As we go through this process of raising support to move overseas, one thing we know people might wonder (but probably wouldn’t feel comfortable asking about) is what our personal finances are like.  I titled this article budget fun because we actually enjoy having a budget.  We’ve always had a budget of sorts since we got married (75 months ago as of yesterday!) and started a really established budget using an Excel spreadsheet about six or eight months into our marriage.  We find a budget to be very freeing and never have to wonder at the end of the month if there will be money in our account or if all the ends will meet.  We always have money in the account in the end and our ends are always met.  We are well aware that those ends are met month after month thanks to God providing month after month, year after year.

So, overall, you should know that we have absolutely no debt of any kind-no mortgage, no student loans, no car payments, no credit card debt (in fact, we VERY rarely ever even use our one credit card), no money owed to others.  Neither one of us had debt prior to marriage, have not accrued any since marrying, and will continue to trust that God will always provide so that we need not have any debt. The only thing we can see ourselves borrowing money for is a mortgage, if God ever puts us in a location where purchasing property would be appropriate and He leads us to do so.

I won’t use any specific numbers as it’s not necessary for you to understand how we handle our money, but we are willing to share a little about how we do spend, save, and give in a month.  We tithe gross.  When we first got married we were tithing net and then we started attending the church we were members of when we lived in Nashville.  The very first service we attended at the church was about church finances and also personal finances. Some people would find that a turn off, God used it to convict us to tithe gross instead of net and we’ve never turned back. At the time Toffer was the only one working with no job in sight for me.  We only survived those months of just Toffer’s income because of God’s grace and provision (some of which was through wedding money and savings from prior to our marriage).  So, needless to say it was a big step of faith for us to start giving more to God and He blessed us for trusting Him and being obedient.  We regularly give extra to our church and support a child through Compassion (who I started supporting back in college when he was just five!) and then various things we feel God leading us to give to.  We have had more regular giving commitments in the past as God has provided funds to do so (especially when we were both working), but at this point we do not feel led to make any extra commitments as we don’t know what our budget will look like when we are living on our new income.

In addition to giving, we save.  We have general savings (including a decent amount for an emergency fund should something happen to Toffer’s job), savings for specific, current things (like Christmas, kids, vacation, transition-we get some from our outgoing expenses when we move, but know we’ll need more than that), and for long-term things (retirement, a house, college for the kids).  Our giving and saving categories account for about about 1/3 of our budget.

Our monthly, regular bills (rent, utilities, car/renter’s insurance, etc) account for about 40% of our budget.  The other 25+% is broken into food, household, automotive, health, and entertainment.  We keep track of our monthly budget as well as pages to keep track of things we’re saving for and one for extra money we receive as gifts all in Excel.

Toffer, Samuel, and I all also have personal accounts.  Obviously Samuel doesn’t spend any of his money at this point, but we wanted to make sure anything he received as a gift was set aside specifically for him and remains untouched until he can make choices about how it’s spent.  We each have small personal accounts that we call “discretionary accounts” for things we want just for us.  Toffer and I also decided use those to purchase birthday and Christmas gifts for each other.  It’s nice to have some money set aside for when we really want something for ourselves that doesn’t come from a budget category.

It may seem like we’re a little crazy, specific about where our money goes and how we keep track of it, but over time it’s become second nature for us to do it this way and we find a lot of freedom in having a set budget every month.  We also have a great record of seeing God work through our personal finances through the years and how He’s provided all our needs in some interesting ways or made our budget stretch much further than humanly seems possible.  God has definitely been Jehovah Jireh for us!