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Saturday, February 14, 2009

On a No Spend Month until further notice.

Yes, that is right. We will be doing a NSM until further notice...

My husband lost his job on Thursday. I admit I was quite shocked. I guess I shouldn't be so shocked given the current state of the economy. I know many who have also found themselves unemployed...it is so sad. I do praise God for urging me to get a some bills paid off and for storing up some food. Thank you Lord!

Fortunately for us, my husband was given 3 weeks severance pay and he does qualify for unemployment benefits. Though, we are praying he will get a new job in the next couple of weeks. He has to wait to begin any new job until mid March so he can receive all his severance pay. The positive in that, is he can rest a bit. He has worked so very hard these past couple of years and truly needs to rest. BUT!!! While he is resting he will be submitting his resume all over the place looking for another job. He will even do interviews when called for one. So, lets call this a 'job hunting vacation', okay?

I will begin posting on Monday's and Friday's again. I will need some accountability and definitely some encouragement during this time in our family's lives. That means I have to post regularly so I can stay on track and motivated. I am going over our budget this weekend. Monday I will post about expenses I was able to cut and how I am looking to bring in some extra money on my own.

Blessings,


Tuesday, February 10, 2009

No Spend Tips...

First, I am sorry to have been MIA these past few days. I've been taking care of my sweet baby girl who is cutting 4 teeth, poor little darling. I have a brief break so I will be quick today.

Something I realized this month is when we have money we spend it. We don't spend it as wisely when it is just hanging out in our checking account. Last month I was able to do so much with our money...all good things. This month, we have eaten out more than the twice a month I had planned. Why? Because we can, plain and simple.

I have come to the sad realization that I am not very disciplined with money. It is hard to say that but it is the truth. I do great when I spend it all at one time on things that are needed or to pay bills off. Having X amount of money in the checking account is to tempting for me and for my husband. He isn't very good knowing there is money in the account either. So, we have decided to spend all the money each payday only leaving $50 for the unexpected. We did that during our NSM and it worked great. Knowing we didn't have money, or a lot of it kept us cooking at home and sticking to our meal plan. We were much more prudent last month than we have been so far this month...our 'spend month'. Boy we took that term literally, didn't we?

Bottom line for us, we can't have excess money laying around with no where to go but in the trash...