I well remember a time when it made me short of breath and little faint to spend $50 on an item (my college-dorm refrigerator, actually). Spending large amounts of money - or any amount of money, rather, was something that was not exactly in my DNA. I loved to go shopping - and still do - but for DEALS! This tendency toward frugality has turned out to be a great blessing. Though my Dad still says that I'm "so tight I squeak when I walk", being thrifty has enabled my husband and I to make ends meet the past few years and even save - while having 3 children in 4 years and making 2 career changes AND with no income for a whole year.

Here's our story: We were married 10 years ago this coming July. Unfortunately, before we got married we really didn't have any kind of counseling and we certainly didn't talk about how much should or should not be spent. As things tend to go, we started out kind of opposites in the whole money realm - me, freaking out when we paid full price to see a movie (and don't even THINK about buying popcorn) and him, being OK to charge purchases to a credit card. We were around $20,000 in debt starting out from various school loans, credit cards and family loans. He was still finishing up in school and was working minimum wage type jobs. I had a fairly decent job with an IT company in town. We did not have a budget. When we tried to implement a budget, we started out way too complicated. We agreed on the budget in theory, but not in practice. [Insert here a whole lot of yuckiness]

Fast forward to 3, maybe 4 years later. We began to start thinking about having kids. Knowing that we both wanted for me to stay home with the kids, we started looking at our finances to see how that would be possible. Though we had been putting a pretty good size chunk of my income toward paying off debt each month, we were still a long way from living just on his income and a long way from paying off our debt. By this time, the Lord had blessed and I was making substantially more than when I had begun in the industry. We still had school loans, (thankfully the credit card and the family loans were paid in full) and a new car payment. With the car payment we had increased our debt again to around $25K. One major thing going for us is that we both listened to Larry Burkett's Money Matters on the radio. Though Larry is with the Lord now, his teaching still continues (though a little watered down IMO) at Crown Financial Ministries. His insights and teachings were fantastic and really got us thinking better about being good stewards of what God had provided. Contrary to the popular culture, Larry also really stressed that being able to make it one income was possible. I started reading his book Complete Financial Guide for Young Couples: A Lifetime Approach to Spending, Saving and Investing. It was excellent material - simple and easy to begin implementing.

When Don and I established a simple spending plan and began sticking to it, it was one of the best things that happened for our marriage. When I think back now to our initial workable spending plan I see how much we still could have curbed our spending, BUT it was a step in the right direction and gave us a taste of how money did not have to be such a negative topic in our house.

Roughly two years after we started budgeting, our first son was born. By that time, we had paid off all our debt, had began purchasing a cute home (for $335 a month!) which we renovated debt-free, had purchased several nice pieces of furniture and God even blessed us with an unexpected reserve! God was truly faithful to provide for us and bless us abundantly.

When our son was about 4 months old, it seemed that the world fell out from under me. It was a VERY, VERY hard time, but also a life-changing-good time. My husband, who I thought was already a Christian, started confessing and forsaking his sin and trusting in Christ alone to save him. The whole "confessing and forsaking" was the hardest thing we have ever been through, but God is faithful and is still completing the great work He began in both of us. More than I could have ever imagined possible before, my husband is such a huge blessing to me and our family. What does this have to do with our financial story, you might ask? EVERYTHING! When Don started realizing Jesus was Lord of his life, it affected every area. We really started trying to live our life together based on the question "What does the Bible say about this?" knowing that God's will for our lives is revealed right there in Scripture.
Do you know that Jesus talks about money a LOT? There is much to say all throughout Scripture on dealing with your finances and being good stewards of the Lord's blessings. So out of a desire to live in a way that was pleasing to God, we started pursuing more diligence in the areas of finances.

Around this time, it was evident that to be a good provider for his family, Don needed to change careers. After four years as an service technician for Xerox, he was already topped out pay-wise and every time he got a "raise" some other benefit would be removed which would make our net take-home less (good indication a job-change is needed!). We went through the whole process of determining which field Don should go into and then started on the 2 1/2 year journey to get there. Don got a night job making less money so he could go to school during the day.

Three months in, we found out we were expecting baby #2! In December our daughter was born. Compared to our earlier budgets, the new budget at this time looked like it had been served at a hibachi grill - there had been so much cutting! However, we were still making it and even saving $50 a paycheck. Time, however, was the treasure in shortest supply. Don was gone from the house around 17 hours a day! I had a new baby, was suffering from sickness and had a rambunctious 2 year old. While we were striving desperately for Don to be accepted to Nuclear Medicine Technology school, we also had no idea how we were going to make it as a couple and family. NMT school was much more rigorous than the pre-requisite courses he had been taking. Not only would he be in school several more hours a day, he would have to spend time studying at night...and work a full-time job!? We started crunching numbers and praying hard.

Through some retirement savings I had set aside while working, some stock options I had cashed out the month I came home, our $100 a month savings for the past year, and the commitment to a bare-bones budget, we made the faith-filled plunge for Don to quit his job and go to NMT school full-time. By God's grace, we made it through a whole year of school plus was able to send Don to Canada for a graduation present fishing trip (and I got a KitchenAid mixer for a "graduation" present!) Let me say - it was by no means easy. We were not blessed with money falling out of the sky. We had no rich relative sending us money hand-over-fist. God blessed us with greater gifts. Diligence. Contentment. Imagination.

So, I'm starting this blog to explain how we did it and to chronicle God's faithfulness not just to overhaul our checkbook, but to overhaul our hearts. To give some tips and real-life advice on beginning a budget, setting goals and living frugally. And, also, in the midst of this time and budget craziness, our sweet daughter was diagnosed with multiple food allergies. So on my feed-the-family-for-around-$7-a-day food budget, I had to learn to cook allergen-free (basically throw out the cookbook and start all over). It was a challenge, a process and eventually a blessing to our family. I'll be including multiple tips, recipes and advice for living with food allergies (milk, egg, peanut, tree nut, fish and shellfish) on my blog food allergy frugal.

I struggled for a while with wondering if I should invest time to this since there are so many good "frugal living" blogs out there. But, I think I will greatly enjoy doing this and even if no one else reads it, I will have the information handy to pass on my children one day. And if the Lord be pleased to use our story in anyone else's life to encourage them in their walk or challenge them to godliness, may it be so to His glory.