But the point isn’t the dollar amount. How much of our income can we save? Do we have the right heart to take care of what we have? Before trying to follow Dave Ramsey or Mary Hunt or Clark Howard, we must make sure that we are committed to being a good steward of what the Lord has given into our hands. Then, we must pursue being a hard-worker at managing our income, whether it is more or less than anyone else.

By posting dollar amounts and endorsing Dave Ramsey, Crystal takes the risk of being criticized. But I do thank her for showing that hard work is necessary no matter what your income level is. She has not deserted frugal living even though her household income has increased. She does not pretend to be immune to mistakes. She continues to help many people, and has gained financially from that. No, I’m not a Dave Ramsey reader (I’ve only just heard of him), but if it’s working for Crystal, I think that’s great. It’s obviously benefitting her family and I am eager to see how she continues to teach about good stewardship, generosity, and frugal living.

http://clarkhoward.com/topics/529_guide.html

do you pay a 10% pretax tithe as well?
thanks!

So for June, the goal is to switch bank accounts (I’m shopping for a credit union — the first time in my life I’ve shopped for a financial institution), then close out the current bank accounts, then putting my emergency fund all in ING or ING checking (yes, I know the interest rate is relatively stinko compared to savings, but I’m training myself to transfer money over the phone. I’ll leave $50 in checking and use this only in emergencies and after I make a phone call to transfer.

BTW, I’m single, no kids and take home $1350 a month. I’m debt free (as of April). Obviously, I can’t save $2k a month. That’s not the point. Do what you can do, then sit down to figure out what else you can do.

Jennifer

We also aim to live on half (or less) of our income and put the rest to work. We feel fortunate to be in a position to do so, of course. It’s very satisfying!

Jennifer

I’m so thankful to have found your site, and the many other blogs to help with our savings at the grocery/drugstores so we have more to save in our financial interests. God has been so good to us and I pray that he continues to blessings on your family too!!

Planning ahead for us has never been easy as my husband is in his own business and earns differently from month to month. However, after a very lean season (2 years with hardly any work) and growing tired of the feeling of not being in control, we read Mary Hunts ‘Till debt do us Part’. The book is about far more than debt and laid out a finance-management plan that we felt could work for us.

We’re into our 3rd month of using the system and it is going GREAT! Gone are the feelings of uncertainty and fear and I have enjoyed the freedom of knowing exactly how much I have to spend in each area and where our hard-earned money is actually going! In addition, I am driven that much more to save in every area because I see in real terms that my hard work (coupons, bargain hunting, etc) actually saves money, and we find great joy in then putting those extra savings to work for us!

I’ve always been very frugal but frugality is almost useless unless it is part of a well managed plan. It leads to feeling deprived rather than providing security and joy in being a good steward of God’s blessing.

We’ve also learned another very important lesson: its not about how much one earns – its about how much one spends! This perspective changes a whole lot in the way we view our budget and resources!

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Money Saving Mom here:

You obviously haven’t read Dave Ramsey.

We’ve spent a few years researching this and definitely believe we’re making the wisest choice here. We’ve invested in a good growth stock mutual fund with a consistent track record of at least 10-12% interest in any given ten-year period over the last 70 years.

Not all mutual funds are worth investing in, but there are many great ones out there especially if you are planning to invest in them for at least ten years. In our case, we’re looking to invest for five years or less, so we went with something really conservative.

I highly recommend that you check Dave Ramsey out. He’s saved us thousands of dollars over the last year and is one of the main reasons we’re in such a great position financially.

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Money Saving Mom here:

Ali–Don’t lose hope! We used to make around $13,000/year when we were first married and we lived like that for a few years. I well remember what it’s like to barely be making ends meet–or to not even know how they will meet at all.

Lots of hard work, staying out of debt, following the lessons handed down to us by our parents, constantly learning and trying new entrepreneurial things, more hard work, and the blessing of God is the only way we are able to be in the financial position we are today.

Even though many people think we’re crazy, we live on about half of what we make right now. Most of that half is my husband’s income which he’s making from his temporary contract job. The other half is coming from extra things we’re doing on the side that anyone can do. You can read more about this here:
http://money-saving-mom.blogspot.com/2008/03/increasing-your-income-without-getting.html

We’re choosing to be quite frugal now while we can because we don’t know what the future holds. We’re nothing special; we’ve just worked hard, been patient, lived beneath our means even when it was really tough, and tried to follow the principles we’ve found in God’s Word concerning finances. We’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way, had a lot of really bad entrepreneurial flops, and learned a lot of lessons.

It’s been hard–sometimes excruciatingly hard–but God has been faithful and where we are today is a testament to His faithfulness and provision and the wise training of our parents.

My hope in sharing where we’ve been and where we are so honestly is to encourage all of you and give you hope. Creativity and thinking outside the box, coupled with the blessing of God can produce amazing results!