to get our granny panties in a wad about?

Yes, I actually heard someone say that thongs were ungodly.

Sidebar….

On the door in juvenile court, which is where they hear juvi offenses and CPS cases, is a sign, it reads

“No thongs,….” the ….represents the rest of the list. I’m also assuming tube tops and unfortunately in the City by the Sea, probably bikini tops, and other such attire that would be inappropriate in court, I forgot to read the rest, I was, um distracted.

My first thought upon reading that was “Hmmmm?” Wondering if I were about to break some law that would get my fostering license revoked. Then I realized, thong is old for flops, which is new for flip flops. This possible wardrobe violation was easier for me to ascertain. I was good.

But seriously, when did underwear become ungodly? Is this a salvation issue? Is this possibly a reason that people do not take Christians seriously? Is the world going to go to Hell over thongs? I’d say, “Yeah” if us Christians are more worried about peoples undergarments than their hearts.

I can see where certain outer wear might be considered inappropriate and possibly ungodly, but unless your shaking your thong for the world to see, whose business is it anyway? Are we really going to have to resort to a “Jesus and my husband love ME and my thong” thongs?

Maybe we should really start looking at what’s going on in our own lives, and hearts, and stay the heck out of other peoples pants.

According the the Barna group, only 5% of Christians tithe….I wonder if I could commission them for a survey on how many of us adhere to the unholiness of a select group of undergarments.

I bet it’s more than 5%.

Are you giving more to the bank each month in interest on your house than you are to God?
Where’s your orphan?
How many seeds have you planted?
How many plants have you cultivated?
How many other things can we be a little more judgmental about?

Let’s just focus on everyone else and what they are doing. I’m sure changing the world starts with changing others. Don’t worry about you, you’re good.

I was just out.  The sky is in tact.  No need to worry.  It will be alright.

I hate being “uninformed” but I cannot stand to listen or watch one more minute of news.  Not that they are actually reporting news.   I haven’t actually heard reported what the DOW is at for months.  It was under 6800 last I checked.  But I didn’t hear it on the news.

I’m not worried.  I’m sure my retirement account is a crap pile right now.  Not worried.  My retirement account is only a tool we may use one day for our provision. It is not our Provider.

The contract my husband was working under expired.  I am not worried.  Company XYZ is only a tool that we use for provision.  It is not our Provider.  Hubby actually turned down a bonus to extend his contract.  That bonus was not our Provider.

We give away 10% of our money.  Our money is only a tool we use for provision.  Money is not our Provider.

The Government is trying to make the economy better.  I think they tried to do that with schooling.  I think they suck at it.  I think there are vast amounts of kids being left behind.  Government should stick to what they were designed to do, provide for the common defense.  They seem to have that down.

I’m not denying that it’s raining.  That does not mean it’s the end of the world.  I am sick to death of hearing that it is.