Well, Tuesday at 10:00, the loan appraiser will come to appraise; if everything pans out then we will soon get our money taken out of escrow hostage (eek! needed badly by now!) Then at 1:00, the Town appraiser will come to assess our house, determining how many bucks we will have to shovel out in taxes (double eek!) The day could have a very very good turnout, or a very very bad one I suppose; we are obviously praying for the good!

We received a letter today stating that our economic stimulus check is on it’s way, but it’ll be $600 less than we thought. I guess we were under the assumption that 2 adults and 2 kids equaled $1800, but apparently not. Boo! But such is life… Now that naptime has arrived, I’m going to sorrowfully put away my Cottage Living magazine that just came in the mail, and start whipping out more pillow covers. No time like the present to try and earn a little extra!

Oh, whee…I hear Jack. He’s been down 10 minutes. Such is life, again, right? But all in all, I’ll take it!

That is very much an Erick phrase. He likes his “conclusions”. And so do I, honey.

Truly, another realization hit this week. (Haven’t you loved my realizations? Heh.) I’m pretty frugal, I like to budget…see it all “layed out”. Plan for the future and all that. Therefore, the house hunting thing has had me all in a dither. I’m over analyzing everything. Thinking up financial obstacles that might not even happen. Or might…in a few years.

I mentioned a house a blog or two back that seemed great, except for the fact that the driveway was a mile long, necessitating a plow truck (which we don’t have). I brought up that fact to a dear friend yesterday who instantly replied “Plow truck? We have one that has been sitting unused in our yard for years. Let me talk to my husband about it.”

Obviously, it could be a non-option for us. (The plow truck AND the house). But that One statement was such a tremendous faith boost for me. I have got to quit sweating the small stuff. God isn’t going to leave us hanging. He provides, and has provided, time and time again.

I’ll never forget; we were given a hand-me-down mattress when we were married. OH. MY. GOSH. We were grateful! But it was decades old. After a few months, we had to wedge ourselves in one particular position to avoid springs poking into our backs. AWFUL, people! It was awful! We were laughing about it with some church friends one evening, and it turns out they spread the word (without us knowing). A couple that we didn’t know at all ended up giving us their year old mattress and boxspring for FREE.

I can still picture our giddy selves sitting on that new mattress. We never wanted to leave. Just wanted to enjoy the bounciness of it all. What a provision! If God cares enough to give us a comfortable mattress (which is really a minor detail) then I think He’ll provide that house. Despite this little ol’ human me.

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I’ve finished some bottles! Just uploaded them to my store. Yay! I’m having so much fun! I tweaked my tree then went from there. It’s a delicious project.

Confession Time. (Haven’t I done that quite a bit lately?)

I’ve always been inclined to give. Or to want to give. That’s the stickler.

I was raised from an early age to give to my church, which I have done willingly so. One aspect of Dave Ramsey’s financial system is giving, which I love! When I think about what our needs/wants are, they are so…almost ridiculous in comparison to what half the world is experiencing. Thinking about our situation:

We want a house of our own! (At least we have shelter, and are blessed to live with incredible parents, and can tuck in to a warm bed at night)

We would love a bit of a boost in salary (At least we currently have a regular income, unlike so many)

Blasted Car Repairs…again?! (At least we have transportation, while many have never ridden in a vehicle before)

Peanut Butter and Jelly for the upteenth time? (Feeds our bellies! Quit complaining!)

I could go on and on, but you get the picture.

On top of our tithing, I’ve always wanted to give more, and have a few times…but not every time the mood has really struck; not every time I feel that God Whisper. When budgeting, I tithe and then make room for the bills…and there is rarely anything left over. However, 5 bucks, taken right out at the top of the budget, isn’t going to make or break us. I often forget that!

Therefore, I have made a vow, and challenge you to do the same. When talking to God about having a shop of my own, I fantasized about giving part of my earnings to some worthy cause. (And then thought that maybe I’d begin when I actually started making a profit…then kicked myself for even thinking that thought).

I am going to start giving 10% of my earnings (at first, and I hope to grow that percentage!) to a cause that is very near and dear to my heart. It can be found at www.childshopeinternational.org. Brother Jeremiah has a heart and passion for Kenyan refugees and orphans. They have tugged at my heart for a long while, so I’m excited to begin this little giving adventure.

Other worthy causes?

• Food for the Hungry
• Good Shephard Food Bank
• donating to local organizations that are collecting money for heating oil (So many families are having a hard time staying warm this winter!)

Anyone else have some causes they are passionate about giving towards? Comment away! Get the word out! If not, consider researching a cause and giving. Either money or time. Working at a soup kitchen is a pretty unforgettable experience.

(I am not trying to “toot my own horn”, here…it’s more of a “let me tell you how I’ve failed and what I’m going to do about it”, keep-me-accountable post!)

As much as I’d like to be completely organized and make every day a theme…that just won’t happen here. But I would like to share another money tip with you-I’ve wanted to since this blog when I mentioned building up an emergency fund.

Erick and I received our tax return, and plopped the majority of it right into our online savings account (building up that downpayment for a house!). I would highly recommend one of those for either short term or emergency fund savings. Your interest rate will be much higher than your bank or credit union. Since the interest rate has fallen recently, we are only making 3.5%, but that is a heck of alot more than the .5% our credit union gives us. Or maybe it’s not even that high. Nothin’ like making money without having to actually do anything.

As much as I despise credit cards, we do actually take advantage of a cash-back card. We put all of our gas purchases on the card and pay it off every month. Last year we made a little over $100 bucks. Another good money maker…but do NOT use one of them if you only pay minimums. Interest will gobble up what you earn in quick order.

Enough on that subject today! I can only read so much about finances before my eyes bug out of my head.

Happy Monday, people!

Have you seen the Feed the Pig commercials? Truth be told, they give me the willies. Not to swift on a life-size-human-pig-thing being my conscience. The message is good, though; it’s all about thinking before spending and keeping “saving” a priority (hence the pig, aka freaky piggie bank).

When Erick and I first moved to Virginia, I often thought of putting money in savings but didn’t figure 5 bucks a check would add up to much. We were paycheck-to-paycheck for the most part anyhow. We’ve never been big spenders and didn’t purchase needlessly, so I thought we were on the right track. What is that they say about hindsight?!

If we had put 5 dollars a paycheck away for the 5 years we were living in VA, we could have amassed 600 dollars by the time we left. Might not be much for some, but that’s no chump change for us!

Luckily (better late than never, right?) we were introduced to Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace course at our church. It was such a life changer. Let me tell you our first step-what really got us on the right track.

If you are anything like us, you have been planning what to do with your income tax return since, well, your last income tax return. Although recently we had to change things up since we need the money to live on day to day, for the longest time we had them take the max out so we could get a lump sum come the first part of the year (not the smartest thing financially, but we enjoyed it). Actually, we didn’t really get to put it to fun use-it always went to pay off credit card debt. And our credit card debt was never anything but car repairs. Those blasted car repairs!

A couple of years ago, the light clicked on when we heard Dave mention the first step in achieving financial peace was coming up with an emergency fund. Fortunately that tidbit of info coincided with receiving our tax return, so we plopped the money straight into the fund. Best decision we ever made! If a mini financial crises arises, we have the money available instead of falling back on credit cards.

We learned so much through DR…he’s been such an encouragement to us, and has really changed our thinking. I might post a money tip from time to time, but in the meantime head over to his site to gather some fantastic information.