Thursday, March 30, 2006

Adventures in Budgeting

Budget. There is a lot of transference on that word. Some of you may hate the word and want to destroy it, and others may find comfort and security in the word. Then there is the attachment we give to the word as a married couple. Budget can mean loss of freedom, control, and fun as we know it; or it may be a welcomed change from the financial stress surrounding your marriage. Whatever the meaning, we got to do it!


Today, I completed an elaborate budget spreadsheet—sorry Ramsey the Great, I hate your FPU sheets—and made a decent budget. I sent the budget to Monica so she could correct my attempts to disallow us any money for anything fun, and we came to a workable solution. It wasn't so bad! Sticking to it will be another matter, but I am pleased with the beast we created.


We need to update you on our get out of debt progress for the sake of our egos. We have not wavered from our $XXX/month pledge to our credit card. In fact, we are really excited for the day when we can save that chunk of money for something we might actually need.


The hardest part of this whole thing for Ben and Monica, though, is keeping money from being our security and our god. I think God does a pretty big battle with money and our hearts. Satan is like the ultimate loan shark because he can give you all the money you want with no strings attached, because he knows you will attach your own strings to money and Satan merely picks up the strings and ties you up. Fortunately, God can forgive our spiritual debts and remind us where our true treasure lies, which I am pretty sure is not in a bank vault.

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