My health has been getting worse for years. Not only have we lost my income, but the medical bills are through the ceiling. We spent everything that we had saved for our retirement, and were flat broke. To my husband's credit, he has never held it against me. He has stood by me through thick and thin.
I asked the Lord if He would support us if I put everything "extra" into savings. That would be rebates, pennies found on the street, aluminum cans, gifts, whatever. It turns out that there are a hundred ways to save a few cents or a few dollars.
For whatever reason, and I'll bet you know what I think, the money just started adding up. I exhibited homemade things in the fair, used coupons, cooked from my husband's garden, and did whatever I could to scrape up a dollar.
By the end of the year, we had accumulated $2,000. Since our normal annual income is around $9,000, that was a significant amount.
Of course, at the end of the year I fell and shattered my ankle, and that used up most of the savings. But I'm doing it again, and we're up to $1300 already this year.
To me, this just shows how easy it is to waste money. In the past, we had not had money left over. That year didn't have any miracle windfalls in it. We just didn't spend it when it came in.
I'm working on my fair projects today!
Coreen from Rupert, ID
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Good for you, Coreen, for your positive can-do attitude and your persistence! May God continue to bless you.
keep it up coreen. god bless ya
Coreen,
You have such a optimistic spirit and faith! As I read your story the saying "With God all things are possible' came to my mind. That your husband did
We're in an extremely similar situation, so I know how much effort you're putting in toward finding extra money. Sometimes it seems hopeless, but I try to never give up, and we always seem to get through. Please post more of your money-saving ideas. Sometimes, I hear of something that I'm not doing and cannot believe that I missed it after all my years of frugality! I always welcome any new ideas that I can fit into our lives. God bless...
Hello, this work of yours is a real encouragement and a directive to remember what is most important. Priority straightening is an art and you've got it down perfect! May you be under double blessings in your life!
That's the same way I started our savings account. Next, I added our change, which wasn't much since we were on so tight a budget. It really does add up, as long as you don't get discouraged and quit. With every emergency, it felt so good to have the money to pull us through, but difficult to start over again. But what other choice did we have?
So, we just kept doing what we were doing. Over time, it has made such a huge difference. We finally have a decent savings built and have learned tenacity, patience, and faith - along with hundreds of ways to save here and there.
We do things most won't even consider, then they want to know how we have no bills. When we tell them, they verbalize that, "they wouldn't consider doing that." This is the precise reason we have money in the bank and they have bill collectors calling. We have learned what it takes to get by; it isn't easy, but the best lessons in life aren't simple.
My husband eats a lot of lunch meat. At 8.99/# it gets pretty expensive, so when a whole boneless ham goes on sale for 1.99 or less/# I buy one and ask the man at the deli counter to slice it thinly. I freeze it and end up with about 9# of lunch meat at 1.99/#. I also use the 2 ends of the ham for ham and bean soup.
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