It seems like when life is tough, it's REALLY tough. Lately, we've been bombarded with all kinds of financial situations and bills. This is blog is about blessings, not complaints, so I won't go into detail.
Keeping that in mind, we recently found out that I was supposed to be paying on my student loan for the past several months. Needless to say, we were behind in payments and now owed $400-$500. Ouch! This has been weighing on me and I've been desperately trying to come up with a solution. I kept looking into how I could either lower our payments or defer the payments until later on.
I just received word that our back payments have been erased and our loan is deferred for now! This is a great and wonderful blessing.
We are grateful.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
A New Piano Student
I've been looking for more piano students for awhile now, but with no success. I've been posting on Craigslist, in hopes of someone calling me. Well, the last post I made was back in November, almost 2 months ago. I had forgotten about updating my post and even felt that it wasn't worth my time.
Yesterday, Jacob and I were talking about our finances and how our almost $400 car expense has put us in a bind with our budget. We both agreed that we can cut back and make this work. We have faith in the Lord and know that as a long as we are doing our very best, he will bless us. I definitely felt peace about it and knew that everything would work out.
It seemed like almost immediately after our little financial discussion, I got a text. It was someone inquiring about their daughter taking piano. They had just read my November posting on Craigslist. Amazing! And they start almost immediately.
This is just another blessing in our lives. We've been praying that the Lord would help us make it through. We paid our tithing in full, knowing that we didn't have any money left in our budget. It was a leap of faith and probably the biggest leap I've taken. This is a tithing blessing to say the least.
We are grateful.
Yesterday, Jacob and I were talking about our finances and how our almost $400 car expense has put us in a bind with our budget. We both agreed that we can cut back and make this work. We have faith in the Lord and know that as a long as we are doing our very best, he will bless us. I definitely felt peace about it and knew that everything would work out.
It seemed like almost immediately after our little financial discussion, I got a text. It was someone inquiring about their daughter taking piano. They had just read my November posting on Craigslist. Amazing! And they start almost immediately.
This is just another blessing in our lives. We've been praying that the Lord would help us make it through. We paid our tithing in full, knowing that we didn't have any money left in our budget. It was a leap of faith and probably the biggest leap I've taken. This is a tithing blessing to say the least.
We are grateful.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Our Car Experience
On Friday morning, we woke up to a rather normal morning. Jacob had work at 9 and we were all getting ready to rush out the door. I had woken up a little earlier than usual to get the budget done and squared away since Jacob had just gotten paid.The first of the month was on Sunday, a holiday and a non-business day, this meant we received his paycheck on Friday. After paying our mortgage and setting aside money for tithing to be paid on Sunday, I was done. I felt confident in this new budget and was even able to save a mere $66 dollars to be spent however we saw fit.
It was 8:45am now and we had the kids loaded in the car. I was taking Jacob to work so I could have the car to do some grocery shopping. Ok...ready, set, go we thought. But wait, the car won't start. Uh-oh. My heart sank. Jacob quickly acted and pushed the car out of the garage. It must be the battery, we thought. A neighbor and friend from our ward just happened to be driving down the street. He was more than willing to help and offered to jump our car, assuming it was the battery. Nope that didn't work. Uh-oh again. We only own one car and Jacob had to get to work. He quickly asked our neighbor friend where he was headed. "Home Depot," he said. That's right on the way to Chase Bank, where Jacob works. Perfect. He had an instant ride.
Now it was my turn. I didn't know what to do except call my dad. He might know what's wrong, I thought. After explaining the situation, he immediately told them that it was most likely the alternator. Okay now what to do I do, I thought. My dad reminded me of the free towing service we have through our car insurance. I quickly get off the phone and look up State Farm's number. They were able to reassure me that yes, it would be free of charge as long as the repair shop was nearby. Sure enough, our favorite shop, for now, was only a few miles away. Perfect. Things are working out.
The repair shop called, after taking a look at the car. They reaffirmed our initial thoughts. It was the alternator but it would cost us $575. Wow. My first thought was to cry but I held on. I talked with the owner and he was willing to let me make payments, after paying $300 upfront. Phew! I could now breathe...a little. I sent a quick text off the hubby at work.
To make a long story a little shorter, Jacob's dad got involved. We realized that if we bought our own alternator from Auto Zone, it'd save us a lot more money. He then called our repair shop and got them to price match Auto Zone's price. Now we were to pay $379 upfront. Amazing. This was much easier to swallow.
Now where would we find $379? We had a mere $66 dollars to spare...that's it. I looked in our other checking account, where we transfer our tithing money into in order to keep it separate from our day to day spending and bills. If we used our tithing money, we'd be able to pay for it because we had more than enough in there. No, I thought, there must be another way.
We talked it over and decided that we were going to pay for our car expense using our regular checking account and then on Sunday, we would pay our full, complete and honest tithe. I looked at the accounts again. We had just enough money to cover the bills. But there would be none leftover for groceries, gas, and all the miscellaneous non-bill expenses.
To end this part of the story, our car is now fixed and we paid a full tithe today. This was a real test of faith. I know the blessings of tithing are promised to those who are faithful and obey this commandment. We will have to rely on what we have, think smart for the next two weeks but we will be blessed. I know the Lord will not forget those who have faith and put their trust in him. Even if we are not blessed temporally, we will be blessed spiritually, which is far more valuable and important than any amount of money.
Here's a re-cap on our blessings in this experience:
1. Jacob got paid the very day our car broke down.
2. Our neighbor just happened to be there to help and was on his way by Jacob's work.
3. Our car insurance paid for our towing.
4. It was only the alternator...it could have been worse.
5. Jacob's dad helped lower our cost by almost $200 and the auto repair shop were kind enough to make the change for us.
6. We were able to pay for our car using our checking account and not on credit.
7. It provided a reason for us to heavily rely on the Lord.
We are grateful.
It was 8:45am now and we had the kids loaded in the car. I was taking Jacob to work so I could have the car to do some grocery shopping. Ok...ready, set, go we thought. But wait, the car won't start. Uh-oh. My heart sank. Jacob quickly acted and pushed the car out of the garage. It must be the battery, we thought. A neighbor and friend from our ward just happened to be driving down the street. He was more than willing to help and offered to jump our car, assuming it was the battery. Nope that didn't work. Uh-oh again. We only own one car and Jacob had to get to work. He quickly asked our neighbor friend where he was headed. "Home Depot," he said. That's right on the way to Chase Bank, where Jacob works. Perfect. He had an instant ride.
Now it was my turn. I didn't know what to do except call my dad. He might know what's wrong, I thought. After explaining the situation, he immediately told them that it was most likely the alternator. Okay now what to do I do, I thought. My dad reminded me of the free towing service we have through our car insurance. I quickly get off the phone and look up State Farm's number. They were able to reassure me that yes, it would be free of charge as long as the repair shop was nearby. Sure enough, our favorite shop, for now, was only a few miles away. Perfect. Things are working out.
The repair shop called, after taking a look at the car. They reaffirmed our initial thoughts. It was the alternator but it would cost us $575. Wow. My first thought was to cry but I held on. I talked with the owner and he was willing to let me make payments, after paying $300 upfront. Phew! I could now breathe...a little. I sent a quick text off the hubby at work.
To make a long story a little shorter, Jacob's dad got involved. We realized that if we bought our own alternator from Auto Zone, it'd save us a lot more money. He then called our repair shop and got them to price match Auto Zone's price. Now we were to pay $379 upfront. Amazing. This was much easier to swallow.
Now where would we find $379? We had a mere $66 dollars to spare...that's it. I looked in our other checking account, where we transfer our tithing money into in order to keep it separate from our day to day spending and bills. If we used our tithing money, we'd be able to pay for it because we had more than enough in there. No, I thought, there must be another way.
We talked it over and decided that we were going to pay for our car expense using our regular checking account and then on Sunday, we would pay our full, complete and honest tithe. I looked at the accounts again. We had just enough money to cover the bills. But there would be none leftover for groceries, gas, and all the miscellaneous non-bill expenses.
To end this part of the story, our car is now fixed and we paid a full tithe today. This was a real test of faith. I know the blessings of tithing are promised to those who are faithful and obey this commandment. We will have to rely on what we have, think smart for the next two weeks but we will be blessed. I know the Lord will not forget those who have faith and put their trust in him. Even if we are not blessed temporally, we will be blessed spiritually, which is far more valuable and important than any amount of money.
Here's a re-cap on our blessings in this experience:
1. Jacob got paid the very day our car broke down.
2. Our neighbor just happened to be there to help and was on his way by Jacob's work.
3. Our car insurance paid for our towing.
4. It was only the alternator...it could have been worse.
5. Jacob's dad helped lower our cost by almost $200 and the auto repair shop were kind enough to make the change for us.
6. We were able to pay for our car using our checking account and not on credit.
7. It provided a reason for us to heavily rely on the Lord.
We are grateful.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)