Living Within our Means

Well, my sister just wrote an amazing and incredibly helpful blog entry on budgeting that inspired me. So I'm going to write about some things I have been thinking about lately. Short of it all -- she and I are like siamese (sp?) twins, separated by five years. I am not writing this to brag or boast, especially since Monique's blog taught me that I have a long way to go in order to ensure I stick to my budget and find financial success in the future. Right now, I generally know that we are "on track"; however, I also know that we fudge quite a bit, more than we should. It's not enough to notice month to month, but in the long run, it could derail us from our goals. More than anything, I write this to remember. I write to remember how merciful the Lord has been in the past and that, ultimately, I owe everything to Him. I write this to remember that I have a part in receiving His blessings and promises. I write this to remember that sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven; and, therefore, no "sacrifice" is too great to make in order to hear and hearken, and - in the Lord's timetable and way - receive His help.

When I started college, I had one goal: Stay out of debt. My mom kinda drilled it into us when we were growing up: "Don't become a liability for your husband by bringing a ton of debt to your marriage that he just has to work to pay off later." Good advice. Add to that the counsel we've received from modern-day prophets, seers, and revelators, and you have a double witness that debt should be avoided AT ALL COSTS!!! Ironic statement there. The costs to avoid debt are usually NOT financial.

Anyway - so I set out on my quest. And the Lord supported me 100%. My college budget was very simply defined: Don't spend money. And I didn't. For example, I never owned a CD player, bought my first CD the last year of my M.A., never bought a video/DVD. I just didn't. When I bought clothes, they ALWAYS, always came off the clearance rack -- and I knew when the clearance items would have an extra markdown that would make them even less expensive. I think I paid full price for pants for the first time after I graduated from college and had been working in Virginia.

Then when I was looking at graduating after I finished my M.A., I had the impression that I needed to save enough money to live for an entire year, at the rate of living I had already become accustomed to, without any income. What a benefit that inspiration became!!!! And the subsequent events pretty much proved that following that one prompting made it possible for me to have time to fall in love with my husband and start making preparations that later paved the way for us to purchase our condo this last year.

Again, when I started working at the beginning of our marriage and we found out we were pregnant (pre finding out we were having twins), we decided that we really DID want to invest in our own home. That later turned into our purchasing a fixer-upper condo. But we made the decision to do it, set a budget for fixing it up, and then went to work to figure out how. The answer: I put every penny I made working last year into savings for us to live on this school year while Dave is in between school and internships. We figured out what our monthly budget needed to be and set aside enough money to live from June of last year until May of this year without taking out loans or -- if the pregnancy/baby (later babies)/life expenses cost more than we had anticipated -- with only a few student loans. So far, we've followed what we set out to do, though it hasn't been easy. Come May, I know Dave will either have an income or we'll have the blessing of using MINIMAL student loans to make it that final month and on through October when he gets his last year of the GI Bill. How do I know that? Because the Lord has supported me in my righteous financial decisions in the past; and I know that if I continue to pay my tithing and remain faithful to my desire to follow His counsel, HE WILL SUPPORT ME still.

In all fairness -- my husband sees things a bit differently than I do and isn't the "do without everything in order to be debt-free" kind of guy. I'm thankful for the balance, and we discuss and communicate about our expenses A LOT!!! So far, we're still doing pretty well. And the extra student loans we have taken out this year have remained, thus far, unspent. Even so -- we have a very specific and detailed plan for how and when we will pay off each and every penny of the student loans we have taken out (both those he had before we got married and the few we have taken out since). That's one rule Monique didn't mention on her blog post about having a budget that I feel very strongly about: If you are going to go into debt, do so with a plan -- a very specific plan -- that addresses every step of how you are going to get out of the debt you have incurred.

In the last few weeks, we finally sat down and planned how and in what time frame we are going to pay off our condo. We also discussed how we are going to prepare for life changes (future children that will come before it is paid off, etc.). This allows us to live within our means while also building up some assets that will aid us in living our dreams in the future, without having our dreams bind us down financially.

That brings me to the next part of all of this for us. We have felt VERY STRONGLY that we need to plan ahead for a rainy day. We have been tackling not only our budget but also our food storage and emergency preparedness essentials A LOT lately. We talk about it at least once a week -- usually on Sunday or for Family Home Evening on Monday night. And that helps us keep our focus when we are looking at other things we might or might not want to buy.

In our long-term planning, we feel that we need to have a full year's supply of food, clothes, diapers, formula, etc. to live without any income for that time frame. We also feel that we need to have enough money in savings to live for a year without any income. That will take some planning and tweaking as we finish school and get into a stable job with a steady income and the ability to plan these things. But the principles we are applying now will remain the same. We don't plan on increasing our standard of living with our increased (aka presence of) income. We will increase our standard of living when we are financially prepared to do so while still living within our means.

One thing I have really appreciated with Dave is that -- if he wants something that does NOT fit into our budget and isn't an absolute necessity, he finds a way to work above and beyond to find the money to buy it. That way, it doesn't come out of or affect our budget and still makes him feel like he can splurge when my tendency always and forever is to NOT splurge no matter what! For example, last Christmas he surprised me with matching wooden picture frames for our family picture wall in our dining room. He remembered that I had mentioned I wanted a family wall of pictures -- and he wanted nice, matching picture frames for our pics, but we didn't really have the money for it. So -- without me knowing at all that he had done this -- he signed up to drive bus for a trip that he was not scheduled to drive in order to get the extra money to buy some nice frames. I love that he did that! And I love our family picture wall! Then again this year, he had a gift he wanted to buy for our family but knew it was not in the budget or an absolute need. What did he do? He collected and sold some scrap metal and also some things on E-bay that he had laying around the house. It was such a nice surprise and didn't add any financial stress to our lives. I have to admit also that he is rubbing off on me a little! I don't know if that's good or not yet, but it is a lot more fun sometimes to give myself permission to find a way to splurge! ;-D