As relates to debt…

1.  Last night Isaac was able to pay off the last of his debt for the window he broke.  We adjusted his debt down from $100, which is half the cost of a whole new replacement window, to only $40, which is the cost of replacing only the glass in the existing window.  He has worked hard and endured his restriction with patience.  Now he is feeling quite free and happy to be done with his debt to society.

2.  Michael is doing great heading up our church’s second time through Financial Peace University.  They meet on Tuesday nights.  This time our whole family is not attending.  Michael just takes the two oldest children if they want to go.  I am so happy that Michael is constantly being encouraged to be faithful with our finances.  We are hoping to be debt free (except for the house) before the end of 2009.

3.  Part of our new financial lifestyle is to budget our money using an envelope system.  It’s been hard to figure out the right amounts of money to allot for each catagory, but we’re slowly getting it worked out.  It’s such an odd feeling to pay cash for almost everything.  No more worries about whether or not the money is in the bank account.  I am liking this new way of life.  My biggest encouragement to you, if you’re thinking about doing the envelope budget system, is to give it time.  It’s not going to work perfectly the first month.  You need to adjust and tweak and figure out what works best.