Budgeting

I’m passionate about stewardship. I believe the Lord entrusts each of us with certain talents and treasures to be used for His Glory and His Kingdom. Niki and I often joke that after being disciples of Jesus, we are secondly disciples of Dave Ramsey. We both write often about budgeting. We love to give. But I still haven’t perfected the balance of when to buy something and when to wait. Buying material things is very much a spiritual matter with lots of gray area. Some purchases are no-brainers. If your wife is sick, buy her the medicine she needs. If your car is out of gas, put gas in the car, man! These are easy things. Many purchases aren’t just about essentials. There are countless opportunities for us to use our discretion on buying things, because we have more money than we need for meeting just our needs. I tried to find a good set of questions for helping Christians process through making purchases for our wants, and my somewhat limited search turned up few helpful results. So, I’ve created my own list of questions that I hope aid believers in stewarding well what the Lord has given us. I am not a perfect money manager for God. But I want to grow in this area. ...

The idea of creating a budget turns people into TSA Agents because they are not letting that get through the gates into their life, even with a thorough pat down. Budgeting carries negative connotations because it is restricting and difficult (like eating healthy food and exercising regularly, another awful thing smart people suggest). We don’t like doing hard things. So of course budgeting is something we are absolutely not interested in. I know a lot of very smart people who seemingly handle their finances well that don’t use a written budget. They say things like, “If I had a budget, I’d spend more money than I do now.” “We’re very frugal and we definitely don’t need a budget to manage our money.” “A budget is constricting, like an anaconda wrapped around an armadillo.” I can see where they are coming from. But I disagree for a number of reasons, listed below. As promised, the budgeting myths are body slammed with enough force to put the Kardashian’s on a cash-flow plan. I feel especially adept at answering these objections because I’ve reasoned with the false logic behind them myself in the past. 8 Budgeting Objections and the Real Truth to Answer Them...

I can’t pay full-price for anything. It’s some type of genetic mutation that definitely came from my mom’s side of the family. My grandma was a yard-sale warrior and would buy things for a nickel on the dollar. My mom hasn’t bought a non-sale item since 1976. We’re freaks. I like finding deals. I’m not much for yard sales because I can’t stand sifting through piles of garbage to find a rare gem, but I’ll gladly sift through the interwebs to find a good deal (yes, I see the irony). Here’s my precursor to what I won’t do to save a buck: Sign up for a ton of services where I get a penny back for every thousand dollars I spend. I know that works for some people, but it’s just not worth my time. Buy crap I don’t need. This defeats the purpose of saving money buying things online. If I wasn’t going to buy something in the first place, I’m not going to buy it just because it’s on sale. You didn’t save any money if you bought something you didn’t need. So if you were hoping for a post with pictures of me holding a coupon purse with an online shopping cart full of 300 packages of toilet paper and 10 cases of Heinz ketchup, I’m sorry to disappoint you. < p style=”text-align: center;”> With those disclaimers out of the way, here’s where I turn and how I work when it comes to finding a good deal. ...

Budgeting is like a magic trick: everyone is impressed when they see it done but few have the guts to try it for themselves. Prepare for the tricks of budgeting to be demystified as we pull back the curtain to enable you to make your own cash-flow plan with ease. There are a lot of tasks here, but they all fall under three main steps (via The Prestige)–the Pledge, the Turn, and the Prestige. The Pledge **Committing to changing your financial reality. ...

I love budgeting. Three words you don’t normally hear from a 23-year-old guy. If you make it all the way through this monster post, I’m fairly certainly budgeting will start growing on you too. My wife Niki and I took the 13-week Financial Peace University course by Dave Ramsey and decided to put a budget into action when we got married. We’ve been following it faithfully for the last 7 months, and it’s been unbelievably freeing. ...