The Never Ending Winter

One thing that can break your budget fast is a never ending winter. If you live in a part of the country that requires you to heat your home to keep it from sub-zero temperatures for a few months of the year, this year may have you scrambling.

The month of month of March had record temperatures, and unfortunately for us it wasn't on the high side. With most of the month reaching well below 0 during the night, our heating budget, like most, has taken a substantial hit. I've talked to family and friends who heat their homes primarily with wood who have said that they've used 3 or 4 more cords of wood this winter compared to their average, and we still have about two feet of snow outside!

Unless you were actually planning to heat your home until July, it's not really much of an option—even though our local TV news station took our "Penny Pinching Rap" a bit too literally and told the community that we don't heat our home at all! (But that's a whole other story.)

Alas, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and deal with it. I can either sit around and feel sorry for my budget, being bitter and whining about the fact that I'm still getting HUGE bills from the oil company, or I can choose to follow my own advice from the Trusting Him Without Borders post I wrote last week:

I will call upon Your Name

Keep my eyes above the waves

My soul will rest in Your embrace

I am Yours and You are mine

—Hillsong United

There are always going to be things that come up, that you either didn't expect or didn't budget for, but that doesn't mean you should throw in the towel. Even though it might not work out perfectly each month, persevere, because you know in the long run you will reap the rewards!

Keep pinchin' :-)