How Will You Choose To Be Generous Today?

In the wake of the death of superstar comedian Robin Williams has come a wave of stories regarding an aspect of his life that few knew anything about—how "crazily generous" he was. Williams had a deep appreciation for our armed forces, his colleagues, and for people in general, which he demonstrated through immense giving of material things and his time.

After actor Christopher Reeve was paralyzed in a fall from a horse on May 27, 1995, Williams arrived at his hospital room dressed as a doctor and announced that he was there to do a proctological exam.

"For the first time since the accident, I laughed," Reeve later wrote in his autobiography, Still Me.

Williams supported scholarships at The Juilliard School in New York City, actively raised money for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, and also supported the San Francisco Zoo, which named a monkey after him in June—which was, appropriately, a howler monkey. In California, where he lived, Williams was a friend of the Challenged Athletes Foundation and would cheer competitors on at the finish line of the San Diego Triathlon Challenge. He was expected this weekend at a race in Northern California.

"What I think a lot of people don't know, and you're starting to hear all these stories come out now, is how crazily generous he was," said late-night talk show host and comedian Conan O'Brien on his show earlier this week. "He was so generous."

"And not just in a material way, but with his time," added O'Brien's co-host Andy Richter. "He spent so much time entertaining the troops, which I didn't really know about which means he didn't really talk about it. He didn't do it for publicity."

Williams hung himself on Monday, August 11, at the age of 63 after a decades long battle with depression and substance abuse. His plethora of movies made millions laugh. His charitable work brought hope to countless others. Despite the horrific tragedy of his death, the legacy of generosity he left behind should touch us no less.

Robin Williams is probably the first actor to die who I was really familiar with. I mean, in just the last few years we've lost wonderful actors like Heath Ledger, James Gandolfini, Paul Walker, and Michael Clarke Duncan, but their stars had risen to fame fairly recently; I knew who they were, but they hadn't made the impact on my life that Williams did. Robin Williams has been a staple performer ever since I was a little kid. He—along with Bill Cosby—was probably the first comedian to ever make me laugh. His voice work in Aladdin and FernGully, his on-screen charism in Hook, Patch Adams, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Jumanji, all played a small part, I think, in the development of my own sense of humor and family values.

His passing makes me sad.

In looking at all the ways Robin Williams helped others, I find myself contemplating one question: how am I going to be generous? Generosity is not just about helping others. For Christians, especially, it's a necessity of obedience.

"In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" —Acts 20:35

How am I going to be obedient to the will of my Lord by helping others and caring for widows and orphans?

Though Dani and I do what we can with our time and resources, it's the dream of both of us to one day give much more once we're out of debt. We have a passion for adoption, and we deeply love our church, which are two things we'd love to give more to. Some day we want to have a home that can be the epicenter of the lives of our friends and family, a place for pastors and missionaries to come and rest and have fun, and a place to host friends who need some R&R.

What about you? In what ways do you dream of being generous once you're debt free?

A Shopping Spree With My Hubby

Going clothes shopping on a budget can be hard, but if you do it right you can replace the "hard" with pure "fun!"

Before we were married, both Jake and I had very different approaches to clothes shopping.

Jake would shop for clothes whenever he needed, buying many things he didn't need, whether he really had the money or not, and almost always he would be totally unaware of just how much money he was spending.

And I, ever the saver, would save and save and horde and horde my money until I could go on a huge shopping spree and splurge all I wanted. But at least I always knew to the dollar how much I had spent, she says proudly :-P

There are pros and cons to both methods, but, in the long run, neither are very responsible because neither one is really in control of the money. Back then, the money that we were spending wasn't allocated for clothes, wasn't accounted for on a budget, and wasn't part of a larger plan. Money that isn't part of a plan is money that just goes away.

Well, not anymore!

Last week Jake and I got to experience clothes shopping the way it should be. We had been saving money in our clothing budget for a while now in anticipation of needing to get a few new things. Our shopping trip required some planning because in our area you've got to drive at least an hour to get to any real good shopping places.

We began by going out to eat with some gift certificates that we had been saving, which not only covered the cost of our meal but also the tip. A free meal for two? You betchya!

Now onto the more interesting stuff. Shopping!

My strategy was to look for those clothing items that we really needed first, and then, if there was any money left over, we could purchase things we wanted.

When I enter a store I usually head to the back of the store first, or to wherever I know that they hide their best deals. I know marketing experts think they're being clever by pushing new merchandise "sales" near the entrance, but they don't fool me. I start at the back and work my way forward.

Few ladies have the luxury of being married to a man who likes shopping, or at least tolerates it well, but my hubby rather seems to enjoy it—so long as he gets to buy something. He's even learned some of my shopping strategies and is getting better and better at hunting down good deals—between two different stores he found three pairs of jeans all for about the price of one. He also hunted down a good deal on workout clothes.

I scored some great deals on some sun dresses and workout clothes—and splurged on a new pair of hot pink and black flip-slops.

When we returned home and I tallied everything up I was surprised to find that we had only spent about two-thirds of what we had budgeted. That was a great feeling for two reasons:

1. It's always fun to have a successful shopping trip where you found some great deals and saved a lot of money


2. But more importantly, Jake and I are finally learning to do this whole shopping thing the right way. Our money is working for us instead of slipping through our fingers. Every month there's a little bit more in savings, and the money in our budget for things like clothing grows a little bit more, which means there's more available when we need it.

It's times like these that make me realize how well our financial plan is working. Except it's not our plan. I shouldn't even call it Dave Ramsey's plan. It's simply a biblical way of handling money. It's how God has been telling people to manage their money since mankind had money. And when you think about it you realize that it's the best, most common sense way of handling money. It's less stressful. It's not challenging. It just takes time, discipline, and a little bit of practice.

Ok, a LOT of practice. In fact, Jake and I are still practicing, but more and more we're seeing the plan work! And I'm so thankful that we have a God who has it all laid out for us! We need only follow the plan.

So how do you score great deals on clothing? Do you go often to look at deals or plan a big trip? Tell us all about it in the comments below.

Keep pinchin' ;-)

New Year's Resolutions 4 Months Down

Can you believe it's already May? While I have longed for the warmer weather, time seems to be going by faster than ever. I haven't checked in on my New Year's Resolutions in a couple of months, but that doesn't mean I have forgotten them, so here's my latest update.


Faithfulness in our finances. The end of March brought the end of our first time of leading Financial Peace University. It was so fun to go through the class again, and celebrate all the successes our group had throughout the process. In our own finances we have faced many unplanned bills with my car, the furnace, and our escrow account being adjusted up by several hundred dollars. However, God has been faithful to continue to give both of us extra work, so none of these costs have forced us to dip into our emergency savings. We also looked into our car and house insurance and just changed policies that gave us better coverage with a savings of over $300 a year!

Faithfulness in living a healthy lifestyle. My family decided to commence the Belyea Biggest Loser competition last week, which will go through the end of the year, and though I had already started runningI've found that this little competition is making me want to be more faithful. With the warmer weather I am also trying to be more active outside.

Faithfulness in my spiritual life. I am continuing to do the Word of Life Quiet Time online. We have been in 1 Thessalonians recently which I've really enjoyed. This past week I have begun to look into Scripture about our words, and am working on my own little devotional about that, which is fun and good for me. 

Faithfulness in being good stewards of the homestead God has blessed us with. We have continued to host a Faith Group in our home every other week, which we enjoy a lot! Our apple tree, blueberry bushes, and strawberry plants arrived a couple of weeks ago and are in the ground now. I also planted some peas last weekend, and hope to plant lettuce, carrots and more peas in the next week. We are also hoping to start renovating our upstairs into a vacation rental—we don't really use the upstairs space at the moment and we could use the extra income.

Faithfulness in being the wife my husband needs me to be. I am working on turning my sarcasm into encouragement, hence my study on words. That is the biggest area that I can currently see that needs work because I so often forget how damaging my words can be, and how much he really needs me to be his cheerleader.

How are you doing with your New Year's Resolutions? If some have fallen by the wayside, it's never too late to pick them back up again!

Keep pinchin' :-)

To Everything There Is Season

To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted.
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 2

This verse came to mind today as I was thinking about how I'm tiring of this whole Penny Pinching life. Don't get me wrong, I'm not throwing in the towel yet, but there are days when the end seems oh so far away, and I just want to go to Six Flags.... Have you seen the new ride at Six Flags Great Adventure? If not you have to check it out!

Today was one of those days. It's amazing how far we have come since we began this journey about 18 months ago, as we have paid off about $25,000. However, to completely pay off our home we have a long way to go, not to mention that when we get some sort of health care that will cut into the amount we send to the mortgage company. Thankfully I've recently been asked on several occasions to babysit, which definitely helps, but that can get tiring, too, as I already work 40 hours a week and I work weird hours which throws my body off.

As I was thinking about how I'm going to keep on doing this the verse above came to mind. To everything there is a season. Right now we are in the planting season, so that hopefully one day we can reap what we have worked so hard to sow. It's kind of like my garden last year, I worked really hard to prepare the ground, plant the seeds, weed and water and then finally I was able to reap the harvest and enjoy all the fresh veggies.

So, I will keep pressing on and make the most of this time in my life, knowing that one day I will get to pluck that which I have planted.

Keep pinchin' :-)

A Series of Unfortunate Events At The Grant Homestead

As I stated yesterday, we appear to be on a ride through unfortunate financial events. Since I blogged about Trusting God Without Borders two weeks ago the following has happened:

• My car needed to be inspected, and due to a corroded catalytic converter wouldn't pass said inspection until blah, blah, blah... $620.


• Our mortgage company was way off on their estimate for our escrow account and are now either asking us for $2,200 by June or an increase of $400 a month on our mortgage to cover this shortage and also meet the amount needed for next year.


• We received a $620 oil bill, which is unusual for this time of year because our provider had delivered oil just the month before. Thanks March for breaking record lows!


• My debit card number was stolen and multiple purchases were made on it, including a $720 purchase from Walmart, some glassware in Massachusetts, and an escort service. (To hear about all that awesomeness, check out my post from yesterday: Swiper, no Swiping.)


• Finally on Sunday morning I discovered we had no hot water, which led us to discover that our basement was flooded and our furnace was about 6 inches deep in water :-/ Turns out the sump pump had tipped over and couldn't kick on, but, thankfully, after setting it back up it drained the basement in about six hours. The hubby's father, Mike—a whiz when it comes to mechanical and home repair issues—came over and got the furnace running again. No major damage, but it should probably be cleaned and services.

Sigh.

What do all of the above have in common, besides being financial burdens? To me they are trials. I am a saver through and through. It kills me to spend money at all, but especially on unexpected expenses, so when each of these situations occurred I wanted to just stomp my feet and cry! Somewhere in the back of my mind, though, the words to "Ocean" by Hillsong United kept rolling in my mind.

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

I knew that each of these circumstances presented me with the opportunity to trust that God is good, that He has good plans for me, and that He already knew about each of these circumstances before they even happened. Was I going to cry "uncle" or was I going to rest in His embrace? Though I haven't enjoyed this little ride of financial delights, I think I'm learning, and I guess in the end that is all that matters. When I invited Him to take me deeper than I would ever choose to go I didn't know that this might be the direction He would take, but I will continue to follow along wherever He chooses to lead.

Keep pinchin'

Trusting Him Without Borders: Part Two

Yesterday I talked about my need to choose whether I'm really serious about my relationship with Christ and will I choose to stand firm no matter what I might face, or will I run at the first sign of hardship. Today I wanted to share a few specific things that I have been thinking about in relation to this.

• Finances. Honestly the road to becoming debt free hasn't been that hard yet. Sure we have given up more than we probably would have wanted, and definitely more than we thought we would, but compared to most of the world we are still living very well. The part that I struggle with the most concerning our finances is whether we will be able to get out of debt soon enough so I can stay home and raise the imaginary kiddos. This has been the desire of my heart since I was just a child myself, and sometimes it looks like it will never happen. Even if we get out of debt can we survive on one salary? I have to choose to believe the truth though, and that is that God wants to give us the desires of our hearts. He has never failed me and He's not going to start now. He has good things planned for my life. Notice I said "good" and not "easy" :-)


• Adoption. When the hubby and I first started dating, one of the first life goals we found we had in common was a desire to adopt. Since being married, we've talked about this desire a lot, and each night when we pray together I pray that we will be able to adopt little babies from other countries someday. As we get closer to making that a reality I find that it's easy to get overwhelmed by the costs involved with adoption, the challenges it will bring to our lives, and the logistics of it all. Part of me thinks it will never happen, but that's not what I want, and I believe our Father put this in both of our hearts for a reason. I have to trust that He will provide, that He will make a way for it to happen. He is very clear in scripture that we are to take care of orphans, and I believe that He will honor our desires in this area.


• The Future. It's scary to think where our country is heading. It feels like it won't be long until the freedoms that I have grown to take for granted may be stripped away from me. There are times I think I was born in the wrong era, and I wish I could raise my imaginary kiddos in the past where life seemed simpler. I've contemplated building an underground home to hide in, or finding an island to purchase, but I have to trust that God chose to put me here on Earth at this time for a reason, just as He did Esther. I have a purpose today, and my job is to fulfill that purpose. I have to trust that He will take care of us, give us wisdom as we raise children in a world we couldn't have imagined as children, and guide and direct us on this journey.

The greatest thing I've realized this past week is that I have to trust Him in the good and bad. I have to expect trials, temptations, tribulation and hardship, and know that I'm not spared from these things just because I'm His child. If God chose to protect His children from everything then the New Testament would have looked very different. I need to be prepared to follow Him out on the waters, into the scary places, farther than I would have ever imagined. I need to rest in His embrace even when that's the only thing I have left.

I want to sing:

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

Keep pinchin' :-)

Trusting Him Without Borders: Part One

Hey! Dani here. Lately the idea of going through trials or testings has been on my mind a lot. Between a sermon at our church, and then having some dear family go through a rather difficult ordeal, it's been hard not to think about the difficulties of life.

In my selfish, finite mind I don't want any part of suffering, trials, tribulation or testings. It probably doesn't help that I've been born and raised in the USA where we have freedoms and riches in abundance, where trials that are a normal part of every day life for the rest of the world just don't exist. So does that mean I should expect not to suffer? I would like to say yes, but unfortunately I can't say that anymore.

Scripture makes it clear that testing and trials are part of our faith. At times God allows Satan to test, try and tempt us in order for us to grow stronger, for our true self to be revealed. Like Job.

In the book of James it goes so far to say that we should count it a joy when we face trials because it produces patience, and we are to let patience have it's perfect work in us that we may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

If you look at the lives of the men in the New Testament that were followers of Jesus they had some of the most horrific things happen to them—they were thrown in jail, stoned, run out of towns, and many of them were ultimately martyred for their faith in Christ. But they never wavered in that faith, no matter what they faced.

I feel like right now I'm at a crossroad where I have to decide if I'm really serious about my relationship with Christ. Will I choose to stand firm no matter what I might face, or will I run at the first sign of hardship?

The song Oceans by Hillsong United has been on my heart and mind for over a week now. Check it out below.

This is what I want to be true of me, to allow Christ to lead me wherever He wants, knowing it will be further than I would ever choose to go on my own, but also knowing it will make my faith stronger and make my trust in Him to have no borders. When trials and testings come I want my first response to be to rest in His embrace, not to run for the hills and build an underground bunker.

Come back tomorrow to learn about some of the specific ways I want to allow Christ to lead me beyond where I would choose to go.

Keep pinchin' :-)

New Years Resolutions 2 Months In!

Two months of the year 2014 are already in the books. Craziness! I swear that every year time goes by faster. Gone are the days where summer vacation felt longer than the school year :-) This past month has thrown my schedule for another whirlwind, as I've finally been transferred to my program here in Bethlehem, but have been working 8-4 Monday-Friday. It's hard being 'faithful' when I'm still in limbo with getting to my end goal of being the awake overnight staff.


Faithfulness in our finances. February proved to be another solid month in working on getting to be debt free. We base our budget on a four week plan, and so in a year's time we come up with an extra month of payments, which helped our mortgage greatly. In the past year and a half we have almost paid off $20,000 on our mortgage which can only be summed up as a God thing. Financial Peace University is also going well, and it has been fun to get excited over other's success in this area. 

Faithfulness in living a healthy lifestyle. Since transitioning to Bethlehem I have been trying to walk to work any day it isn't sub zero temperatures, which unfortunately has not been as often as I would like. Hopefully in the next couple weeks it will warm up so I can walk and also change to being overnights so I can get my exercise in during the night.

Faithfulness in my spiritual life. I went ahead and got the year subscription to the Word of Life Quiet Time Diary. I like devotionals because it is strictly Scripture with some commentary and thought-provoking questions. It doesn't take long to do it though so my hope is once I start overnights I can beef it up with other things or even just committing to spending part of my night in prayer and Scripture memorization. 

Faithfulness in being good stewards of the homestead God has blessed us with. This month we have begun hosting a small group bible study called FAITH Group, in our home every other week. This was our heart's desire when we were looking at purchasing a home. We wanted a space big enough to have other believers in and it's nice to finally see that happening on a more regular basis.

Faithfulness in being the wife my husband needs me to be. I completed my 14 days of Love for Jake, with writing something I love about him every day. It was good for me to think about things I sometimes take for granted and put words to things I should say on a more regular basis. I have been home in the evenings so I've been able to enjoy making dinner for the two of us, which is a nice change from the 3-4 nights I would get to be with him in the past.

Any progress on your resolutions or word for the year? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Keep pinchin' :-)

A Childhood Memory

Dani here. To expound on Jake's story from yesterday about our lawnmower, yes, we both prayed for God to give us a new lawnmower. I distinctly remember my prayer—"Lord, if You could just GIVE us a lawnmower, that would be great!"—and here's why.

When I was a little girl, probably not more than four years old, my family struggled with finances. We lived in town and had only a small yard to mow, however we didn't have a lawnmower. I don't remember if our mower broke or what happened to it, I only remember that whenever it was time to mow the lawn my dad would walk down the street to my grandparents's house and borrow theirs. He'd push it down to our house and return it when he was done. I don't remember how many summers this went on, but I clearly remember what happened next.

One Sunday after church our family drove into our driveway to see a big box waiting for us. Inside the box was a brand new lawnmower. As I recall, there was a note on the box that read simply: "From God."

I always thought that this story was so awesome, not just the fact that someone would meet a need we had, but that they would choose not to reveal themselves and instead let God get all the glory. These are stories I want my imaginary kiddos to grow up hearing about. I want them to know that God meets our needs and our wants and that He uses His people to do it.

Some day I hope that Jake and I are in a place financially that we can do something similar—bless someone we know that has a need or a legitimate want, but meet that need in such a way that God gets the glory for it. That's part of why we penny pinch. It's why we are on this journey to debt-free living. As long as we have debt we have something that is hindering us from being fully used by God, and I don't want debt to have that kind of power over us.

So I will keep pressing onward, through the good and the bad in order to be free from the enslavement of debt.

Keep pinchin' :-)

New Year's Resolutions - One Month In

I can't believe the first month of the year has already gone by. Is it just me, or does time go by faster and faster the older you get? I've continued to plug away at my goal of working on "Faithfulness" throughout this year, and while I don't always do as well as I would like, I guess even being aware of my goal can be helpful.


Faithfulness in our finances. I have been able to pick up a few babysitting jobs and Jake has some extra work lined up. We are continuing to attack our mortgage like crazy people, and I think for the most part we are staying on budget.

Faithfulness in living a healthy lifestyle. The exercise goal has been hard recently. I seem to go a couple days doing really well, and then "forget" about it for the rest of the week. I got in a few good workouts, including a day of boarding at Bretton Woods—courtesy of an awesome friend—and I ran/walked three miles last week. My goal this next week is to walk to work and back as often as I can, since my job situation has finally moved closer to my home—just a few minutes away by car! As far as healthy eating goes: I worked on making healthy freezer meals last week so that way when I don't have time or energy to cook anything we aren't having to eat some processed junk.

Faithfulness in my spiritual life. I've missed a few days of doing my personal quiet time because the devotional I was using was only a 30 day trial. I think I might get the full subscription though because it's been good for me. I've continued to read Beth Moore's "Believing Day by Day," and I am hopeful that Jake and I can get back to doing our couples' devotional on a regular basis now that my work schedule is a little less crazy.

Faithfulness in being good stewards of the homestead God has blessed us with. We have been discussing whether or not we want to begin renovating the upstairs of our house, which we currently don't live in. The timing is good, but it costs money, so we're still in the praying and considering phase.

Faithfulness in being the wife my husband needs me to be. For February I decided to do a couple of special things for the hubby. The first is to write a reason I love him on a heart leading up to Valentine's Day. It's been fun to think about different things I love about him. The other thing I've been doing is writing a cute little love note that goes with an item—e.g. like "I have CRUSH on you" with orange Crush soda, or "You're the APPLE of my eye" in his lunch bag alongside an apple. He seems to be enjoying these little notes and it's fun to write them.

Any progress on your resolutions or word for the year? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Keep Pinchin' :-)

New Year's Resolutions - Three Weeks In

We are about three weeks into the New Year. Do you even remember what you're resolutions were? Usually by this time most people forget they ever made a resolution, have given up on it, or haven't even started it yet. Maybe 2015??

While the word "Faithfulness" isn't constantly on my mind, overall it appears to be ingrained in me already, or at least so far. So here is my three weeks update.


Faithfulness in our finances. I've continued to use cash for my groceries based on a monthly allowance. This has been very helpful because I know exactly what I have to spend, and if I go over my budget for one week I just have to cut down the following week. Last week we took another look at our overall budget to see if we could squeeze out any more pennies to put toward our mortgage, and we came up with over $100! We were able to do this because after more than a year of following this budget we now have a better idea of what some of our expenditures actually are.

Faithfulness in living a healthy lifestyle. I continue to try to work out four or five days a week, and although it's not always for as long as I would like, it is a start. This past week I had a hard time finding some motivation, but after reaching out to a friend we motivated each other to go for a walk that lasted about 45 minutes. Jake and I have been eating a lot more fruits and veggies—salads probably four days a week, at least, which is a huge improvement for us. I also made some yummy banana muffins, substituting the butter for applesauce and eggs for flaxseed. Even though they're technically "healthy muffins," I tried them out on some of the kids I babysit, as well as the husband, and I'm pleased to announce the muffins are "kid tested and husband approved!" :-)

Faithfulness in my spiritual life. I have continued to do my personal quiet time daily, and although it's not at the same time (sometimes 10am sometimes 11pm) it's happening! I continue to read Beth Moore's "Believing Day by Day," and I find that encouraging! This week I plan to listen to my home church's Sunday sermon, which I missed because I was working in the nursery.

Faithfulness in being good stewards of the homestead God has blessed us with. Once again not a whole lot happening in this realm, probably due to the time of year. I did make a Valentine's Day garland, which I plan to share later this week, and I made my Thankful Jar. Last week I ordered two Apple trees, two Blueberry Bushes, and 100 Strawberry plants, which I'm super excited about! We already have Raspberries, Grapes and one Apple tree on the property, which I plan to work on taking care of this Spring.

Faithfulness in being the wife my husband needs me to be. Over the past couple of weeks I've been able to continue to keep our home picked up, make homemade meals, and keep up with the laundry. I am thankful for this because I know I can think better in a clean and organized house, but I also know my husband appreciates it. Our Sunday School class has been going through Love & Respect by Emerson Eggerichs. It's hard to remember to put the principles he talks about into practice outside of the class, but today when my husband tried to help me make lunch in a manner completely wrong from my point of view, I was able to remind myself, "Not wrong, just different." Years from now when we have kids, I'll probably beg him for the help and not care what route he takes to get there.


So, where are you at with any resolutions you made? Do you remember your word for the year? If you find that you have already "failed" don't give up and think, "Maybe 2015 is the year," but instead jump back in and recommit to your goals!


Keep pinchin' :-)

A Different Sort of Mindset from the "Gimme Culture"

Dani has chosen the word "Faithfulness" for 2014, and has chosen a few different ways in which she wants to be more faithful this year.

If Faithfulness is our word for 2014, I'd have to say our word for 2013 was "Submission." I don't know, it was just the word that kept popping up into my mind all year. It was our first year together as husband and wife and so there was a lot of learning how to submit to one another in marriage. There was a lot of submitting to God as we brought our marriage before Him, as well as any issues that arose with the house we bought or the property we owned.

But I think the biggest reason the word Submission kept coming to mind is how we learned to submit our finances to God. After taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, I really began to understand how nothing I own is really mine. It all belongs to God. My paycheck. My savings. My home. It's all His. Dani and I are merely stewards of what He has given us. And the more we have recognized His authority over our finances, and the more we have practiced submitting to that authority, the more the Lord has blessed us financially.

This is completely counter-intuitive for many people. Our culture today is very selfish and people have little financial accountability—moreover they don't want any. We're a "Gimme!" society that wants more, gives less, and fiercely guards the meager portion that we have. But God calls us to let go. We need to be willing to take what we have and lay it at His feet. Luke 16:10 says, "Whoever can be trusted with little, can be trusted with much."

And then you've got to be willing to ask Him for more. Dani and I spent many nights praying together, asking the Lord to bless us with extra work and extra income to help us pay off our mortgage, and He has faithfully provided month after month, but I can't help but think that the whole submission aspect is a big part of that.

The more we submit our finances to God, and the more we acknowledge that everything we have comes from Him, and the more we seek His will for all that we have, the more He blesses.

Keep pinchin' :-)

New Year's Resolutions - One Week In

So, it's been a week since the new year began. Have you followed up on your resolutions? Don't answer that.

My word for 2014 is "faithfulness," and I've begun working on the different areas that I know I need to be more faithful in. I know I'm not going to reach perfection overnight, but as long as I am striving to work toward these goals I'm ok with that.

Faithfulness in our finances. Since going back to using only cash a few weeks ago I've found that it's much easier to keep within our budget, especially when it comes to our grocery budget. I also decided to take out my whole monthly grocery budget at the beginning of the month, which enables me to spend a little extra some weeks when I see some good deals, but still be aware of how much I have left to spend for the rest of the month.

Faithfulness in living a healthy lifestyle. I committed to trying to exercise on a more regular basis, especially during my overnight shifts because it helps me stay awake—not to mention that it's just plain good for me. I also bought lots of fruits and veggies this past week and have found that if I am purposeful in using them in my cooking we eat a lot more of them every day.

Faithfulness in my spiritual life. I've been making it a point to spend time in the Bible each day. I was also able to download Beth Moore's "Believing Day by Day" to read, and I've been making a point to listen to Christian radio and/or sermons when I'm doing housework.

Faithfulness in being good stewards of the homestead God has blessed us with. Not a whole lot has been done on that front, but we did spend Saturday putting away Christmas decorations, cleaning the house, shoveling the driveway, and draining the never-ending pool of water in our basement.

Faithfulness in being the wife my husband needs me to be. This week I tried to put some extra effort into picking up the house, doing the laundry, and making good meals. It's hard when I'm gone for three days straight each week, and I want my husband to eat healthy, so making sure he's cared for in that way is important to me (see amazing dinner at right). I think he appreciated my extra efforts on the home front, and that even though I kept pretty busy we still got to enjoy some quality time together ;-)

Overall it's been a good start to the new year, and hopefully by keeping my goals in the front of my mind and letting you all know how I am doing I will continue to be faithful in all I want to accomplish this year.

Keep pinchin' :-)

Why It's Important To Live Debt Free

If you were to ask me why my wife and I are penny pinching, why we believe in a good budget, or why it's important to us, I could quickly rattle off a few reasons.

• I like stuff, and by saving money now I'll be able to buy more stuff later


• I want a Mustang someday and getting out of debt will help me get that


• I like making my wife happy. Happy wife, happy life, right?


• I like not being independent and not obligated to credit card companies

Notice that each one of those points starts with "I." They're all very selfish, I admit it. It's like Dave Ramsey says in his Financial Peace University, "Live now like nobody else so that tomorrow you can live like nobody else." Don't get me wrong, I'm not condoning selfishness, and the list above is meant to be taken in jest, but my point is: there are many good personal reasons for penny pinching.

But there's a deeper reason, and a far more important one. God doesn't like debt. Romans 13:8 advises believers to owe nothing to anyone except love. At the same time, however, the Bible does not explicitly command against all forms of debt, nor does it expressly forbid or condone the borrowing of money. Essentially, the Bible offers a strong warning when it comes to borrowing money, saying that debt makes the borrower a slave to the lender (Proverbs 22:7).

Slavery. That's not something God likes either. He sent Jesus Christ, His only Son, to earth to die in order to get us out of slavery to sin. The problem with slavery is that it holds us back. It pins us down. A bird that's tethered to a cage can't fly. For this reason there's a lot of Christian ministries and organizations that won't hire other Christians to work for them if they have a lot of debt. When you're tethered to a bank loan or a credit lending agency, you're held back from serving God to the fullest. I'm not saying you can't serve Him at all or do mighty works for His Kingdom, but just imagine the heights you could soar if you weren't tied down to a monthly house payment or student loans.

The Bible says that the plans of those who are diligent with their money lead to wealth (Proverbs 21:5), and that those who are faithful with what they earn will abound with blessings (Proverbs 28:20).

Paying off debt is about more than just financial freedom. It's about spiritual freedom. And I believe we should make it our priority as Christians to get out of debt as soon as possible so we can experience all that God has for us.

Keep pinchin' :-)

My Word For Next Year....

After much careful thought and consideration about this past year, I have come up with my 2014 word for the year. Dun, dun, da dun! ... FAITHFULNESS.

I felt like this word perfectly encompassed what I want to work toward this next year. As I thought about 2013 and what I wanted to see different for 2014 I thought of things like:

• Faithfulness in our finances. I want us to continue slaying our debt like we have this past year by spending wisely and having the wisdom to know how to best use the resources God has blessed us with.


• Faithfulness in living a healthy lifestyle. In previous years I have been good about running in the summer, of consistently walking or participating in some other type of exercise, but 2013 proved to be challenging in this area. In 2014 I want to not only see myself be more faithful in exercising, but also in eating healthy.


• Faithfulness in being good stewards of the homestead God has blessed us with. I think we can do this by learning how to better care for the plants and trees we have in our yard, and also continuing to work on projects in and around our house.


• Faithfulness in continuing to work on being the wife my husband needs me to be. I want to get better at supporting him. I want to study him so as to learn more about him so that one day I'll have my Ph.D. in Jake :-) I think right now I may still be in elementary school!

But more importantly than all of the other areas I want to be more faithful in my personal quiet time, prayer life, and spiritual growth. Without that I might as well forget about the rest.

I think my verse to go with Faithfulness for the year will be Luke 16:10-12:

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?"

What are some of the areas you want to change in 2014?

Keep Pinchin' :-)