As a child I was blessed to attend a church that was generous... extraordinarily generous! And the deacons held to the philosophy that you take care of your pastors. They believed that money should not be something that a pastor needed to worry about. My pastors could have made substantially more money doing something else, but they were all able to afford a working vehicle, buy a house, send their kids to good schools, and help them through college. They didn't necessarily have the nicest or the newest, but all of their needs and many of their wants were met. I wasn't a pastor's kid, but this was the philosophy that I had seen as a child. When I moved out on a my own and began attending a different church (eventually joining my husband on staff), it had the same philosophy.
Blessed is the only word to describe it.
Let me just say now, I am not in ministry because of the money. But please understand that it is a necessary evil. We have to have money to survive. I am too practical and my prayer life is not that of George Muellers.
Well, my husband and I moved to Small Town, South, and I was shocked by the 60% paycut. I wasn't working at that point, so it certainly increased the shock level. Our heartbeats slowed down a little when we realized cost of living was a lot less than in Big City. And we knew that all of our absolute essentials were provided for.
We don't carry debt on any of our credit cards. We don't spend more than we make... Ever. The only debt we have is a car payment, but that is totally manageable. We made a budget and it is tight. We have to carefully plan out every meal, activity, birthday. Pennies saved are small victories and pennies lost are a tragedy. But it works. All of our bills are completely paid for each month and a few "luxury" items are paid for (like our smartphones, a huge daily blessing!)
But the question, we keep asking is "how do you save on a tight budget?" We don't spend more than we make, but depending on the bills that month, we tend to spend all that we make. Saving has become a luxury.
Here are a few things that we have found help us...
1. Budget for savings. This isn't a terribly original thought. But.. It is a lot easier to make sure that money makes it to the savings account, if you were planning on it in the first place. For my husband & I, the reality is this is at the bottom of our budget list and it really is a tiny amount. We occasionally have to skip saving to pay the electric bill, or buy a baby shower gift but because we budget for it, more often than not, we are able to save.- We have to have cell phones. It's just the reality and the "want" is to have a smart phone. But I can't afford $150 for my husband to have a data phone plus additional cost to add me on the line. So what we have done is have a joint-plan with several friends to save costs. We obviously trust these friends greatly - to not dump us with the bill at the end of the month. Because we have done this, our plan costs less than a basic, non-data plan for one person. We don't have the latest model smartphone, but ours are still new and current.
- To have cable or not have cable? With so many live-streaming options, skipping cable can be a great option. Actually this was a tough choice for us. We didn't have cable for several years and just had Netflix. For years that was great, but eventually you run out of options. For us, we just ran out of things we were interested or found appropriate for us. This is one of our few monthly splurges. We have the cable option one jump up from the standard channels. It took us a long time to get around to getting cable. (Not going to lie, I was pretty excited!)
- I'm so sick of cooking at home. I come to this conclusion about once a week. The sad fact is that it's not in the budget to eat out that often. It would cost a lovely, small fortune. So we eat out once - maybe twice - a month. The key to saving money when it comes to eating out is to set a spending limit. We almost never go to a restaurant that costs more than a total of $20 (after tip and taxes), unless it is a special occasion like Valentine's Day or an anniversary. That really limits our options, but we don't get to go out that often, so options aren't a problem.
- Spa-like hair cuts and manicures. It is a wonderful feeling to just sit back and let someone else do your hair and or paint your nails, and someone else can always do it better than me. But it is such a money pit! I have tried getting my hair cut as infrequently as possible, and I still felt like I was spending way too much money. One of my favorite money savers has been getting my hair done at a hair school. I have a really basic hair style and don't dye it, so it's really hard to mess up. And if they do, it will get fixed by a more experienced stylist for free. The only problem I have had so far is that the students are slower than professionals. A forty-minute appointment took over an hour and a half, but the $10 price tag made it worth it. If that isn't an option for you, look for a budget salon that you are comfortable with and get your hair done as infrequently as you can possibly handle. Men - sorry, just go get that haircut!
- Skip the movies and wait for it to come out on DVD. Use coupons to get Buy-One-Get-One-Free items (dessert at a restaurant or a free entree with the purchase of one entree). It will save you money, which you can then pass on to your savings account.
2. Always save something. To have a free savings account with our bank, it automatically withdraws a minimum amount from checking and puts it into savings. So while we may not save our full budgeted amount every month, at least we were able to save something.
3. Cut out as many luxuries as possible. The money you save should go straight to savings.
4. Save the leftovers. If you have food leftovers at a restaurant, you might want to take it home (think "free meal"). Why not save the leftovers with your money too? If you have a couple dollars left in a budget category, put that money into your savings account. It all adds up!
5. Annual Expenses. A sneaky way that my husband and I manage to save money is through a monthly budget item that we call "Annual Expenses." They are the unplanned or one-time expenses (non-emergency) that we know about, like oil changes, dry cleaning, hair cuts, eye wear, Christmas presents. Previously we just took a hit or pulled from savings. It always hurt. So what we did is calculate approximately how much each of those items would cost over an annual period or if it should come up, then split it up into a monthly amount. Some things require putting aside $2 per month, others like car maintenance and eye wear $25. Then we added up all of the categories and moved that amount into a second checking account. Whenever we spend something in one of those categories, we just take the money from that checking account. It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hinder our savings, it's always there. It's a win-win!
6. Get a Cash Rewards credit card. I'm serious! This has become our 2nd savings account. I know that a lot of people in ministry don't like to use credit cards for various reasons. And I respect that, but if you use a credit card and pay it off every month, you can actually get a credit card company to pay you. Most companies don't give you much more than $0.02 on the dollar, but let me tell you - that adds up! And my credit card company gives you an additional percentage if you get a pay out sent to a checking account with their partner bank, and a larger percentage if you wait, and pay out after you have saved several hundred dollars in cash rewards. We use our credit cards as often as possible and always, always pay them off at the end of the month. (Personal story - we have made several hundred dollars and are still saving for a really, really nice vacation.) If you are concerned about what happens if the bank discontinues the program... my bank guarantees a pay-out even if the program is discontinued or the bank closes.
It is really hard to live paycheck to paycheck, be on a strict budget, and save money. We calculated the other day that is going to take us six and a half years from today to save the recommended six months salary and we already have money in the bank. (I almost had a heart attack!) But we will get there... eventually. :)
You can too! It takes discipline, but you can set yourself up for success. I hope that these tips are helpful.
How do you save money?
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