Blessed with enough

Sallie of A Gracious Home is celebrating a year of abundance and has invited us to join her. I have wanted to join in since she started this but just had not gotten around to writing about it. Our experiences over the past two weeks have been so incredible to me that I can no longer resist the urge to blog about them.

My husband gets paid every two weeks, and I do the bulk of my shopping on the first Thursday night of each pay period. (I absolutely despise shopping and try to do it as little as possible!) Mr. Incredible also usually averages 6-7 hours of overtime per paycheck, and even though that amount is not included in our basic budget, we still manage to find ways to use it. *grin* The point is that the last two checks have only had 3 hours or less of overtime, meaning that we have to stick strictly to our budget.

This last paycheck, I paid our tithe/offering and the necessary bills only to find that we only had $96 left, and I had not yet purchased groceries/household items for our family of five or gotten any gas for the minivan. Our budget for groceries/household items for two weeks is $150 (we usually spend more than that, too) and the gas budget is $37.50 - a total of $187.50 and nearly $100 less than what we had in our account.

Well, I was determined that we were not going to dip into our savings yet again if I could possibly help it. I looked carefully through my freezer and pantry, planning out 14 dinners that, as much as possible, featured items I already had on hand. I then made a list of the other items we absolutely had to have to complete the menu and replenish essential items, like toilet paper and diapers. Then, armed with my list, I went shopping.

After purchasing everything on my list, I had spent only $81! Wow! That left about $15 in our account, and it had to last for two weeks. Shortly thereafter, $5 went for trash tickets. (We live in a rural area and have to purchase trash tickets if we want the private garbage collectors to pick up our trash.) Another $9 and some change was spent to purchase more bread and milk - we had used more than normal since we were eating sandwiches more often than normal. Okay, now we were down to $.78 in our account, and we still had a week to go.

Driving home from church on Sunday, my husband remarked that we had less than 1/4 tank of gas and would certainly need to put more gas in soon. I had not yet put any gas in the van. Then, when we got home, I noted that we needed yet another gallon of milk, more eggs, oil, and another loaf of bread. I resigned myself to withdrawing $20 from savings UNTIL...

I remembered some items that needed to be returned: an expandable file, a pair of slippers, and a pack of underwear that fit no one because one of the girls had managed to throw into the grocery cart on some previous trip to the store. When I returned the items, I received $19.63 in return. Close enough; thank you, Lord!

I was able to purchase the items I needed and even bought one non-essential snack item for Mr. Incredible. I put $5 of gas in the van - enough to make it until Thursday night Mr. Incredible's next paycheck will be deposited. I still had $3 left.

Last night, I had to buy some chicken for supper. Guess what? I bought 2 packs of boneless skinless breast tenders, and the total price was $2.96. I have $.04 left! I'm rich!

To me, this past two weeks has been evidence of the Lord's blessing on our family and also illustrates the fact that so much of what we think is "necessary" really is not at all necessary. None of us have gone hungry or lacked for anything. Even in circumstances that some would deem lacking, I am truly blessed with abundance.