Five Things to Remember When Money Is Tight

Quite a few years ago, a lady called our church asking for food for her family.  She explained that because they had hardly any food left in her house, her children were going hungry.  With the permission of our deacon and my husband, I hurried to the store to buy her $70.00 worth of food, and I even copied out recipe cards to accompany the groceries.  Imagine my surprise later that day when this lady met me in her kitchen and said, “I’m glad you caught us at home!  We just got back from Walmart because we needed to buy early birthday presents for both of our children!”  While I had been out spending church tithes on rice and chicken so her family could eat for another day, they had been out spending their cash on toys and games! 

I wish I could say that this lady is rare.  Unfortunately, many people are ignorant of how to handle money or how to appreciate the money others give them.  As a result of conversations like the one I had with this lady, many churches—including ours-- have had to develop careful policies about financial assistance.  Here are just a few thoughts to help those who may find themselves confused about how to handle their money. 

 

1.  Pinch the pennies.

Imagine standing on the top of a mountain.  As you look at the bottom, there is a heap of trash:   McDonald’s sandwich wrappers, tickets from rides at the county fair, pizza boxes, hotel receipts, chips bags—and sadly, maybe even cigarette butts, tobacco canisters, and beer cans.  For too many people, that trash heap represents where their money went last year.  Christmas came, and they worried that they would not be able to buy presents for their children.  They struggled to pay another electric bill in January, and their children don’t stand a chance of getting braces.  Amazingly, the money had actually come in—but they didn’t recognize it because it was copper, not green.   Remember:  Pennies are money too.  Just because your money is showing up in the form of nickels and dimes instead of crispy “Ben Franklins” doesn’t mean you have no money.  Are the reading glasses your child needs “dressed up” as last year’s Six Flags tickets in disguise?  

 

“ . . .Take heed, and beware of covetousness:  for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”  (Luke 12:15)

 

2.  Avoid discretionary spending if others are footing your bills. 

Like the lady who let us pay for chicken while she paid for video games, many people are comfortable asking their family, the church,  or the government to pay for their necessities (food, medical, utilities, and gas) while they finance their hobbies, birthdays, and junk food.  Are you purchasing luxury items that others are not able to afford because they are paying for your necessities—either through their taxes, their tithes, their kindness, or even because you owe them money through unpaid bills?   If you find, after receiving benefits from others, that you have money leftover—don’t buy the Wii or the electric piano or the bike.  Instead, pay off all debts and then pray about how much you can reduce your dependence on others.  You may be surprised that you might even have enough money to pay for your own groceries after all.    

 

“But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 4:19)

 

3.  Give anyway. 

If the widow with two mites (Mark 12:42) had enough to give, you and I have enough to give.  The Bible says that God asks for a tithe (10%)--regardless of our income level.  To neglect to tithe is to rob God (Malachi 3:8).  Giving back to God increases our faith because it brings us face to face with the reality that our money was never “ours” in the first place.  God blesses a cheerful giver in ways that we cannot guess—sometimes with cold cash, and sometimes with good health and a car that still runs.    

 

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  (Acts 20:35)

 

4.  Expand your skills.

Tight budgets make great teachers.  Hair cutting, cooking “from scratch”, mending, gardening, home maintenance, car repair—What we would miss if we had a million dollars!   If “knowledge is power,” then tight budgets are “power boosters.”  Learn how to “DIY”:  do-it-yourself.  And as long as libraries have free internet—what’s not to know?  I remember when I discovered how to puree our meals into baby food and then freeze them in ice cube trays for later.  Voila! We just put a few of those oddly-colored cubes into the microwave and served up three-course meals to our babies whenever they were hungry.   

 

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.” (James 1:5)    

 

5.  Chop, chop, chop!

Cable TV, a second car, dining out as a family, almost all beef, crackers, chips, cookies, lunch meat, juice (of any kind), cereal, candy, pre-packaged dinners, frozen pizza--These are just a few of the things that we simply do not buy on a regular basis.  Little by little over the years, we learned that we did not need them.  What can you shave away and still be happy?  While coupons and credit card rewards tend to get the most publicity when it comes to cutting a weekly grocery bill, the single most effective way to trim a budget is to permanently eliminate unnecessary items.   Make it a challenge to skip the “inner sections” of your grocery store—where bright boxes and pretty packaging make up a large percentage of the grocery bill.  Our grandparents grew up on ketchup sandwiches to survive the depression, but we are a generation that longs for “creature comforts.”  We really can do without and not feel deprived—with a little adjustment, of course! 

 

“And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.”  (I Timothy 6:8)

 

*********************************************************

 

Jesus said it best:

 

“Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not,

neither do they reap, nor gather into barns;

yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. 

Are ye not much better than they?”  (Matt. 6:26)