How Pruning Can Benefit Us

At the end of winter I decided to cut back my raspberry bushes. I'm not entirely sure if that was the right thing to do, but it seemed logical to me. The raspberry bushes were on our property when we bought our home almost two years ago, and I'm not sure how long they had been there prior to that or how long it had been since someone took care of them. I wasn't sure what was old and what was new, so I decided to just cut it all back in hopes that in the future I would reap a greater harvest.

As I was raking out all the branches I had pruned and the dead leaves, I was reminded of how this is kind of what Jake and I have done with our finances. In some ways I feel like we have hacked back and hacked back as far as we can go in hopes of building a better financial future. We went into this process with some hesitation, facing a lot of unknowns, and we still don't really know what will happen next, but we are trusting the process to produce financial fruit for us. We knew that we couldn't keep spending the way we had in the past if we expected things to be different in our future, but knowing that didn't necessarily make it any easier to cut out restaurants, Netflix, or our vacation budget.

Another thought that occurred to me was how God prunes my spiritual life. Often times in order for God to really work in my life He has cut back or completely remove things that I thought I needed. While this process is painful, if I stick with it and trust in Him, I usually find that He is faithful to do a mighty work in my heart and life. Sometimes He even replaces the things I thought I needed with much more precious things.

It amazes me how often I am willing to hang onto the old, broken, damaged parts of my life for fear that I won't like what will happen if I allow them to be pruned back, but as long as I am unwilling to allow that process to happen I am missing out on the good things my Father in heaven has in store for me.

So, while I wait to see what comes from my raspberry bushes I will allow those newly cut-back plants to remind me of the importance of the pruning I need in order to continue in my financial and spiritual life.

Keep pinchin' :-)

It's OK to Reward Your Hard Work

Back in the fall, Dani and I decided to axe our restaurant budget. We enjoy the pleasure of eating out just as much as the next person, but in our effort to pay down our debt we decided that we could live without going to restaurants for a little while. In doing so, we've saved about $60 a month, or more. That's about $720 a year, which is about one whole mortgage payment for us.

We did our taxes this month—a task I gladly let my more math efficient wife handle—and, though most of our return is going toward the mortgage, we decided to take some of it and treat ourselves to a new restaurant in town. When we got the bill we remembered why we don't go out to restaurants very often, but the momentary splurge was worth it. The restaurant was great. The food was delicious. And we had a good time.

It was a good reminder to us both not to be too stringent when it comes to this whole penny pinching lifestyle. There are times when you've got to open the wallet and just enjoy yourself. There's nothing undisciplined about that. In fact, it's good practice.

In week two of Financial Peace University, Dave Ramsey's daughter, Rachel Cruze, gives a great example of how NOT to be too strict when it comes to your financial rules. Rachel describes a woman who came up to her after a seminar and told her how well her son had been doing saving money. Apparently this 10-year-old boy had saved up $300 of his own money to buy a game system. Unfortunately when they went to the store to purchase the game system, the boy had forgotten about tax. The total came to more than he could afford. So what did the parents do? They walked out of the store.

Rachel says the parents took some of what they had learned in Financial Peace University far too literally.

"I thought, 'Your 10 year old saved up $300?! You pay the tax!'" Rachel says on the week two DVD. "So, remember parents, your little kids don't have to be soldiers marching around. ... Too many rules is just legalistic, but too much grace is enabling."

Just like there's no excuse to go overboard with your spending, there's no reason to go overboard when it comes to saving. Don't get me wrong, if you're neck-deep in debt you've got to fight for your life to get out of it, but do take time to smell the roses... or try out a good restaurant.

Keep pinchin' :-)

A Valentine's Day Suprise

Two years ago the hubby and I were engaged when we celebrated our first Valentine's Day together. Not only was it a special day because we were engaged, it was also the very first Valentine's Day that I had ever celebrated in a relationship with a guy. So Jake knew it had to be good.

He told me he was going to plan everything, and talked it up for weeks. He would drop lines like, "I know the chef at the exclusive restaurant we are going to, and he's really great." All along I kept telling friends that I wished we could just make dinner and stay in because we were getting ready to have a wedding and were considering buying a house, but I was prepared to accept whatever special thing he did for me.

When the night arrived, I got all dressed up and drove over to his grandparents house where he was living at the time. I walked in, talked to his Grandma who was making Chicken Parmesan, and then Jake came downstairs and we set off. We hopped in the car and then prepared to drive to this "exclusive restaurant," so exclusive, he said, that you needed to know the owners to get in. I was a little bummed that we would be spending all this money on a dinner for one night, but I wasn't about to say anything because I didn't want to spoil it for us.

About halfway down the driveway, Jake stopped the car right next to his grandparent's front porch. He pretended like he had forgotten something and jumped out to go back inside. Instead he walked around to my side of the car and opened the door. "I didn't know they had valet service here," he said in a surprised tone.

He took me inside and upstairs to the apartment area where he was living, a space he had transformed into a dining area for two. "See," he said, "I told you: a restaurant so exclusive you need to know the owners to get in."

The room was filled with candles, a table for two, a dozen roses, and romantic music. His grandmother wasn't the one making Chicken Parmesan. It was him. He had cooked for all four of us, and though his grandparents enjoyed their Valentine's Day meal downstairs, Jake and I enjoyed our "exclusive restaurant" treatment upstairs.

After dinner we enjoyed attempting to learn how to dance for our wedding to an instructional DVD that Jake had bought, and then we spent lots of time cuddling. It was the perfect first Valentine's Day. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Happy Valentine's Day from the Penny Pinchers!

Keep pinchin' :-)

How We Went From Eating Out A Lot to Not

When Dani and I first got married, I remember telling her that I wanted a weekly food allowance. I was so used to eating out—and really enjoyed eating out—that I couldn't imagine a week going by without having some Subway or Pizza Hut at some point during the week.

Naturally, she didn't like this.

After we took Financial Peace University I realized there was going to be some areas that we'd have to cut back on, and eating out was one of them. Sigh. I wasn't happy about it, but I figured I'd at least see how it goes. At first we budgeted about $50 a month for restaurants. Depending on whether we got a $12 pizza or a $25 dinner at 99's, we could eat out about two or three times a month. Then one of our bills went up and we had to scrape together an extra $10 a month, so the restaurant budget went down to $40. It continued to drop as the months ticked by.

After about a year of this, I had become more accustomed to not eating out. I still had my personal money which I could splurge on pizza if I wanted to, and my boss would occasionally buy lunch for the office, so I was still getting my "restaurant fix," though I had weened myself from it significantly.

Then came the day where Dani and I were looking at our monthly allocated spending plan and we realized just how much money we could put toward our mortgage if we cut out restaurants entirely. And so our budget for eating out went back onto the chopping block, except this time it didn't come back. R.I.P restaurant budget. We'll resurrect you some day :-(

Dani and I have become determined to get out of debt as soon as possible. We've found the "Gazelle intensity" that Dave Ramsey so often talks about, and we're putting it to good use.

I tell this story because I think it's valuable for people to understand that we didn't become the "penny pinching rappers" overnight. It took months and months of discipline and compromise. The things we're doing today to cut back on our spending were unthinkable a year ago!

If you're considering doing this penny pinching thing too, ease into it. If you bite off more than you can chew you run the risk of getting frustrated and discouraged before you even get off the ground. Yes, sometimes you need to make drastic life changes to get out of debt. Yes, you need to be willing to discipline yourself and compromise on many of life's luxuries. But take your time. Slow and steady wins the race.

Keep pinchin' :-)