Meet the Nielsens

God presents everyone with challenges, some worse than others. My challenges are plentiful, but manageable. I have been struggling still with giving my challenges to God, giving my jealousy, anger, resentfulness to God, but its all been a struggle.

After I posted my last rant about how I needed to give everything to God and about what I was going through…I have felt a sense of calm. It may be because I have been trying to limit my exposure to things that upset me, but it also may be that God is taking those issues away from me and helping me deal with them one by one, as they come up.

My most recent issue I am having isn’t all me, its a family issue. But, while the family does contribute to our financial situation, I feel responsible because I came into my marriage with the most debt from school, etc and I feel like I let our spending go rampant and get out of control. Plus, I manage our finances and as much as I would love to have my husband do it, I feel like I need to be the one in control of them.

My neighbor gave me the idea to go to a cash system, and while I had been toying with it for years, I never really have done that since I have been married. Granted, our situation doesn’t allow us to actually pull out cash from our account and use that to purchase groceries, gas, etc., but I started trying to allow a certain dollar amount for each area: groceries, gas, dinner out, activities, and an extra category for things like diapers/baby items, etc. In June I started allowing $100 each category, but that was grossly (sp?) under estimated. This month I have just been keeping track on a piece of paper and will discuss the outcome with my husband in order to set up August’s budget.

Herein comes the issue: we have a huge amount of debt and while we are slowly whittling it away, and also getting rid of large chunks at a time, its still a huge chunk sitting out there…and I keep wanting things that I can’t have. Like right now, many of our neighbors are painting their houses. Every time I settle on a color I like (even though we won’t be able to afford it this year) someone chooses my color. I am getting nervous that when we are finally able to afford it, all the colors I like will have been taken. Plus, when companies come in and paint one house, they give pretty good deals to neighbors because they are already there. And, the economy is in such a crunch that people are pretty desperate to work, so we could get even better deals that may not be available next summer, or the summer after that. I get stuck in the thinking that what they are charging isn’t that much and that we could just borrow from money earmarked to pay off a credit card and it wouldn’t be a big deal.

I am trying to use “cash” for everything, ie no credit cards. And, we have been sucessful in not using credit cards since Coltin was born, aside from one time we had a large car repair bill that we didn’t have all the cash for. That’s what credit cards are for, emergencies, not wants. I want to paint my house, I don’t need to. But, we have a litter of pups right now that will yield enough (hopefully) to pay off one entire credit card, as long as we don’t have to use the money as it comes in, for bills.

And, I try to think of what I can do to generate extra income, aside from the two jobs I already work…but I don’t have much time to get another job, and I don’t have any creative skills, so crafting is out of the question. I thought about a garage sale, but I don’t seem to have enough things to sell. I would if my husband would let me get rid of a bunch of his stuff, but he’s a worse pack rat than I am. I even offered him the opportunity to sell his entertainment center & tv in order to make room for perhaps a flat screen when we can save up, but he said no because he wouldn’t have anywhere to put his electronic stuff and the TV wouldn’t come right away. Granted, we don’t even watch TV downstairs anymore. Oh, well.

So, one more thing I am giving to God: our finances. I pray that God will give me enough sense and willpower to only purchase things we need, not the things we want, and help us save up for the things we want. I ask that God helps my husband and I both be financially savvy and frugal, and work on living below our means.