But I Don't Use Government Assistance!

I wanted to clarify my post from yesterday. After talking with my wife, I felt that clarification might be necessary. Even though I wrote about government assistance in my post yesterday, I am quite sure that most who follow me are not using any. I wrote with that example to show that starting at the base level, people can make some changes to impact their lives greatly in the positive. Most people that are using assistance are only about $300 away from not needing it. I would have to also believe that most people who struggle month-to-month to stay afloat and pay all their bills are that close to not needing credit cards or skipping paying some of their bills.

Sarah and I have not had a TV in our house for about two years. That was a bill we didn't feel we wanted to take on being that we want Sarah to stay home with the kids. Another place we save money is by not eating out very often. My wife works hard to provide wonderful meals for our family everyday. The money we save compared to going out is incredible. In fact, this weekend we went out with some friends for a meal. We spent almost $35 for our family of five. Some might think that is not very much, but we can feed our entire family for three days (breakfast, lunch and dinner). I often hear the argument, "Both my wife and I work so we never have the time to make our meals." That is not totally true. There are plenty of easy meals to make within a minimal time frame and even crock pot meals to make it simple. It all depends on how serious we want to be about utilizing our money the best we can. I am not saying it will be easy, but it is well worth it. Sarah and I continually work at this, but we are not perfect. There are times that we do not use our money properly, but we strive to do our best with it. The key is to continually be trying to improve our spending habits. God bless!