My God will provide all my needs...

I am thanking God today for His provision. My hubby is part of the government furlough. One day off every week for eleven weeks. That is a 20% pay cut. But praise God we can live on that amount of money. It is just a little less than what we made in Utah. (As of today they are talking of cutting it to fewer days. Another praise)

I have always been frugal, or as my kids call me cheap! Early in our marriage we planned for me to be a stay at home mom. So we made sure to live on only one income. Even when I did work off and on over the years we still lived on one income. We have tried to pay cash when we could. Buy used or on sale when ever possible. I have always cooked from scratch and up until we moved we rarely ate out. We have traveled and stayed in state parks and slept in our van to save on hotel costs. These have been our funnest vacations!

I don't feel we have went without either. We just make sure we have the money before we buy something or go on vacation. I believe all things are a gift from God including our money. I believe to live on credit is not good stewardship of our money. After all buying on credit is buying something with money you don't have yet. And may never have. We have no guarantee of having a job tomorrow. In our 26 years of marriage hubby has  been twice without  a job. But by Gods grace we got through and He provided all our needs. This has also made us more careful with our money for times like these when it is out of our control. I'm praying for my friends that are losing income right now also that God will provide for them and they will have enough.

Some ways I save....

1. Buy used or only on sale (this is clothing, home furnishing, cars)
2. No store bought junk food (chips, cookies, soda, candy) I bake cookies, and donuts. We air pop popcorn and drink lots of water.
3. Turn the heat down and wear a sweater...
4. We don't go to the movies (Redbox or Netflix)
5. Grow a garden and can (when I was in Utah, now farmers market weekly)
6. Basic cable (we never did watch all those channels, and we share my sons Netflix)
7. Car insurance...Shop around. For years we over payed!
8. Before we buy we ask, do we need it or want it?
9. I write out a budget...Every now and then I will keep track of all our spending and see what I can cut out.
10. We just don't buy big ticket items.. Boats, trailers, atv's...But we did put in a pool. Hubby did most of the work and we paid half the price of someone else doing it!