Budgeting & Organizing your Finances
Hey you guys!
I’m so excited to back in your email inbox today after taking the entire Summer off! I’ve got lots to share with you today, so get ready…. I’m answering a question from a reader today, letting you in on a few things I’m working on, and sharing with you one of my favorite things… because I always love to see what other people are loving, and I thought you might like to see something I’m loving too. Welcome back to the email newsletter! We’re back in our good ole’ homeschool routine, so I hope to be writing to you guys on a more regular basis again now.
First thing’s first! In today’s email newsletter, I’m addressing this question from Sharon…
Hi Laney! I would love to know more about how you budget. I would love to know more about home organization and cleaning. 😊
Alright, here we go. First off, there were many years that I did not feel qualified enough to talk about the topic of finances because we were barely making ends meet. It seemed that no matter how hard I “planned” and how closely we followed those plans, it just didn’t ever seem to work out, and it was frustrating!
Looking back over that time, I truly believe that it was just one of the big things that God used in our lives to teach us several valuable lessons that we may not have learned any other way. It was a long-lasting, financial struggle for us, and I remember trying to write blog posts about things I’d learned about managing finances and literally sobbing while I tried to type the words out. Many of those posts never got published because I was having my own pity party, and the vibe of those writings was just not the vibe I was going for. While I always strive to be transparent and real with you guys, I can assure you that those pity parties were not what you needed from me. I think there is a time to be silent, and that’s where I was on those topics in that time.
Our financial struggle led us to make some tough calls. We have made some decisions that don’t make sense to a lot of people, against the grain I guess you could say.
We have this big, crazy goal to be completely debt-free someday.
We don’t finance things if we can help it. Usually, if we don’t have the cash to pay for it now then we don’t need to buy it. Our budget doesn’t really allow for us to finance things anyway because we can’t really afford those extra notes with our monthly budget.
We even decided to sell our house and move in with family, because we were just overwhelmed by the mortgage payments.
Ongoing Financial struggle is hard. Lacking the resources to afford the things you need is pretty difficult. Sure, we should always trust God as our Provider and our Source. He ALWAYS has come through for us, but I’d be lying if I said I never doubted that He would. In fact, there was a season in which we were living with family in their home. (They moved out and into their camper to let us live there - super generous!). The whole idea is that we would be able to save up while we lived there in order to help us get ahead and in a better financial situation. Well, we weren’t able to save any money because our expenses increased astronomically. It felt hopeless. We felt stuck.
I became depressed during that time. I had stopped dreaming, stopped living, and stopped enjoying life at all. It all just felt like a huge burden.
As I realized that I was dealing with depression, I knew that I needed to fight my way out of it. I began to really study God’s word on the topics of Steadfastness and Contentment. I learned how to replace my depressive thought patterns with ones of trust in God and reliance on Him. It wasn’t easy, but I fought for my life in this. My husband helped me to start dreaming again by taking me to look at houses to buy. It didn’t make any sense at all to me why we were doing this, but during that time - he got a raise at work. We met with a lender, and we were about to purchase a home that was exactly what we needed, but at the top of our budget. In wisdom, we decided to walk away from that home because it didn’t really help us to move forward in any way. It was an older home, and some things had the potential to be a disaster down the road… We knew we are not “Mr. Fix-Its”, nor could we afford to pay actual Mr. Fix-Its were something to go wrong, so we decided to walk away from that home purchase.
Literally the SAME day, someone asks Justin about our family’s living situation, goes out to their truck, and brings him back a key for a house he wants us to go look at. Of course, we fall in love with it right away! He tells us we can rent it and pay what we’re comfortable with. It was SUCH an answer to prayer, and it’s one of those things that really only God could do. It doesn’t make sense on paper. We can’t tell people to duplicate what we’ve done and just do what we did. Nope… it’s none of our own doing. It’s ALL GOD! And it’s so much better than we could’ve ever imagined!
So there’s a little back story for you, Sharon, and now to give you an actual answer to your question…
I’ve always budgeted on paper. I was frustrated with store-bought financial planners, so I just made my own that I can print and use as needed. It’s available in my shop, and includes several other helpful pages as well including…
Financial Worksheets
Debt-Free Checklists
Debt Snowball
Debt Avalanche
Financial Savings Goals
Sinking Funds Set-Up Worksheets
Bill Pay Checklists
Expense Trackers
Spending Evaluations
Budget Balance Snapshot Pages
Monthly Sinking Funds Pages
Monthly Debt Pay-Off Pages
Here’s a pretty detailed post that outlines how I organize our family budget on paper. However, several months ago I gave up managing our family’s finances, and now my husband does it! It’s been so freeing for me to be able to let him take this over for us. He has a different outlook than I do, and of course, he organizes things differently than I do as well. He actually uses a spreadsheet document and does the budgeting digitally. It’s actually really great because it’s on a document that we both share and can access on our phones and computers whenever we need to!
If you’re still looking for more help on learning how to budget, this is one of the lessons included in my online course… Finances is one of the lessons included in the “Ten Areas to Win in Life” Section. I have several video teachings included in this particular lesson as well, including one where I walk through the steps of a sample budget with you and problem solve various issues that you might come across when you’re making a budget of your own. I’d love for you to check that out if you’re needing more help with this.
For myself, I’m always working on something, ya know. All Summer, I’ve been working veeeerrrrryyyy sloooooooowly on sanding down our big ole table. I took the legs off of it so I could move it. It’s the REAL BIG table that I had been dreaming about for years that would fit our entire family as well as guests. Remember that one? The one I bought for $125 at a flea market and just added a bench and mismatched chairs around it? Anyway, I’ve always wanted to paint it so now that we’ve had it for over two years, it’s time… Especially now that we have two other big ole tables we can eat off of if need be. I actually want to sand it down and seal it to use for an outside dining space. I’ll get matching outdoor chairs to go around it at some point.
We’ve lived in this house a year and a half, but we have yet to really do anything outside besides toys. Our budget just can’t do it all at once, ya know? But I’m real excited to actually be able to sit out in our backyard and enjoy it more with our kids and guests that come over. It will be really nice when we get it all finished. It may be another couple of years - who knows?? But it will be nice. Haha!I’m also working on photo organization. If you remember back in January, my goal was to clear my phone of all the photos I had stored on it. I ordered them all, and I finally opened those boxes this Summer. Haha. I also found a set of matching photo albums at Dirt Cheap (score!) that I might put them into as well as use the photo boxes that I’ve had for quite some time. So yeah - this has been on my project list for a while now, but I’m just now finally getting to it.
I’m not currently working on any clients’ homes at the moment, but I would LOVE to! haha! I really thought I’d be super super busy working on Home Organization for others this Summer, but instead I just did a lot of my own. If you’re interested in me coming to help you organize your spaces, fill out the form here or just simply reply to this email so we can chat. ;-) I’d LOVE to help you!
Blogging. If you missed it, I posted a blog this week all about our homeschool plans for the year. You can find that post here:
Not Back to School 2021-2022Podcasting. I’ve got a brand new episode set to release on Monday. Be sure you’re subscribed that you don’t miss it.
Video coming soon all about our first week Back to Home School and our Plans for the year!
These Patterned Socks from Amazon
This is one of those things that I probably saw an influencer share at some point, and I added them to my Amazon wish list and probably didn’t think anything else about it. It’s not something I would have really ordered for myself. However, I shared my Amazon wish list when family was asking what to get me for Christmas, and this is one of the things I got.
Yall, I have LOVED these socks. I know that may seem super silly to say, but I’ve got a thing for fun socks, and apparently I’m also super picky and particular about them. I’m always drawn to the super thick, wool ones you see in every store in the Winter time, but they slip, and they make me hot sometimes. These are the perfect thickness, they stay in place, they have lots of colors so I’m gonna say they go with everything, and they are fun.
I just feel like they are the perfect socks for a stay-at-home-mama like me. They make me feel cozy, but also cute and more-put together somehow. I don’t know, guys. I just love them and thought they would be the perfect thing to share with you this week. Who knew I could write a whole little segment about socks??
Website & Blog
Memberships
Shop Page
Home Organization Services
Podcast Page
Facebook Page
Instagram Page
**This email may contain affiliate links. This means that I earn a small commission for purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you. I appreciate all of your support in this way.
Let me know if there’s anything I can help you with! Simply reply to this email, and let’s chat. I’m so glad you’re here, and I’d really love to hear from you!