I want to share with you my struggles of our financial situation and how we are managing to rebuild our finances and to climb out of our many unfortunate circumstances. We have been plagued by both bad luck and bad decision making. However, I have to say I really did not have the proper know how or foundation on how to deal with finances. Having a Business degree you would think I would know better, but I just really didn't. I understand business finances pretty darn well, but I just didn't understand how Home/Life finances were similar in many ways.
First I hope you will 'Like' Centsable Stewardship on Facebook. The twitter site will remain the same @Qs4Beginners, for now.
The first few years of our marriage, my husband and I, actually did quite well. We managed our finances well, were pretty frugal, and were able to buy our first home. I managed to save money in the bank for a small cushion, and we were doing well. However, after our twin girls were born, I had to leave work, and the loss of my salary sent us into a horrible financial tailspin, that still has us trying to climb our way out.
Don't get me wrong I can't blame the loss of an income solely on our financial issues. We made some dumb mistakes, that if I could would go back and decided differently. We bought two new vehicles, then got caught up in credit card debt and were spending money without much thought. For some reason I/we just couldn't stop ourselves.So here we are now. We have quite a bit of debt that we are trying desperately to pay off and get out of, so that we can be FREE to do and live our lives the way we want without worrying about being tied down to creditors.
I also believe this is quite Biblical. I laugh sometimes I wish God just filled us with a TON of wisdom when we come into this world, so that we could avoid making stupid mistakes that can destroy years of time. However, I do know that we can learn from these mistakes and move forward and hopefully help others along the way. As I hope to do through this blog.So there are two folds to this blog, which completely relate: Better Money Management and Couponing, thus becoming a wiser steward of our personal finances, which brought me to the name Centsable Stewardship.
This time last year (in Oct. 2009), a friend of mine introduced me to Couponing. At first I was quite skeptical. I swore I would never use coupons, because I thought they were a waste of time, and really didn't help much in the saving money front. I have to say that I think most of us have at one point in time (if not now) felt that way. I mean - why waste time saving $1 (if even that) here or there?
My friend, Janell, introduced me to a great website, that got me started into a whole new world with my finances. The website made promises to save up to 60% off my grocery bill - yeah right! But, Janell insisted and so I decided it couldn't hurt to give it a try. So, I did.
The first time I save around 30 or 40% off my bill, I was elated with that number. I would say for the first couple of months that I save around 40% pretty sufficiently. But I kept reading on the site that you could save up to 60%. What I didn't realize at the time was there was a WHOLE world of couponing out there, and that you could grow and continue to get better.
One year later, coupons have literally changed my life and my family's life. We are in such a better position financially then I ever thought possible. We spend less, and have more. Coupons have given me a new outlook on sales and frugal living, yet not frugal to the point of being 'cheap'. I now buy higher quality items, but I pay significantly less then most consumers out there do.
My goal and vision of this blog is to encourage you (and me) to live a better and stronger financial life. To learn from one another and to be better stewards of our finances and our lives in general.
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