So I am trying to read through the Bible in 90 days along with my brother and sister-in-law. I am roughly a week behind but last night I entered that scary place known as Job. Now I've read through the Bible twice before, and the last time I did it Kjell and I were dating, and while reading through Job Kjell started to have doubts about our relationship and wanted to break up with me. Job is not my favorite place. I always know that while reading Job God is going to show me something that I'm not going to like. This time around is no exception. If you follow my blog you know we are on a spending freeze. But see a three month spending freeze will probably show up in the bank more likely in Feb Mar and April rather than the three months we are doing it. Most of that has to do with the time of month that bills are due and when our credit card statement gets mailed to us and finalized for the month. Well the problems have been looming for awhile now, knowing that we have a huge expense in front of us that I can't talk about right now, and just trying to make ends meet anyways. So I get on line and I have a bill from Dish Network to view. They automatically dropped me from paper statements which has been a detriment to the whole situation since before when I had paper statements I never had a late payment and now six months into this I've had two... HUMMMM you think there's a reason they like e-statements! So not only do I owe them for two months I have to pay that dreaded five dollar late fee which I feel I can't call and ask them to remove this time since I haven't been a "good customer" which is what I claimed last time. Then I woke up this morning and realized something. When I "balanced" my expenses vs money made last month I forgot to write down the 610 dollar house payment for last month. I balance things a bit differently. Each month I want my expenses to match my money earned. Within ten bucks. usually that means we have a bit left over which means Kjell and I get a bit of spending money, the kids get college money, I put money away for car insurance and house taxes and the rest gets put in envelops that are for extra expenses. Some examples are car tags, Christmas, savings, car insurance, house taxes, college funds for both kids, fun, vacation, new car, house projects, cell phone bill, house payments, I'm missing one anyways I fill those in 10 dollar bills and rotate them. That way when the taxes come due not only have I been putting extra money away each month I have a little extra in the envelop and end up not owing very much. It works wonders. Anyways this month (well that means December) I thought we had a bad month. but I was pleased to find a "surplus" of 440 dollars, until this morning when I realized I had an outstanding check for 610 talk about not very good feeling in my stomach. So I got all that balanced out and went to check the CC to see if any of the expenses could be taken out of envelops and came up with 100 that were Christmas expenses so I took that money from the envelop and was only in debt 5 dollars this month. That made me feel good!
And I wouldn't be stresses except that Kjell and I have both had dr bills go unpaid this month two dentist bills and two eye doctor bills. Plus I finally got the bill for a dr appointment I had in August. And our credit card bill. almost as much as Kjell makes in a month, why? car insurance (which will be paid for with envelop money as soon as it comes due) new tires and alignment which was 550 bucks which we CAN get 500 of that paid for with our CC points but they haven't sent the paper yet so it probably won't be on this statement. I don't know just seeing that number being what Kjell's take home pay was and knowing I still had to pay health insurance, house insurance, tithe (which some people might suggest throwing out but no matter how far in debt I go God will always get our tithe) plus house payment there's just not enough dollars to make them stretch this time. So maybe I need to go back and read about Elisha and Elijah and the women with the oil and the pots because that is what Kjell usually used to describe what I can do with our money. Even though I had to get this out in my blog I feel a peace, only a kind that God can give to just rest, breathe and wait. I mean I have to do what I can to make the numbers match up but ultimately God is in control and giving me a peace that passes all understanding. Now I need to go finish Job so I can get on to happier things!
Just remember, God is good all the time - ALL the time God is good! I had a similar thing happen to me recently (forgetting about the check coming through) and literally the next day I received income I hadn't planned on - enough to cover that plus some! He is just SO AWESOME!!!
ReplyDeleteps - I would LOVE to know what "program" you're using to read through the bible in 90 days!
ReplyDeleteHang in there Laressa. As you know, there's a pretty happy ending to the book of Job!
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