Learning What's Really Important Can Result In Drastic Life Changes

A screenshot from our "Penny Pinching Rap"
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Blogging. It's a never-ending saga. Jake and I try to make each post stand on its own, but sometimes you may need to do a little catch-up reading to really know what we're talking about. So if you missed my post about being "house poor" you might want to check it out here before you continue reading. Or not. It's your choice. I'm just saying, it's what awesome people do.

Anyway. Moving on.

In our quest to be debt free as soon as possible, the hubby and I have chosen to put a lot more money toward our mortgage than what the bill calls for. Our plan was to get that bad boy paid off in about five years. And, honestly, we were doing quite well at that. We don't have kids yet. We've both been working hard. So things seemed to be going along beautifully.

And then life happened.

It was around the end of winter that we had multiple unexpected financial burdens heaped upon us, not the least of which was the fact that our mortgage company had screwed up our escrow account BIG TIME! It upped our monthly house payment by $400, which took our whole "pay off the house in five years" plan by the throat, shoved it under water, and held it there until it choked and died.

Then came hurricane Obamacare which demanded every free penny we had and then some.

Moreover, Jake and I have spent the last couple of years realizing just how much time and money it's really going to take to manage our house, even after the mortgage is paid. I mean, the house is huge. It's 150 years old. It needs a new everything. Heating costs are astronomical, not to mention the taxes that show no sign of ever going down. Both my dad and Jake's dad would have a field day in this house, but neither of us are our fathers. We don't know the first thing about renovating. More's the pity.

After two years in this house we now have a better idea of what we want in a home, what we need. We've also learned a lot about each other, what our capabilities are and what's important to us.

On that list of importance is:

1. Being closer to our church in order to be more actively involved in it.


2. Being closer to Jake's job because the hope is that one day I'll be able to stay home with the kids and homeschool, and I know Jake would love not to have to spend five hours a week commuting.


3. Being able to enjoy our home instead of always feeling overwhelmed with a long list of repair jobs.


4. Being closer to family is important to us, especially when we have kids.


5. Being able to free up some money for adoption, which is something Jake and I have always dreamed of doing.

So, we have decided to pray about doing something drastic, and putting what we once thought was our forever home on the market. It's time to find a smaller place, a cheaper place, that will help us out financially and get us more in-line with what we now know to be the things that are really important to us. We want to be done with being "house poor." (Again, if you need that defined check out my previous post on this topic like all the other awesome people do!)

If we do decide to put the house on the market we know it will only sell by a miracle from God, and we are trusting that if this is what He would have for us at this time in our lives than He will do that miracle.

In the meantime, we've begun renovating the upstairs, which will either serve our future family, or perhaps serve as a space we can rent out to earn a little extra money.

Keep pinchin' ;-)

PS. We do plan to fix the basement, unless you all think an indoor pool would help in the selling process!

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'

Is It A Lack Of Faith or A Lack of Prayer? ... A Followup

On Friday, I wrote about how our finances ebb and flow in Is It A Lack of Faith or A Lack of Prayer? I had noticed that Jake and I had kind of grown lazy in asking the Lord to provide extra work and extra money for us. Whether our tight finances this month are a consequence of that or not, who can say?—but a really funny thing happened.

In my mind, I took this before the Lord. I knew Jake and I hadn't been praying very consistently for God's provision, but then within 24 hours of writing that post I received two babysitting job offers through a website where I advertise my service. I have only ever gotten one job offer from there in the past. When I told the hubs about this, he told me that he had been contacted about two photography jobs, a book illustrating job, and a graphic design job—not to mention the very generous and unexpected Christmas bonus he received from his employers.

At that time Jake had yet to read the blog post. So he read it. Then he told me to stop praying because too much extra work was coming in. :-)

How awesome is our God?! I could have whined and complained about the lack of extra income. I could have doubted that God is for us in our debt-slaying adventure, but instead I tried my best to have faith and hold on to things I know to be truth, and He completely exceeded what I would have asked for.

I don't know if this is always how God chooses to work for us, but I will choose to continue to trust in Him, no matter what happens. I will choose to have faith that He has good plans for me. I will choose to believe the truth that He is for us and not against us! Once again it's all about choices!

Keep pinchin' :-)