Lovingly Blessed by God: I Have No Idea What I'm Doing

Sunday, September 4, 2011

I Have No Idea What I'm Doing - And I'm Having a BLAST! :)

Mike and I recently took a finance class at church, which presented the most wonderful, unique approaches to managing our finances...beyond anything we'd ever learned. Not only did the presenters explain our identity in Christ as believers and how this relates to us managing God's money that He blesses us in this life, they went on to explain extremely simple and powerful budgeting methods...even recommending budgets for families of all different sizes. It was so exciting to hear such practical life application of financial principles, all rooted in Biblical foundations.

So...one thing I have worked on for some time is our grocery budget. When I viewed the recommended grocery budget, I though, "There is NO way I can implement that! There must be something the author didn't factor into the financial equation...like the cost of food!" Ha! After trying to determine a reason the budgeted amount was not reasonable and finally accepting that the numbers were legitimate, I surrendered my will to try, at least try, to reduce our grocery budget. I have ad-matched and clipped coupon...but I plateaued at my savings without any new ideas to help skimmed some off the top of our budget. Well, I came across a website that provides weekly menus and shopping lists for $5 dinners, since dinners seem to be the most expensive meals for our family. I printed my grocery list and set off for...duh duh duh...WalMart. Yes, WalMart, the grocery I have had a love-hate relationship with for some time. You know what? I truly believe God blessed my trip in only ways He could have orchestrated. I HAD THE BEST TIME AT WALMART!!!!!! I ran into a friend who works at WalMart from our old Bible Study (JUST LOVE LORRAINE). I had a guy in the produce section go to the back to get me fresher cilantro. When I didn't know what in the world "quinoa" was, the manager of WalMart used her SmartPhone to research it. She then went to the aisle for me, where another customer helped her select the product, and she brought it back to me. Even when I checked out, I was able to walk right up to the check-out, where I proceeded to be helped by the most kind cashier, a young guy, who told me all about his life with brothers...as this related to our boys in the future growing up together. I even saw a cashier, who once humiliated me when trying to use ad-matched items and coupons, joyfully greet and help a customer check out!

Now, I am not exactly where I want to be with my budget for groceries, but, by the GRACE OF GOD, I am making huge progress.

This week, I realized two things: One, I have to make dinners almost from scratch to save money. Two, I LOVE MAKING DINNERS FROM SCRATCH! I have no idea what I am doing more than half the time, but I AM HAVING A BLAST! Below are some photos of my first dinner made from scratch, Cilantro-Lime Quinoa!