Friday, October 19, 2007

Extreme Frugality!

I’m sipping a cup of coffee during our lunch break. I let the children eat by themselves; sometimes this leads to ‘issues’ at the table but is one of the few times of the day when I have a few minutes somewhat to myself.

We are transitioning to a lifestyle of extreme frugality. We will continue with our current level of monthly obligations (which are pretty minimal, for the most part) and charity. However, all other expenses- clothes, fun, household goods, and anything else that creeps up- will have to come out of a small weekly allowance. The primary purpose of this is to prepare for a couple of big expenses next year- new (second) vehicle and new computer, both things we’ve been planning for quite awhile.

The other purpose of this is to simply live a more grateful, less covetous lifestyle. There is a never-ending list of things we could buy and even more things we could want. On a limited budget what we really ‘need’ suddenly becomes much more clear.

One thing I am trying to be very careful of: I never tell the kids (or even let myself think) ‘if we only had more money we could afford this or that’. Or especially, ‘we can’t do/buy that because we don’t have enough money’ (in a greedy, whiny tone). We could earn more money; we could spend everything we have plus rack up large(r) debts; we could stop giving anything away (which could be easily excused, considering we are large a family with not a large income). But the answer to our desires is not more money. It’s contentment, and wisdom, and gratitude, and more than anything, Christ!

I am excited to see what God can do with our budget and our needs while we make these changes. We may end with more bills :), and will handle them as they come. I trust that He will provide for us as he always has.

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