The Beautiful Life

Make-Do Budgeting

I’m not a regular participant in Make-Do Mondays. Maybe it’s because I’m not that resourceful. In fact, this week’s tip actually belongs to my husband. A lot of us have heard of Dave Ramsey’s cash envelope budgeting method. I know several friends who have used it quite successfully. But our family does much of its shopping online. Cash doesn’t work so well for those kinds of purchases. My husband also travels a lot, which would be really inconvenient without a credit card. We also earn cash back with our credit card, which comes in handy for paying taxes at the end of the year.

We are really pretty good about our spending, but lately we have needed to make a few major purchases that have made things tight around here. I really wanted to try out the envelope system, but not give up the convenience of the credit card. Enter the Make-Do Envelope Budgeting System.

It’s simple, really. Get a bunch of envelopes, and mark them with the various areas that you spend money in. Things like entertainment, food, gas, clothing, etc. Make an extra envelope and label it “spent/change.” Write the amount of your monthly budget in the corner. Now go to your game closet, find your Monopoly set, or any other game with play money that you can’t get out now that you have children. Pull out enough “cash” to cover your monthly budget, plus some extras for your “spent/change” envelope. Since you aren’t using real money, you’ll have to make change for yourself. Now put the allotted amount in each envelope, plus the extra in the “spent/change” envelope. Isn’t this getting fun?

Now every time you use your credit card, bank card, whatever, get out your stack of envelopes and redistribute the money. We like to make it easy and round off our purchases to the nearest dollar. Our budget is a tool, not an inconvenience. Plus my math skills aren’t so great, so it makes it easier on my maxed-out Mommy brain.

Don’t forget to put your envelopes in a kid-proof place just in case they decide they want to play “budget.” Unless you have a written record somewhere, it won’t be pretty.

Making your home a place of refuge

We’re in week 5 of the book study over at Passionate Homemaking. This week is all about making your home a place of refuge. For some of us, it means inviting someone to stay for an extended visit. For others, it’s having a guest room always available for someone coming in from out of town. Those are great things to aspire to, but it can also be an overwhelming thought for someone like me. In the midst of homeschooling three young children, working from home, keeping up with the housework, etc. it can be enough to push me over the edge. I’m an introvert, and I need time alone to feel like myself. So how can I make my home a place of refuge?

Well, for starters, our home should be a place of refuge for my family. I want my family to always be glad to come home. Practically speaking, keeping the house tidy and having something in the pot for dinner go a long way. But even more important is my attitude. Am I making each person in my family feel welcome, safe, secure in our home? Am I showing love in my actions and words? When my husband comes home from work, am I distracted and grumpy, or do I take the time to put down what I am doing, and reconnect after a long day? When my children are sad or frustrated, do I say “just a minute” and spend another half hour on the computer? Or do I stop what I am doing and take the time to make eye contact and give them a hug?

What about others outside of our immediate family? I can invite a newcomer over for lunch after church, or a sister to eat cookies and hang out in the middle of a busy week at school. I can take a meal to a grieving widow, or a new mom. A break from loneliness, from boredom, from busy-ness, from stress, from the pressures of life. Refuge.

And it’s not just our homes that become places of refuge, but we ourselves become a refuge. Christ is our refuge, and because He lives in us, we can be a refuge to others.

“But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, so that those who love your name may exult in you.” –Psalm 5:11

Cleaning for Busy People

We’re on week 4 of the Practicing Hospitality book study over at Passionate Homemaking. This week is about getting organized, establishing a routine–learning how to manage your home, instead of letting it run over you!

One of the recommendations in the book was to work on keeping your house tidy, so that no matter who stops by, or when, you won’t be embarassed. For those of you who have known me very long at all, you’ve probably heard me talk about the book Scaling Down. It’s a fun-to-read, motivating book about how to make do with less. I read it at least twice a year when I need to be inspired to go and get rid of some stuff. I love the feeling of freeing up space in my home, of being able to bless another family with things that we don’t need anymore. With three kids ages 6 and under, someone is always outgrowing something. Regularly going through your stuff and getting rid of things that you don’t love or don’t use really cuts down on cleaning time. And that’s really important to this homeschooling, work-at-home mom. I love it that the kids can get out everything in the house and it only takes about half an hour to put it all back. That makes me happy.

I also try to get the kitchen cleaned up each night, while dinner is cooking, and then load the dishwasher. I set it to run in the middle of the night so that I can keep throwing stuff in there right up to bed time. We also do a quick pick up with the kids right before they go to bed. Then on Fridays, I run the vacuum and do a quick bathroom clean. I might also mop and clean windows if I’m feeling inspired. It takes me less than half an hour. Then on the weekends, I try to deep clean a room of the house if I have time. I love this schedule because all I have to do is remember my Friday morning cleaning and keep up with a few little things during the week, and my house looks pretty good.

Of course, we all have days when we are sick, tired or just need a day off. If you stop by on one of those days, I can clear a spot at the kitchen table and we can have some chocolate, because chocolate always makes everything better.

Practicing Hospitality

My sister and I have been reading this book called “Practicing Hospitality: The Joy of Serving Others” and loosely following along with the book study over at Passionate Homemaking. I’ve never been very good at “hospitality.” I think it’s a combination of us never having people over when I was a kid, and me being a recovering perfectionist. But the title of the book intriguied me, and it has a pretty cover, so I bought it.

I’ve just browsed so far, but what has really stuck out to me is the emphasis on changing our attitudes about hospitality. When I do have guests in my home, the focus is so often on getting the food just right, keeping the kids out of the toilet paper, making sure no one trips over toys on the way in, that I forget about why I’m having guests over in the first place. Is my goal to entertain for the evening and for everyone to just have a nice time? Or is my goal to show love? I’m not saying good food isn’t important, but maybe what is more important is meaningful conversation, making a deliberate effort to get past the superficial level that so many of us live in, at least in public. I want people to come to my house and feel loved and cared for, not just entertained.