How I will stop spending money

This week's lesson at FPU was all about how our personalities dictate how we handle finances. For instance, you're either a nerd- someone who wants to budget, or a free spirit- someone who has a laissez faire view of how money comes and goes. Both Brandon and I discovered we are "nerds" (big surprise there!). However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that while I like the idea of being a nerd, I'm not very good at following through. I have created so many budgets through our five years of marriage but have not managed to stick to any of them! So I am going to write down, here in the Internet for all eternity, three ways I will stop spending money starting now.

1. Stop buying protein shakes at the gym. I buy protein powder already, so I will start making shakes at home more often.
2. Stop going to Target in the middle of the week just to "pick something up". "Something" inevitably turns into many "somethings" and I end up spending so much more than I anticipate.
3. Stop buying clothes for Emma...for now. Obviously she is a growing child, but she has enough to last through the winter, so there is no reason she needs anything else.

I feel really good about this list. I don't think it's unreasonable, or that my life will feel incomplete. I just needed to jot it down so I can refer back to this to hold myself accountable.

We started school again!

No, Brandon nor I are attending another school-school, we started Financial Peace University last night at Willow! I wanted to make sure and blog about it because I know that these nine weeks will fly by, and I want to remember how pumped I am about saving money! One thing that really stood out to me in the first session last night was that money isn't evil, the Bible says that the "LOVE of money is the root of all kinds of evil" (1 Timothy 6:10).  So often people tend to look at Christians with money and think that they must have done something "unholy" to get that money, but in fact God wants us to be good stewards of all the gifts He has given to us! Proverbs 21:20 says "In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has". When we make money, and spend it wisely, we will naturally begin to build wealth. Now, we spend money on frivolous things thinking we "need" it when in fact we could be saving for something much more exciting! Brandon and I don't have any credit card debt, something I am so thankful for. but we do have a large car loan for my car and student loans that we are currently paying, and will need to start paying within the year.

Another solid thought is that saving money has to be a priority. We need to first give to God what is His and tithe, and secondly we need to save. All other purchases and payments then fall in after. If you don't tithe and save, that money will be spent on something/anything else. I may think we need $500 a month for groceries because that's what we've always spent, but if I only had $400 a month we wouldn't starve, and in fact we'd still be better off than some if not most people in this country. And if we could put $100 extra towards Brandon's student loan we will save ourselves over 4 years of payments and, get this...$5,413 in interest! This is very exciting to me and I cannot wait to document this journey.