Balancing Act

Sooo many things going through this mind of mine but no time to write at all down and we have a busy busy week this week for a change!

Tonight was our small group and we started a new series and let me just say I LOVE IT already!!!! It is by Andy Standley and about your finances! WOW! Doesn't everyone need to hear about especially at a time like this! So, I am going to be pretty honest in this post! Here goes...

Adam and I do the envelope system by Dave Ramsey in the loose sense of the term. I mean we used to really carry around the cash in the envelopes but we got so used to our budget and how much that we spent that now I am in charge of the miscellanious and the grocery "envelopes" and I know what I can spend on these things and Adam keeps up with how much the we pay for bills, insurances, dr bills, gas, etc. and we do not really have the actual envelopes. We have a credit card that we use for all of these things because we are keeping up with it in our budget and we get cash back on the credit card. But, we have become just a little lax or maybe it is not even that we have become lax but that it is not as tangible as have money in envelopes an it feels more secure to keep up with things to the penny and so we are going back to the real envelope system. I used to love to look in the envelopes at the end of the month to see how much money was left in them if any. :) I also love things in life that use discipline, I mean, I love and hate them but I love the after feeling if you know what I mean.

There were a lot of good points made tonight. So, I want to touch on them to write them down before I forget them. (I love this blog thing for that reason!!) Anyway, the scriptures he used were, Matthew 6:21-24 "21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

He said that every religion involves money and that there is not a religion in which you can live your life however you want financially and your religion is not effected. He said that the bible teaches that you cannot be right standing before God if your fiances are not in order. It has to do with being selfish and worshipping the god of money and stuff. He talked about if in your marriage you fight about finances a lot it probably means that one person wants to live over your means. (He explained things so wonderfully and I do not even have the energy to try....)I will try to write in more detail later. I have lots of thoughts swirling around in my head about this subject and I cannot wait for the next 5 weeks of the new study!

How do you and your family handle your finances? Any helpful hints? I am thinking about starting coupons, what do you think? How much money do you think you save?