For the first time in my life I am living on a finite budget. I've made budgets in the past but never had success with sticking to them. So now after my first summer living on a finite amount of money, I am faced with a huge reality check. I need to actually stick to a budget. And when I say budget, I mean a realistic budget. A budget that doesn't have a category for Kate or Tory (fashionistas, you know who I'm talking about). Last summer when I quit my job to go back to school JG and I made ourselves a budget. It lasted one month. It also had a $200 category for the liquor store. I can't even begin to start on the flaws of that "budget".
Are you beginning to see my dilemma? That comfortable life that inspired the name of my blog is presenting yet another problem. Or rather I'm starting to feel uncomfortable in another area of my life. And I love it!
Thankfully I have a good friend who practices some of what Dave Ramsey teaches. She provided me with tons of helpful information on how to live on a budget. The last week of july I spent hours getting my finances ready for what I knew would be a trying month. Just how trying I did not realize...
On July 29 I was informed in a school meeting I had to buy a $400+ computer program within the week. My budget was busted before the month ever started. Feeling defeated I returned home with the plan to put the purchase on my credit card and hopefully pay it off by the new year. God had another plan. I had prayed a lot about getting my finances to a place where I felt comfortable and could still manage to save a little. I came home that day to an $800+ check from an overage on my escrow account. Yes, yes in deed I did! "Never have I ever" had an unexpected $800 delivered to my front door. I was able to buy the computer program plus had some to save. Ask and you shall receive!
That was not my last trial of August. Once all my loans came through I was still over $300 short on paying my tuition. Which is disheartening not only because of the lack of tuition funds but also because I was expecting to have a nice refund to keep from having to dip into my savings for a month or so. I kept this to myself for a few days and then confessed my lack of funds to my dad this past Sunday night. My parents will always help how they can but I desire to be independent. They do so much for me already. In the first true fit of anxiety I've felt since starting nursing school I went to visit with the UMC financial aid office today. And what do you know but there is a rather large loan payment that has not been credited to my account yet. A loan payment that will be completely forgiven after I work for two years in Mississippi. A loan I had no idea I had been offered. A loan that said trust Him and He will provide.
Living by faith and not much else is a very new way of life for me. I know I still have half the month of Auguat left but I am encouraged. I feel uncomfortable yet totally protected from harm.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
This has never happened to me.
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