He absolutely does provide!

I’ve been awfully frustrated lately with the state of our current economy and just our state’s overall condition. I’ve spent days helping my brother look for employment. There is nothing. A man can serve his country overseas and come home and have no income. I just thank God that he does not have a family yet. That would be unthinkable.

I absolutely have faith in God’s promises but I’d be lying if I said I always had a peaceful content spirit about me when it comes to finances and needs. The truth is I throw lots of fits. I do that when I am not in control of something. It is like a natural reaction. Thankfully, God teaches us the principles to change those natural sin reactions and gives us the Holy Spirit to encourage us to make Godly choices. I have had to make those quite often lately.

One of the main prayers I pray is for God to just change my mindset. I may not want to think this way or do things in another way but I ask Him to change my heart about it. He absolutely does.

Just this past Sunday in church we had to sit in the back because we were running a bit late. We usually sit in the front so I can hear better but for some strange reason I was okay with not sitting in “our” seat. After worship was over we are usually asked to greet one another and that usually puts me in a tizzy. I have no idea why but I am just not comfortable with this practice. I always feel weird like I am being forced to be nice or something. Idk. I make no excuses. I have no idea where this pattern of thought comes from but I did ask God to change my heart this Sunday.

When announcements were done and the pastor asked us to turn around and greet one another I did not even hesitate. I can’t explain it. One or two people even tried to pretend they didn’t see me wanting to greet them but I did it anyway. Then there was this sweet little couple that seemed overly excited to have me tell them good morning. It did my heart good.

I sat down so content and happy that God had given me the grace to do that. I immediately thanked Him and prepared my notebook for the message that was about to be delivered. That is when she tapped me on the shoulder.

This sweet, older lady that had been so happy for me to say good morning to her put some cash in my hand and said, “this is for the baby.” I was dumbfounded. I turned to thank her and she just smiled and said, “shhh!” and started to read in her bible. I’d never had this happen before. I didn’t know what to think. I went to show my husband and that is when we noticed that it was a $50 bill. Wow. Okay, Lord. I get it. I really do. I hope.

I was so thankful for that. Then the whole message was about how the Lord provides exactly what we need each and every day and how we shouldn’t worry about it. Worrying is the devil’s way of stealing time away from us. We can’t worry about what might not ever happen and even if it does happen the worrying can’t change it.

With that I went home and thanked the Lord for all that He has provided us with. He even gave me a new way to look at coupon/sale shopping!

I used to see it as tedious. I would do it but I wasn’t excited about it so I prayed for a change of heart. If I needed to do it then I could at least be content with it. He changed my heart. I began to see it just like I do that one shopping day of the year that I love: Black Friday. My sister and I scour the ads looking for great deals. It is like winning the lottery when you find things that have been on your “one day” list and can purchase them for just a fraction of the cost.

Now I see every Saturday as my “Black Saturday”. I scour the ads and coupons just looking for stuff we use and only pay a fraction of the cost. Why pay full price when they will give it to your for 70% off? It is such a joy now!

My challenge is to spend less than $75 a week on groceries including toiletries and cleaning supplies. I hear other people do it on $40 a week but we have no stores here that double coupons and there are no Aldi’s or Kroeger’s here so I have to deal with what we are provided with. So far I have been able to shop each week for less than $75.

I haven’t been to CVS in a while because we didn’t have one nearby but that all changed a few months ago. A CVS opened up just right down the road and so I decided to start saving once again using their method. For those of you who aren’t sure how the CVS method works check out these sites: The Thrifty Mom and Money Saving Mom. There are also many more links to money saving blogs in my sidebar feed.

Here is my first trip to CVS. I got everything pictured here for $42.59 and have $7 in Extra Care Bucks to use towards my next purchase. In addition to shopping for only what was on sale I used coupons that totaled $32.66! I would have had to buy this stuff in the near future anyway so by buying it a few weeks early I put more than $32.66 back in our pocket!

I’m excited about this stuff now! I can’t stop looking for resources.

I also shopped a great sale at Albertson’s this week. You get $10 back by spending $30 on Proctor and Gamble products. I bought two of the 60 roll packs of toilet paper at $15.95 each and used two coupons for $2.00 off so I saved a total of $14 on these items that we use everyday, many times a day. We should not have to buy more until next year!

While I was there I picked up a couple more things that were on sale and that I had a coupon for. I only buy what I know we will use. I saved more than I spent and that makes me happy!

I thank God that He changes our hearts when we ask Him to. This may be minor to some people but this is such a big deal for me. I’m actually excited about it!

Tagged as: Life Management - Printables, Money, Money