Inspired

When we were first married (over 6 years ago!) we were way better about sticking to a budget. We operated on an almost cash only basis and would set aside money each month for things like vacations and car repairs. Fast forward to the present day and we have about $3000 in credit card debt that we can't seem to get rid of, and we are constantly surprised by being out of money in our checking account and occasionally getting overdrawn when we don't transfer from savings in time. I get frustrated and stressed out about this because 1) I feel like we live pretty frugally and we try to make good money decisions, 2) the credit card debt really started about 2 years ago when we had several large expenses for the house and car (including replacing the water pipe from our house to the street!), and while we can get it down we can't get rid of it-and then something else will happen and we put it on the credit card and we get stuck in that cycle again and 3) I feel like I am trapped into working full time by our credit card debt and the thought that if we can't manage to live on 2 incomes how could we ever live on 1?!? I also know that right now we are not thinking biblically about our finances, so my New Year's goal (a little early I know) for 2009 is to develop a budget we can stick to and get rid of the credit card debt and build up our savings. So this time next year I should know how much we spend each month, we shouldn't have a balance we can't pay off the same month and our savings should be more than it is right now. I want to tithe with a grateful and worshipful heart too! I have started working towards all this by putting all our expenses into a category every day, and once a week running a report from our bank account website to see where we are for the month. I created really broad categories because in the past when we have tried to get back to budgeting we have made so many little categories that it was so tedius to keep up with it. Once I get going with this, and we are out of debt I want to get back into putting small amounts aside each month so we can handle the unexpected expenses.

I have to be careful though, I can get caught up in "saving money" and make that my idol, I can spend too much time thinking about it and working on it and ironically I can end up spending more when I start searching for deals and find things I just can't pass up. I mean, it does make sense to buy deodorant when you have a coupon that makes it free at Walgreens, but I have to be careful not to buy stuff we don't use just because it is "such a good deal!"