life unexpected

Ya'll might remember a while back i talked about finances and how we were on the Dave Ramsey plan. While we may not be perfect at it like Sarah & Mike, we do pretty good.


Our marriage is much stronger and more enjoyable now that we are on the same page with our money. We got married without a lot of money, which made it easy to know how to spend it....bills! There are things that must be paid every month whether we like it or not.


But after reading the Total Money Makeover, we now have a budget, use cash for groceries, personal spending money, and any eating out. It's amazing how freeing it feels to pay for stuff in cash. I know using a debit card might feel the same, but i can't really describe the joy that comes with our little envelope system.


Which brings me to the point of my post.....unexpected finances! April was a killer month. I know it's barely halfway, but financially we're through. All of our bills have been paid, and we get paid this next week.


April almost killed us. We ended up paying MUCH more in taxes than either of us ever would've dreamed. Little things added to it, like going out of town, registration on a car, and having people in our home a few times. honestly when i found out about the taxes, i wasn't upset about paying. i mean it's pretty cut and dry if you owe or not. I was WORRIED because i had no idea how we would do it.


I instantly started praying daily that Father would provide. I mean, He KNOWS what our bank account looks like and the taxes weren't a surprise to Him.


I did our budget and realized we would be dipping into our emergency fund...aka savings. I know it doesn't seem like a big deal to use savings but we went to the bare minimum and our following Dave's instructions about it.


I have been tracking every dollar this month. On paper we should need to use a few hundred dollars from savings. But everything has been paid for this month and we didn't have to touch it!!!!!!

woo hoo!!!!!!!!!

We've seen Father's provision so many different ways this month. Little things like a friend unexpectedly treating to lunch, the lowest electric bill we've ever had, finding an extra $20 tucked away in one of the envelopes, getting a gift card from a family member. It's so cool to see how Father provided for us this month over and over, in little ways we weren't expecting.

To be honest, when i was praying for Him to provide for us financially this month, i was honestly just expecting a random cash envelope in our mailbox or something. no lie.

but He didn't work that way, and i'm very thankful. i'm thankful that He used other people to be a blessing to us. I'm thankful that it doesn't make sense at all that we were able to pay for everything this month without touching the emergency fund.


It really doesn't make sense. but that fills me with much more awe and wonder at how our perfect God takes care of us.

Another unexpected, is that Sarah went into the ER yesterday bc she was in severe pain and had a high temp. They did some bloodwork and said her white blood count was fine, so they gave her motrin and sent her home. She's still having a lot of body pain and is going back to the dr tomorrow.

i can't tell you the last time Sarah went to the doctor, if ever, the ER. She gets colds now and then, but i've never known her to realllly be sick. it's kind of weird.

She's planning on coming up this weekend to run the 5k with me. I'm praying that she'll be healthy enough. I'm really asking that all her pain will go away immediately and the fever will disappear.

i'll prob blog later this week about our weekend. we had a wonderful date last night and family is coming over for dinner tonight!

hope everyone had a good weekend and didn't swim too much in all this rain we've been having!!

love
laura