Reciprocity #12

Two weeks ago I met with my financial counselor and we talked about my desire to switch to a new bank that wouldn’t charge me any more monthly fees.  She told me she was going out of town for two weeks and wanted me to have that done when she got back. 

I went online and looked around and found a new bank to make the switch to – actually it’s a credit union that’s open to anyone – and so today I went up and walked in to open my new accounts. 

Teller:  Good morning.  How can I help you?

Me:  I’d like to open a personal savings account, a personal checking account and a checking account for my small business. 

Teller: Great.  Have a seat and we’ll start working on the paper work. 

I gave her my two forms of I.D. and she ran a quick credit check.  Everything came back fine so we proceeded.

Teller:  Okay, in order to open up your savings account we need at least $1.00 – we’ll just put that in for you.

Me: Oh, I was going to put $100.00 into each account to get them going today.  I’ll move everything else over when I get my debit cards in the mail. 

Teller:  That would be great but we still give you that first dollar as our gift to you.  Now, will you be wanting checks for your checking account or are you planning to just use your debit cards?

Me:  I would like checks for the personal account.  I’ll only need a debit card for the business account. 

Teller:  Would you like the basic checks? 

Me:  Yes, that would be fine.  It’s not like I’m going to use many of them. 

Teller:  Exactly.  Well, because you’re getting the basic checks, we’ll pick up the fee for those as well.  When you order checks the next time it will be a fee of $11.64…but these will be free.

Me:  (Hmm…First a free dollar and now free checks.  This is pretty sweet!)  Great!

Teller:  Okay, we’ve got both the savings and checking accounts opened.  Where would you like me to put the $50?

Me:  What $50.00?  I said I was putting $100.00 into each account, remember? 

Teller:  Yes, but you get $50.00 for opening the new accounts with us today.  Which account should I put that in? 

Me:  (ARE YOU KIDDING ME?)  Oh…okay…well, let’s put it in the savings account for now I guess. 

Teller:  Great.  Here’s your deposit.  Is there anything else I can do for you today Ms. Jules? 

Me: (Smiling ear to ear) No…that’s it for now. 

Teller:  Okay, here’s a book explaining how the credit union works and here are some cards that you can give to friends.  If any of them want to open a free account and get the $50 bonus we’ll give you another $50 bonus as well!

Me:  (Trying not to break out in laughter) Oh, okay, that’s great.  Thank for your help.

I walked away from the bank counter with three new accounts and $64 in cash and prizes.  Unbelievable!  I laughed all the way home.

Reciprocity # 8, 9, 10 & 11!

Reciprocity # 8,9,10 & 11

 

Boy, when it rains, it pours!  Every time I turn around I’m being washed in monetary blessings and I have to say, it’s starting to freak me out just a little bit!

 

Here’s what’s happened this month:

 

#8:  I needed to buy ink for my printer at home but had been putting it off for awhile because I hate to spend that much money for ink.  I got a promotional letter from Office Max for $10 off my next purchase of $20 or more so I used that to get one free ink cartridge! 

 

#9: I got my annual renewal for my car insurance and it went down by $10/month.  Woo Hoo!

 

#10: I got my paycheck last week and noticed there was a little more money on it.  I called our HR rep and she told me the new tax break went through and we’d be seeing a little more cash on our checks now.  Mine was about $20 extra x 26 checks in a year…not too shabby!

 

#11:  Here’s the really funny one…

 

I was on the ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) the other day and was looking to download some contract forms to use in my photography business.  I found the forms but wasn’t really sure when to use each one and the best way to handle this part of my new business.  I remembered one of the women telling me they had a great book available through the ASMP that taught when to use what form and why being on top of this part of the business was so important but I also remember her saying the book was more than $30.  I didn’t really have the money in the budget so I passed on it at the time but started to look for it again the other day just to see what it was all about.  I ended up getting distracted and never found the book. 

 

I picked up my mail yesterday and there it was in my mailbox – my free “welcome” gift for joining the ASMP last December!  The exact book I really needed – and it shows up for free! 

 

You just gotta love it!    

Reciprocity #4, 5, 6 & 7

Last week I was looking for something to do during the season of Lent and I emailed a blogging friend of mine and asked her if she wanted to read a book and discuss it together.  We went back and forth but finally came up with a book we both thought would be challenging and good for the season of Lent.  She found a copy at her local library but when I looked on my library list it was “unavailable.”  Now what? 

I went to church last weekend and asked one of my associate pastors if he knew if the book was in the church library (because he had originally recommended it to me) and he said he wasn’t sure but he’d go look.  I went into the service and a few minutes later he popped into my row with the copy under his arm and handed it off to me.  I checked it out after the service was over and now have the book to read without having to spend $14 to read it.  Very cool!

Yesterday was a very good day as well!   Since I stopped taking Photoshop classes over at Kelby Online training I’ve been feeling a little stifled creatively lately.  (Note: It’s not that the classes weren’t excellent – they were  – but I learned the basics and a bit more and decided I could go without them on this year of saving.)  Anyway, I knew there were some new things I needed to learn in Photoshop CS4 so I decided to use my Barnes and Noble Giftcard from Christmas to purchase a new up-to-date Photoshop book. 

All the way up to B&N I knew which one I wanted (The Missing Manual for Photoshop CS4 – it’s the BIBLE of Photoshop) but I also knew it cost around $40-50 so I was all prepared to step down and buy something cheaper.  Well, I got there and the book was on a display right out in the open and it had a 40% off sticker on it.  What?!  It just came out!  How could it already be discounted???

I turned the book over and, sure enough, it was originally $49.99 but with the discount it would take the price down to $30.  I thought my gift card was for $10 so I was all psyched to pay $20 for the book I had had my heart set on in the first place but, when I got to the counter, the gift card was for $20 so I only paid $12.68!!!  For a $50 book!  Big score!!!

Also, some of you know I’ve seriously been contemplating a move to a new job/career and when I went to church last weekend they announced that one of our members would be holding a job seminar next Saturday to help anyone who is out of work or looking for new work to spice up their resume and give us sound advice on how best to look for work.  This person has been teaching this class as part of his profession for years and he really knows his stuff.  The only problem was that the class cost $50 for supplies and I don’t have $50 in my budget.  Hmm…what to do? 

Well, I heard there were “scholarships” available for anyone that couldn’t afford to pay for the class and I emailed the man in charge and explained my situation.  I explained that it wasn’t that I couldn’t come up with the money but I had promised my financial advisor that I would stick to my budget and I didn’t know how I could cut another $50 out of my monthly budget and still make it through the month.  He emailed me back and said if I could come up with half he had someone willing to pay my other half.  Bingo!  I know I can cut $25 out of my food bill but $50?  So now I’m all signed up for the class AND I’m still on track for the month of March.  Whew!

Final reciprocity for the week – I’ve had to start traveling between our Kansas & Missouri offices three days a week.  They can’t see spending the extra money to hire a replacement for the admin person they just moved out of our Kansas office into a new office somewhere else so I am having to drive there to work for the next several months until the hiring freeze is lifted.  The travel stinks – it takes my daily commute from less than 10 minutes one way to almost 40 but…I make $82.50 a week in gas reimbursements.  I only spend about $15 in gas so that’s an extra $67/week that will be going straight into my savings to help beef it up.

So that’s it for now…four more ways God has blessed my life and shown me that being generous is definitely reciprocal.  Generosiprocity…it’s a good thing!

Another Update

Things have been pretty quiet around here as I make my way through the second month of living on a budget – yet, big things have been going on behind the scenes. 

After all the preaching on generosity and the six-week bible study on money and financial matters, I have found myself with the daunting task of changing the budget already.  I’ve decided, after much soul searching and praying, that I want to give the entire 10% tithe to my church instead of only the 7% I had originally budgeted.  This will, effectively, double what I was giving last year but it was something I felt called by God to do. 

I don’t want anyone to feel like what they give (or don’t give) reflects on who they are as a person or that they should ever judge their worth on how much they give to God’s house – but, for me, I knew it was time to step it up.  I’m closing in on the 4^th anniversary of God coming to my rescue and I suddenly realized (for the hundred thousandth time) how God gives to me His blessings and mercy so freely and here I have been, luxuriating in His blessings and grace and yet not fully trusting Him with the issue of money.  Even now, I’m still only giving 10% of my net income – I’m still too leery to go for the whole banana and give 10% of my gross.  Yet, my heart has made a huge step forward during this process and I’m proud of myself for hearing God tell me over and over again He’d take care of me if I would just trust in Him. 

How could I continue to hold back and say no?

Here’s the really funny thing about all this…

Since I made this decision to give even more than I had originally planned, my bank account overfloweth.  Seriously…there is all kinds of money in there.  With the budgeting changes I have made and the change in my heart to trust God with my financial resources, I am in better shape financially right now than I have ever been before in my adult life. 

Weird, eh? 

Nah, not really…

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

~Malachi 3:17, vs. 10

 

I wait patiently to see what else this year will bring.

Goodbye Standard Tier

 

I did it.  It took me two months to gather my senses but I finally did it. 

 

I cut the cable bill from Standard Tier down to Basic Tier. 

 

I realized the other day that I was holding on for no good reason – every time I thought about cutting down on my cable service I’d hear myself fly in the face of common sense with arguments like, “What will you watch in the middle of the night when nothing good is on?” or “You deserve to have standard cable…everyone else has even more than standard with all their movie channels and premium DVR’s and what not” and my personal favorite was “It’s not like you’re starving to death, for heaven’s sake…so you want cable…you can afford it.”

 

And I can afford it – in theory. 

 

Last night I was clicking around on the Internet and realized that the new Hulu website channel has most of the shows I enjoy watching and even some that I don’t have access to (like Nip/Tuck) and some that are no longer even on television (Picket Fences!!!) and my computer monitor is every bit as clear as my small television set…so why not watch what I want when I want to watch it and do away with that huge cable bill?

 

Will this end up being a long time commitment?  I don’t know.  I have a feeling I really won’t miss it much once the weather warms up and I’m outside so much more…but, if I find I’m really missing The Cosby Show at 2 a.m. I can always go back and upgrade my service, right? 

 

In the meantime, I’ve got another opportunity to put $370 into my savings account this year and maybe – just maybe – my cable company will realize that when they took my standard tier bill up over the $50/month mark they pushed their luck just a little bit too far. 

 

I still have my full service until the 3^rd of March but I’ll come back in the summer and let you know how I’m doing with making the switch.  I have a feeling I won’t even miss it once its gone.    

Saving For A Rainy Day

I was talking to a friend of mine at work the other day and she was telling me how she and her husband have started getting up at 5 a.m. so they can spend time reading the bible together each morning.  She said, “You know, I can’t get over how now that we get up earlier to read The Word together we seem to have so much more time on our hands.  Things that never got done are getting done.  We often times find ourselves going over on how long we should be reading and we are so sure we’re going to be late for work and then we get dressed and realize we still have time to spare.  How does that happen?”

I chuckled when she said it.  I had to.  It’s the same story I’ve had about money for the past four years.  Every time I say I can’t give more or the budget will have a blow out I find myself getting to the end of a month and wondering what bill I forgot to pay because there’s too much money left for it to be right…and, yet, it is! 

I started out giving a few dollars here and a few dollars there when I first began attending church again - afraid to let go of the money because I didn’t know what, exactly, was being done with it and I wasn’t sure God would really provide for me by making up the difference.  Then I started to give more, and then a little more and now I’ve increased my giving again and still, here I am, with extra money in the bank.  In fact, because this is a weird pay year where we will get 27 checks instead of 26, my bank account currently runneth over.  I keep paying bills early and looking at the balance and wondering, “Where is all this money coming from?”  Like I really need to ask!

The funny thing is I know some of it is coming from my new stance on not buying anything I don’t need and finding the best price on the things I do.  I’ve taken a huge chunk out of my weekly food bill by going to generic and refusing to buy pre-packaged dinners and lots of junk food.  To be honest, I pick one thing a week that I’m craving and buy it and ONLY it.  By the end of the week I’ll have had a couple of servings and then I’m done craving it and I either don’t get anything the following week or I pick something new.  It’s been amazing to see how this one little change has made a big difference in my food bill. 

I also realized the other day that I’m about seven weeks into the year and have only had my McDonald’s breakfast sandwich twice.  When you compare that to the fact that I was eating them twice a week (or more) that is a huge difference as well.  I’ve already saved close to $50 by not going to McD’s for breakfast and it’s only mid-February. 

Today I gathered up a flower pot’s worth of change and ran that over to my bank to throw into their coin machine.  I came out with over $62.00!  This is going to help me pay back the $35 I spent on going to a photography seminar so it doesn’t come out of my regular budget and the rest will probably buy my next round of toner so I can keep printing photos without using my budgeted money to pay for that expense, either. 

Little by little I’m seeing the shift.  I’m finding I can go into stores without such a strict list now because I no longer feel that overwhelming draw to “buy, buy, buy.”  I had to go pick up some bird food today and the place I buy it from had a copper bird bath on clearance for $100.  I took one look at it and knew I would have bought it under normal circumstances.  Then, the owner told me it was HALF OFF the price and I swayed…I did sway…but I held firm.  Nope…not in the budget.  As I left the store I hollered back at him, “If you don’t sell it for half give me a call and maybe we can work out a deal.” 

There are lots of other exciting things ahead.  We have an all-day generosity seminar coming up the end of March through my church.  It’s free of charge to anyone who wants to go and I’m going to be sure to sign up.  As much progress as I’ve made this year at limiting my consumerism and giving back to God what is God’s in the first place I know I still have a lot of work to do.  My heart is still tying security to money and not to God and I have to get that part right or I can never grow in my desire to be a generous giver.  In the meantime, though, I can now go into Target and not melt at the thought of buying new towels for the bathroom or some silly matching dog bowls – I’m beginning to see how I’ve been letting my money (er, GOD’s money) slip through my fingers without a thought or care about what it went towards and now that I see things differently I have to behave differently. 

In the meantime, I’ll be saving my pennies again for another rainy day and maybe next time I’ll be able to pull out cash and buy that beautiful copper birdbath.

Month Two

Here we go…month two!  I went shopping this morning for my big monthly food order and I had this brilliant idea to go down to the small local grocer before heading off to the big chain grocer.  Now, for the most part, small grocery stores have higher prices because they sell less quantity…but at this particular store they have a lot of meat items that get marked down regularly because they can’t always turn them fast enough.  I went there this morning to see if they had any bargains and lordy did I hit the motherlode! 

Four pork chops  for $3.o0

Two pounds of name brand bacon for $4.00

A 4-1/2 lb. rump roast for $9.00 (originally $17.00!)

A large family size container of hamburger for $6.00

Three containers of chicken livers for the dogs’ treats for less than $4.00

Shazam!  A month’s worth of meat for $27.00!!! 

I felt like Wonder Woman when I walked out of that store!  I went on to the big grocer and checked their prices and I saved SO much money it wasn’t even funny. 

Not that I’m not laughing about all the money I saved…

I did well at the second store, too.  I think now that I’ve had a month to practice this concept of buying a whole month’s worth of food at a time I did much better this time around because now I know how many cans of tomatoes and dog food and veggies I need in order to get through the month.  I had several basics I had to stock up on (condiments, baking goods, etc.) and I still got out of the second store for $76.00. 

So I”m pretty happy today.  I feel like I’m off to a good start on this month’s food budget. 

Now, last week I got my Power and Gas bills for the house and the power went up by $7/month and that kind of bummed me out.  I’m on the average bill paying plan for both utilities so when I got this month’s gas bill I was already for the shocker but guess what?  Gas actually went down!  My monthly bill is now a full $20/month cheaper than it was the past six months.  Woo Hoo!  Another small but profitable windfall.

So that’s my big news for the weekend.  I almost stopped and bought fast food the other night and then I talked myself out of it.  NO KIDDING.  I went home, made a sandwich, cottage cheese and some chips and was perfectly happy. 

Anyone looking for a good bread recipe?  Check out the English Muffin bread over at Dlyn’s blog.  I made two loafs today and it really does taste just like an english muffin only its softer than an old dried up english muffin.  Mmm…with some of my mom’s homemade cherry jam on it…it’s going to be delicious!

Recap of Month One

I did it!  I prepared a budget for this first month of 2009 and I made it.

Drum roll, please…

I came in $71 under for the month!

Now…there were a few categories that were significantly under but there were a few that were significantly over – and I knew that would happen going in.  Some categories (like home maintenance and yearly vet bills) are only going to happen occasionally and this month I had no outside home maintenance but Gracie had to go to the vet for shots, an ear infection and to have a sliver of something extracted from her front paw. 

She came remarkably close to breaking my budget for the month!

However, I did great in the food categories – budgeting $305 but only spending $250.

In the end, I came in $71 under my budget for the month and that includes giving my new higher  monetary contribution to my church and I put my first $200 into savings. 

Ta da! 

I did a great job of keeping track of what I spent – and when – and I made a few crucial discoveries:

• I spend way more on bird food than I even imagined.  That will have to stop come March when the nice weather hits again.
• I can live without all that pre-packaged food and high cost “extras” that I used to think were so crucial to my survival.
• I go to the grocery store way more than I should…I need to get much better at list making to cut down on all those times I run in to buy one or two things.
• I did a great job of alleviating impulse shopping.  I was on guard both at retail and grocery stores and I can honestly say I got through the entire month without making one unnecessary purchase.  Yeah me!

So there you go!  One month in and that’s what I’ve learned so far.  I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings.   

Don’t Make Me Laugh

I went to week two of bible study last night.  We’re discussing money this time around and how it can be both a blessing and an idol. 

We were rolling along, talking about the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:13-21) and Ladell (who leads the study) said:

We are acting like the rich fool whenever…

• We choose our goals and spend our time independently from God’s direction.
• We use wealth strictly for ourselves rather than on God’s priority.
• We live as though we will not have to give an account for the way we have spent our lives.

(Boy, that last one kinda broke me out in a cold sweat!)

And then Ladell said, “I want you to stop and think about the way you’ve spent your money this past month and analyze if God has been involved in any way.”

HAHAHAHAHAHA

I sat there, grinning, like the Cheshire cat.  J

Reciprocity #3

I have a friend whose birthday is in late February about a month after mine so we always try to get together between our big days to eat a nice meal out and sit down face-to-face and talk about life.  With the new budget underway I knew it would take most of my “dining out” money for the month (or maybe two) to continue this tradition this year so I hadn’t mentioned anything to her about going this year. 

Then, two weeks ago, I filled out a survey for the company that owns our new office building – telling them what we love and what could use improvement inside the building.  They were very appreciative and sent me a $25 gift certificate to use at any of the shoppes or restaurants directly across from our building.  As it turns out, one of my favorite restaurants is there so now I have $25 off this year’s birthday dinner!

And I know this sounds like a big old coincidence except I really have been wondering how I was going to pay for that nice meal out with my friend and now I don’t have to worry about it.  The unexpected arrival of the gift certificate to the place where one of our favorite restaurants is just happened to take care of that. 

Coincidence? 

I don’t think so!