Serving Bread

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So this is the time of year that people are inspired to make resolutions as well as break them. What are your new year’s resolutions when it comes to your finances?

I find it helpful to spend half a day, once a year to

• Review our financial situation
• Thank God for the ways he continues (sometimes surprisingly) to provide for our needs
• Confess the ways that we have been unfaithful or poor stewards of our resources
• Make corrections to our budget
• Develop our generosity plan

Our family’s “fiscal year” actually ends in August. So in August, my wife and I review how we are spending our money, figure out how to make appropriate cuts, and believe God in faith for our provisions. We adjust our spending, our tithing and develop a financial plan for the year. But this time of year provides a helpful “mid-year” check-in. Having done that recently, there are a few things I noticed that I plan to correct:

1. I record too many things as “Miscellaneous” in my budgeting software. I commit to be a lot more diligent to record everything I spend. The better data I have, the better decisions I can make about our finances.
2. In the next month, we anticipate to have a little bit more disposable income due to paying off a couple of debts. We are going to make sure to save that money. We will pretend that those debts are still in play and so every month, we will put that amount of money away in a savings account.
3. Next month, we expect our second child. This means that we have to anticipate that some of our costs will increase (usually in diapers in the first few months and perhaps in formula, depending how the feeding plan goes). We hope that our 2 1/2 year old daughter would be completely potty trained, which would then keep the diaper cost the same, but we will inevitably be absorbing new expenses with a new child.
4. My taxes will continue to be more complicated and I continue to remain committed to do them myself (I will explain this reasoning in another post). Because of that, I will go through all of my records and prepare them for filing my taxes next month (for the past three years, I have been doing them over the Presidents’ Day Weekend in February).

Spend some time in the next month to get acquainted or re-acquainted with your financial situation. Spend the time in prayer, seeking God’s wisdom and stretch yourself in faith to live as one who trusts God —not money—for your provisions.