TALK IS CHEAP

Cell phones.  Funny how something that used to be such a luxury has evolved into a necessity.  Now that every family member owns one instead of all sharing a house phone, the costs have also increased exponentially.  It’s easy to research and sign up for what is initially the best plan, but then forget to periodically reevaluate.  As my family’s lifestyle has changed over the past few years, our phone needs have changed too.  At one time we had to keep checking to make sure we weren’t blowing past our allotted minutes and had a plan that accommodated our high usage.  Now, it seems we use a fraction of those minutes and have instead increased our texting.

It’s important to evaluate a service bill (phone/cable/Netflix/etc.) periodically.  Just by reviewing your service bills you may quickly find very significant savings like I did. 

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF:

v  Does the amount I use the service justify paying what I do for it?  Ex. We found that as our lives changed we no longer had time for many of the TV shows on cable.  We were paying for the privilege of having those shows available, but rarely watching them.

v  Do I have the right plan?  Ex. Our number of texts has increased drastically.  Paying for minutes, texts and data time we don’t actually use, or paying for the same on a per minute/text basis when we use significantly over our limit, can really eat a hole in our budget.  (It’s not a big deal to pay for a couple of extra text charges each month.  It’s actually more cost effective to just pay for the additional few on a per text basis if you only use a couple of extra ones.) 

v  Do I really need all the extras I’m paying for or would it be better stewardship to cut back?  I’m not saying that the extra features on a phone or the channels on cable or whatever else you have are bad per se.  They can be great tools and a lot of fun.  However, are they worth the money you are investing in them, or are they taking resources away from other things you would say are more of a priority in your life?  Ex. Some people may not be able to do this, we save on our phone bill by making a decision not to pay for access to the web from our phones.  With multiple computers available to each of us, this was an extra we felt we could do without.  Cutting data charges and sticking to a simple text and call plan can save quite a bit.

Reviewing and evaluating your service bills doesn’t have to be time consuming. The simple change we made to our phone bill took a phone call and a few minutes to implement, but over the course of a year will equal significant savings for us.  (If you save just $5 a month on one bill, over the course of a year you will save $60.)

SAVINGS TIP: Check out possible discounts on products and services offered by your providers.  Ex. We discovered a 15% discount on our phone service by Verizon Wireless for certain company and state employees.  It’s worth checking to see if your carrier has this and if you qualify.

(Verizon link – http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/employee/emaildomainauthentication.jsp)

NEXT TIME:  Are you as open with others regarding your finances as you are in other areas of your life, or is discussing money matters with others off limits for you?

WHOM DO YOU SERVE?

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Luke 16:13

At first glance, this verse doesn’t appear to present much of a problem.  If asked, I’d probably say “I’ve got this one covered.  I do serve God and I don’t serve money.”  Case closed.  Move onto the next verse.  This passage makes me think of Scrooge lovingly counting his piles of gold.   I’m not like that, am I?  For me, money is just an inanimate object.  It’s a tool, a resource to use in life.  I wouldn’t serve something like that, would I?

Then I am reminded of something Larry Burkett says in his book The Complete Financial Guide For Young Couples: “About 80 percent of our waking day is consumed in thinking about money: making it, saving it, spending it, or giving it away.  If this area isn’t managed properly, everything else is out of balance” (13).

His statement made me sit up and take notice.  I can’t say for certain if I spend 80% of my thought life on money.  But as I have started to pay attention to what flickers through my mind on a given day, to my shame I have to admit that I spend vastly more time on matters related to money than on spiritual considerations.  By this measure alone, the above verse seems to have decided implications for me. 

If that’s not convicting enough, let’s think about it some more.  Are we able to honestly answer the following questions without further placing ourselves into the hot seat on this issue?

v  In what do I place my sense of security for life?  How much of it is bound up with the savings I have or in my projected future earnings?

v  Is money truly a resource I use for God’s purposes, or is it first and foremost a resource I use to meet my own wants?  When it comes to money, am I truly generous or does God get my leftovers?

v  From what do I derive my sense of worth?  Do my possessions/bank accounts define me as a person?  If I am not financially well off, do I feel like a lesser person?

Questions like these can open our eyes to flawed core values we may hold.  Who occupies the first place in our lives?  Do we even realize the reality of our affections slowly leaching away from God to material matters?  Our culture is certainly no help.  It loudly and regularly promotes money as the essential ingredient to our personal well-being.  Those who have it are lauded as successful, while those without it are looked down upon and pitied.  Without intent to the contrary it’s easy to imbibe these cultural values as truth. 

Do we worship God or money?  The verse is clear.  We can’t have it both ways.  The answer to this question cannot fail to impact every area of our lives, because monetary concerns permeate our existence.  Money is not evil in itself.  It’s a necessity and can be used for great good.  But do we truly view it as a tool, or has it usurped God’s place and become our master as we place our security/worth/happiness upon it?

SUDS FOR DUDS

One area of our budget that needs a savings overhaul is household cleaning products.  Looking through past receipts I’ve noticed that I regularly spend quite a bit for items like toilet paper, soaps, paper towels, detergents, etc.  I can’t really cut down the use of these things without also sabotaging my ongoing battle to keep my house and family clean, but there must be some cheaper alternatives to what I’ve been using.  I’ve been looking into making my own cleaning products and kicked off my search with homemade laundry detergent.  This was a winner!  It results in annual savings of about $75! 

RECIPE

1 cup Borax

1 cup washing soda

1 bar soap (I used Ivory, but you can use other brands including laundry soaps like Fels-Naptha)

DIRECTIONS

Grate the bar of soap.  (I used a cheese grater.)

Mix all 3 ingredients together. 

Use 1 Tbsp/load (2 Tbsp/load if heavily soiled).  Let soap mix well with water before adding clothes. 

YIELD: 3 cups or 48 loads (1 Tbsp/load)

TIME/BATCH: Under 5 minutes

TIP: Use a funnel to put all the ingredients into a plastic juice bottle with a cap that measures 1 Tbsp.  Shake to mix.  Cap can be used to measure the amount for each load.

NOTE: I don’t have one, but have read that this can be used in HE washers because it has low suds.

Typically, I use one full capful of ALL brand liquid detergent per full laundry load.  I was skeptical that just 1 Tbsp of the homemade soap would work as well, but stuck to the recipe.  AMAZING!!  Load after load it seems to give the same level of results.  (If I had to soak or pre-scrub something with the old detergent, I still have to, but no more than before.)  The only difference I can tell is that it lacks that fresh laundry scent.  If that’s a must for you, I’ve read that you can add essential oils to your homemade mix. 

HOMEMADE COST: $0.028/load. 

When you compare cost, remember that the loads listed on brand name detergents assume you will use the minimum amount suggested per load (not extra for larger or more soiled loads).  I found I regularly used more than the minimum amount to keep ahead of my dirt loving children.  By using one full capful of ALL detergent instead of the suggested minimum, I essentially cut their load totals in half, which in turn means that the homemade saves me even more.  Using my mix I save about $0.20/load.  If, like me, you do a lot of laundry and add it up annually the savings are significant.  Definitely worth it for the time spent.

SAVINGS TIP: When saving small amounts here and there in your budget, it may at first not appear worth the effort.  Only when the savings are added up over a longer period of time (monthly, annually) can it really be determined if it’s worth the time invested.

(For example: 1 load/day at a savings of $0.20 = an annual savings of about $75.  It would only take about 38 minutes to make all the detergent necessary for the year.  $75 for a little over half an hour worth of work is a great return for the time invested.)

NEXT TIME:  How much time do you spend thinking about money on any given day: making it, saving it, spending it, giving it away, etc.?

A BETTER BUDGET

Most of us could use some extra cash.  Maybe we wish we had more to give away, or want to start a savings plan for those inevitable rainy days.  Maybe we have a project or vacation we’d like to fund or are sick to death of being in debt.  Unfortunately, aside from the unlikely events of winning the lottery or having an inheritance dropped on us, there’s really no way to obtain the extra cash unless we work for it.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time brainstorming ways I might contribute extra to our family income while still maintaining my current responsibilities.  Inevitably, I find that my ideas run into one almost insurmountable problem.  It seems next to impossible to find a bit of part-time work that pays well enough to make it worth the time and effort to do the job.

So what’s to be done?  Add the stress and time constraints to my already busy life for very little compensation, or is there another way to increase our family’s cash flow?  After hashing this out with others who have the same issue, I believe it’s time to approach the problem from a different angle.  I need to hire myself to save our family money that is ALREADY in our budget. 

What if I can save the same amount of money or much more, per hour worked as if I made it working a part-time job?  I can set my own hours, work in my own home, with all profits going directly into our family’s pockets.  Would it be worth it?  For me, absolutely!  I’ve recently noticed two things about my budget that point me in the direction of hiring myself to save us money.

1.  Our lifestyle tends to increase as our income increases.  Without really realizing it, there are areas of our budget (ex. our food bill) that have increased slowly without my conscious decision.  Sure the cost of food has gone up, but instead of determining if that’s the case or if I’m just buying more expensive/convenience items, I’ve just accepted the increased cost without assessing it’s source.  A cursory glance at our budget reveals several line items that fall in this category.

2.  There have been many life changes for us in the last several years.  Life changes can include things like marriage, a major purchase like a house or car, children, etc.  My budget doesn’t necessarily reflect those changes other than the ones I’ve made from necessity, like buying diapers or paying home insurance.  I’ve added expenses or just continued paying on old ones, many times without evaluating them to see if there are more cost effective ways of handling the additional outflow of cash.

Saving money for the purpose of using it for long-term financial goals is a great reason for me to embark on this savings venture.  However, for me there is a deeper and more important reason to become increasingly financially savvy.  The Bible says that, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.” Psalm 24:1-2.

My family believes that everything we have belongs to God.  We believe He made us and put us in our particular corner of the world with all its attached wealth and privileges.  This being the case, we also believe we are accountable to Him for how we handle the money He’s provided.  In his book Master Your Money Ron Blue points out,

“…God has the right to whatever He wants whenever He wants it.  It is all His, because an owner has rights, and I, as a steward, have only responsibilities. …I literally possess much but own nothing. … You may have the title to (something), but that title reflects your right to possess it temporarily, not forever.” Pg 19-20

Over the course of this project I plan to both look into practical ways of reaching a better budget as well as studying and sharing Biblical principles on money.  Some of the changes I'll make will be small while some will have comparatively huge savings. Some will have objective dollar signs attached while others will involve mindset changes that will increase our family’s overall ability to become more fiscally responsible and to financially thrive in our current challenging economy. 

This blog will be my notes and observations on building a better budget for those of you who are interested.  I welcome and appreciate your input and further suggestions as I introduce each weekly topic.

Luke 16:10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?