Sunday, February 10, 2008

After two years of marriage, Beau and I have finally merged our finances (in a sense - via Quicken). We have a better idea of our monthly income and expenses. We still need to work on an actual budget, but we’re taking baby steps. Included in the baby steps was increasing our tithe to the full 10%. We’ve been tithing, but we knew we weren’t quite at 10% (although we were closer than I thought). So we’re trusting God to provide for our needs and to help us be more frugal and wise in our spending as we give what we ought back to Him first, especially since Beau only has the equivalent of one small class this semester. So far we’re doing well.

We’re also trying to use cash only for our regular expenses. We got into the bad habit of using a credit card after Jesse was born, but we just can’t continue doing that, so we’re cutting way back and I’ve already done a few things to reduce our monthly expenses.

I’ve also committed to stop putting our money into my business like I did last year. It turns out that I recouped that money at the end of the year in good sales, but it probably didn’t help us throughout the year as we used the credit card instead of the cash we would have had otherwise. So if I don’t have the money in the business account for the spending I want to do, then the spending will have to wait until I have a sale or two to pay for it. Fortunately, I have plenty of supplies on hand with which to make new things. The only thing I must buy is butane for my torch so that I can make the findings that I do need.

Related to this ... I spent a long couple of days of sorting through my business accounting to get the Schedule C form completed (last night!). Then it took me all morning, but our taxes have been e-filed and we will be getting a nice refund (much nicer that I expected, actually) from the feds and state. We’re grateful since we need the cash for our Disney trip. If I had taken a loss on the business, then our refund would have been better, but that’s OK. I’m happy for the profitable business year.

Add the extra rebate we will be getting from Uncle and both of our vacations are well paid for. *phew*

Thanks, Lord, for the immediate blessing.