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Where has the time gone! The past few months have been crazy around here and it looks like I have neglected you all! Three cheers for a new tutorial!
Small Town Charm
I live in an incredible place.
I got a lot of strange looks from people when I told them I was going to Arkansas for college. Despite the fact that Tulsa is less than an hour and a half to the border of Northwest Arkansas, most people in Northeast Oklahoma find that they have no reason to go further east than Tulsa for anything. I did not even know that my Alma Mater even existed until I was told about it as a Junior in High School, and I had no idea that the Bentonville, AR listed on the back of all the Walmart trucks was anywhere nearby. From what I understand, ten years ago NWA really was just where Walmart's headquarters happened to be located. The last decade has seen the area absolutely flourish. People come here to go to one of the local Universities, or for work at Walmart or another big name company's headquarters. With the addition of a world famous Museum within walking distance of the original Walton Five and Dime storefront, and a great effort from the community, this area is exploding with tourists and young families settling down. It is truly amazing how many people come here for UofA, JBU, or NWACC to get their degree and then decide to stay (or they leave and come back). Northwest Arkansas is a beautiful black hole that sucks people in and won't let them leave (I mean that in the best way possible).
I happen to live right in between Siloam Springs and Bentonville.
Siloam Springs is known for its lively downtown, with the picturesque Sager Creek running right between it and John Brown University. It was just named the safest town in Arkansas, and is in the top four of the best Arkansas small town communities. Not to mention JBU is ranked #1 in Best Value among Southern colleges according to the U.S. News and World Report. Crime is low, and so is the rent. Siloam Springs offers homes to buy or rent for a very low cost, which is another good reason to stick around and raise a family.The population since 2000 has grown 44.6%, so we must be doing something right!
Siloam Springs
Bentonville
I think the thing I love most about living in this area is the community. We are southern enough that everyone around here is so welcoming and gives off that southern hospitality, but we are far enough north that we see a lot of business culture and entrepreneurship (just going off of stereotypes here). You could have lived here for a month and everyone will make you feel like you have been a part of the community for your entire life. With endless walking/ hiking/ biking trails, rivers, rafting, camping, and caving, if you are an outdoorsman this is the place for you! If you are interested in business, you will find many of the nations biggest companies have headquarters here. There are so few places that offer the small town charm and big city resources like we do here. What more could you ask for?
As I mentioned near the beginning of this post, I live right in-between these two awesome places. If you were to visit me, you might fly into XNA, our commercial airport, or drive on a beautiful two-lane highway lined with forests full of lush green trees, fields of horses or cows, old barns right out of a photograph, or big, round, golden haybales lit-up by the evening sun.
As I mentioned near the beginning of this post, I live right in-between these two awesome places. If you were to visit me, you might fly into XNA, our commercial airport, or drive on a beautiful two-lane highway lined with forests full of lush green trees, fields of horses or cows, old barns right out of a photograph, or big, round, golden haybales lit-up by the evening sun.
Heavenly Secrets
The last two months have been a rollercoaster of emotions.
April:
- Someone randomly suggested I apply for a job in another department that I had not given a single thought about. It would be a huge promotion.
- Was offered and accepted said job.
- Took some vacation time. Went to Kentucky to spectate at RK3DE.
- Returned from vacation. Wasn't sure when I would be starting my new position, so I went about my normal routine. Discovered I was starting my new job...now. Today. Thanks for the heads up, folks.
- Car needed lots of repairs.
- Husband needed lots of repairs (dental...)
May:
- Trial by fire, tossed into the deep end, please choose your preferred metaphor. This job is crazy, but fun in its own way. How did they get by without someone filling that position? Magic, obviously.
- Received a job offer for a dream job I applied for......last year. Didn't notice the message containing the offer...yet.
- Got a message a week and a half later requesting a coffee date from a friend. Noticed job offer.
- Mulled over and stressed out about job offer. Basically made a decision to transfer, but was a little concerned about significant drop in pay.
- Additional summer roommate moved into spare room.
- Was offered a match in salary to meet my requests for the job.
Things went from good to bad to unbelievably amazing. I have completely given up trying to steer my life, as God has been taking me in circles, preparing me for the next step without me ever knowing. It's like He knows what He is doing or something....
"...since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect."
Hebrews 11:40
Remember that thing that was spoken over me in this post? Every time I turn around, I see it coming alive, more than I could have ever imagined. Just when I think it is fulfilled, it draws out further (with a few trials in between to make sure we are still trusting).
But seriously, my life is somehow amazing.
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Hurray! Finally a new tutorial!
Here is an easy one that you can do in 3 seconds (give or take a few).
Here is an easy one that you can do in 3 seconds (give or take a few).
Once Upon A Time: I Received Many Blessings (100th Post!)
Let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time, there was a young early 20-something girl, fresh out of college, and using her new degree to the fullest by working in a small cafe (sarcasm). She liked her job and the people she worked with, but the pressure from the higher-ups made work miserable. She and her new husband lived in the middle of a busy city, but never got to see any of it together. You see, she worked a great 8-4 schedule with weekends free, while he worked from 4-9 most of the week plus weekends. It was a mostly miserable year.
For two quiet, scenery-loving folks, living a noisy block away from the mall in a tiny, over priced studio tucked behind a mini strip mall with nothing but a chain-link fence for viewing pleasure, you might say it was hardly an ideal first year of marriage. The desire to move back to the beautiful place they met and were married at was overwhelming.
But what were they to do? They had no means to move. No jobs or a place to live. They were not at all the kind of people to go somewhere without a plan. So they prayed about it. She cried about it. And they prayed some more. Some time later, they felt it fully on both their hearts that this was not just something they wanted, but was something God wanted for them as well. And that was exciting. And terrifying.
The young wife told a co-worker about her anxiety over moving with only faith to carry them, and no set plan for the next few months of the couple's lives. As they were talking about it, a man walked up to the counter and ordered a coffee. They made conversation and somehow wound up discussing her plans to move. He looked at her and said, I was going to visit another cafe today to do my work, but something told me I should come here. And now I know why. God wants me to tell you that you are on the right track and are doing the right thing. If you stay where you are now, you will continue to be miserable. By this time next year, you will be much happier and will be living in His Will for you. And that was all she needed.
When the timing was right, they scrounged up the money they had saved while working, turned in their job resignations, and did not renew the lease on their apartment. And then, they were homeless. But not really. They moved everything they owned (minus a table, two stools, and another large object or two) into a borrowed bedroom. You can read that story here. They used this time to visit family and rest while they hunted for jobs. Although it was completely opposite of their personalities, they did not worry about their near future, and held on to the promise that God would take care of them. After about a month, the young wife found work at a beautiful museum in the area they wanted to live. They managed to snag a nice, affordable apartment in a quiet area just outside of town. You can read that crazy story here. A few months later, the husband found decent work and they were able to replenish their savings.
The end (but not really).
Yes, this story is of course about me.
Now, almost a year to the day the man came into my cafe with a message, I am telling you this story. I have not felt able to fully share the story publicly, as this stranger was ministering to me very personally. But, I felt the need to share it now. Not to talk about how great my faith is (but seriously, it would have been way easier if I had half the amount of faith I should), or how great my life is (I could complain about it all day long if I wanted to. Honestly, I am quite selfish. If my husband was not so wonderful, he could tell you.), but rather to give you some encouragement if you are in an awkward point of your life, and to record it for myself, so I do not forget God's faithfulness despite my selfishness.
On a side note, today I was given a wonderful gift. It was an encouragement during a stressful time and a huge blessing. I don't need to say who or what it was, but you know who you are. Thank you. With all my heart. You can be sure I will pay it forward.
Once upon a time, there was a young early 20-something girl, fresh out of college, and using her new degree to the fullest by working in a small cafe (sarcasm). She liked her job and the people she worked with, but the pressure from the higher-ups made work miserable. She and her new husband lived in the middle of a busy city, but never got to see any of it together. You see, she worked a great 8-4 schedule with weekends free, while he worked from 4-9 most of the week plus weekends. It was a mostly miserable year.
For two quiet, scenery-loving folks, living a noisy block away from the mall in a tiny, over priced studio tucked behind a mini strip mall with nothing but a chain-link fence for viewing pleasure, you might say it was hardly an ideal first year of marriage. The desire to move back to the beautiful place they met and were married at was overwhelming.
But what were they to do? They had no means to move. No jobs or a place to live. They were not at all the kind of people to go somewhere without a plan. So they prayed about it. She cried about it. And they prayed some more. Some time later, they felt it fully on both their hearts that this was not just something they wanted, but was something God wanted for them as well. And that was exciting. And terrifying.
The young wife told a co-worker about her anxiety over moving with only faith to carry them, and no set plan for the next few months of the couple's lives. As they were talking about it, a man walked up to the counter and ordered a coffee. They made conversation and somehow wound up discussing her plans to move. He looked at her and said, I was going to visit another cafe today to do my work, but something told me I should come here. And now I know why. God wants me to tell you that you are on the right track and are doing the right thing. If you stay where you are now, you will continue to be miserable. By this time next year, you will be much happier and will be living in His Will for you. And that was all she needed.
When the timing was right, they scrounged up the money they had saved while working, turned in their job resignations, and did not renew the lease on their apartment. And then, they were homeless. But not really. They moved everything they owned (minus a table, two stools, and another large object or two) into a borrowed bedroom. You can read that story here. They used this time to visit family and rest while they hunted for jobs. Although it was completely opposite of their personalities, they did not worry about their near future, and held on to the promise that God would take care of them. After about a month, the young wife found work at a beautiful museum in the area they wanted to live. They managed to snag a nice, affordable apartment in a quiet area just outside of town. You can read that crazy story here. A few months later, the husband found decent work and they were able to replenish their savings.
The end (but not really).
Yes, this story is of course about me.
Now, almost a year to the day the man came into my cafe with a message, I am telling you this story. I have not felt able to fully share the story publicly, as this stranger was ministering to me very personally. But, I felt the need to share it now. Not to talk about how great my faith is (but seriously, it would have been way easier if I had half the amount of faith I should), or how great my life is (I could complain about it all day long if I wanted to. Honestly, I am quite selfish. If my husband was not so wonderful, he could tell you.), but rather to give you some encouragement if you are in an awkward point of your life, and to record it for myself, so I do not forget God's faithfulness despite my selfishness.
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:25-34)
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:25-34)
On a side note, today I was given a wonderful gift. It was an encouragement during a stressful time and a huge blessing. I don't need to say who or what it was, but you know who you are. Thank you. With all my heart. You can be sure I will pay it forward.
Building A Better Budget
Since the start of this year, my husband and I have been reevaluating our budget. We are very fortunate to have zero debt and plan to keep it that way in every way we can. However, that does not mean we have extra money to blow every month and we find that we still need a plan for our finances. I am no financial expert, and we are still working out the kinks in our budget, but I thought I would share a few things that have been incredibly helpful to us in the last few months.
My number one tip? Budget your spending money!
Starting in January, we added a new category to the budget. Spending money! I'll explain why this was such a game changer for us and can be for you as well. In the past, if we wanted to buy something we would just ask the other if it was ok. Is it alright if I spend $5 for this game? Do you mind if I spend a few dollars on a coffee? Is it ok if I get this shirt? We try to be very communicative about our finances and not just spend money without the other knowing. Well, naturally we never said to the other, No you can't get that, or Sorry, I really don't think you should get that, even though we technically have enough money. This of course, led to many small purchases which added up to a substantial amount of money every month being eaten out of our bank account.
Both of us work, but we are not great about taking lunches everyday. Thus, we spend money on lunch most days (we are working on this!). Also, if I want to buy something for myself when my husband isn't around, it seems a bit silly to call and ask every time for every little thing. So, here is our solution.
At the beginning of the month we each get our allowance/spending money. I have mine and N has his. This is our money to do with whatever we want. But, it is reserved for certain things, which are listed below. We also use cash for spending money (whereas we would usually just use our bank card) so it only comes out of our bank account once a month (I will go into online purchases further down).
Lunch (or meals when we are not together)
We have money budgeted for groceries, but eating out individually cuts pretty deep into that category. If we choose not to bring a lunch to work, or if we want to stop and grab something on days that we won't be able to have dinner together, we use our spending money for that.
Non-necessity personal items
Clothes, coffee, PC games, books, accessories, or anything that is not already budgeted that we want to get. We do have a category for household items, so things like shampoo and deodorant are safely budgeted there. It isn't a necessity for me to get that cute shirt, so that is up to me to buy from my personal spending money.
Gifts
On (rare) occasions we like to buy each other things. It wouldn't be much of a surprise for me if I looked at the bank account and saw N had just spent $20 at a flower shop, nor would it be very romantic if he called to ask if he could spend money to buy me flowers. So, it is nice to have funds available for those kinds of things now and then.
Online spending
We purchase a lot of things online, particularly my husband who is a PC gamer and can't pass up a good humble bundle on steam (if you have no idea what I just wrote, don't worry about it. It is a gamer thing.). We have an envelope for "money to deposit." If we make a personal purchase online or with a check (I do actually use checks on some occasions!) we take that amount out of our allowance cash and put it in the envelope. We then take it to the bank as we need to, but often end up redistributing that money at the beginning of the month so we don't have to withdraw anything from the bank.
Our allowance is ours to spend as we please, but it also is ours to budget. Once it is gone, it is gone. If I blow all my cash on something at the beginning of the month, that means I don't get to eat out for lunch, nor can I grab that coffee I really want later on in the month.
Savings
We recently opened up a savings account. We did have a savings account set up already, but it was with a out of town bank and we have that money reserved only for major emergencies at this time. It was high time for us to get a savings account adjacent to our checking account. When all of your funds are in one account it feels like you have more money to spend than you actually do, and you don't notice as much when you are spending a lot of money. We have a certain amount that we keep in our checking account at the start of each month. Anything that is over that amount is transferred to savings before we pay our bills on the first of the month. What is left in our checking is what we have budgeted, plus some wiggle room so that we don't have to transfer out of savings into checking if there is an emergency, or when we want to make a larger purchase that is not in the monthly budget (e.g. We have been in the market for a futon and found one we liked yesterday. I was able to write a check and know there was enough money in the account for me to make the purchase.). We do have the luxury of two pay checks, so we have more available to put in savings. If you are working on a single paycheck, it may take a little longer for you to build up enough outside of your monthly budget to do this, however if you are able to live within your means and not spend a lot of extra money, I think you will find that before long you will be able to transfer money to savings and/or pay off your debt faster.
To be honest, we still spend a lot of money. We are still living more generously than we could and should be. But having budgeted spending money has made a huge difference. Since we have a separate emergency savings, we are currently building up our normal savings account in order to purchase a new car (rather, new to us). We are still quite a long way off from our target, but since we started this upgraded budget 2.5 months ago, we have greatly increased our savings!
Do you have any good budgeting tips?
