and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food."
from Isaiah 55
When we created our first budget, we discovered that I spent a lot of money on food that did not satisfy.
We made our first budget out of necessity - I was in college, Kendall had given up her job to spend time with our new baby boy, and for the first time our income was lower than our expenses. We followed standard advice and started by tracking our money. Where did it all go?
We found that I spent lots of money on lunches and snacks. I ate out between classes most days, and although simple restaurant lunches are relatively inexpensive compared to fancy ones, they're still much more expensive than a well-prepared sack lunch. And snacks from snack machines are ridiculous. We found a simple solution: I stopped carrying cash (this was in the days when you didn't use a credit card for a two dollar expense.) We created a minimal budget and lived within it.
Since this wasn't very different from what we were already doing, it was pretty easy - and when I got a teaching job, we kept living at a similar standard. We kept the budget we had, with two basic changes: we bought a house instead of renting*, and our charitable giving skyrocketed. I'm pretty sure I was the only Computer Science professor who took a sack lunch to work. It was fun. There is great joy in being able to do big things to help others.
And then... I became a pastor, and slowly we began to trade more and more money for time. Some of these trades were probably good ones - a pastor's time is very valuable, and some days there are more important and urgent things to do than there are time. But as we got more used to trading money for time, various expenses became habits rather than time-savers; and as we got used to spending a bit more money, other expenses seemed more reasonable. I have many regular expenses these days that Wesley wouldn't approve of - soda pop, craft beer**, and Netflix would certainly be on his "no" list. Writing this blog is helping me rethink some of my spending priorities.
Where's a good balance between "saving all you can" vs. saving time and enjoying the pleasures of creation? On the one hand, the world is much more productive now than in Jesus' day; it seems unreasonable to all try and live like first century peasants. On the other hand, half of our neighbors are living on less than $2.50 per day - with this kind of poverty and our global economy, wouldn't Christ ask us to be leaders in caring for the poor?
We made our first budget out of necessity - I was in college, Kendall had given up her job to spend time with our new baby boy, and for the first time our income was lower than our expenses. We followed standard advice and started by tracking our money. Where did it all go?
We found that I spent lots of money on lunches and snacks. I ate out between classes most days, and although simple restaurant lunches are relatively inexpensive compared to fancy ones, they're still much more expensive than a well-prepared sack lunch. And snacks from snack machines are ridiculous. We found a simple solution: I stopped carrying cash (this was in the days when you didn't use a credit card for a two dollar expense.) We created a minimal budget and lived within it.
Since this wasn't very different from what we were already doing, it was pretty easy - and when I got a teaching job, we kept living at a similar standard. We kept the budget we had, with two basic changes: we bought a house instead of renting*, and our charitable giving skyrocketed. I'm pretty sure I was the only Computer Science professor who took a sack lunch to work. It was fun. There is great joy in being able to do big things to help others.
And then... I became a pastor, and slowly we began to trade more and more money for time. Some of these trades were probably good ones - a pastor's time is very valuable, and some days there are more important and urgent things to do than there are time. But as we got more used to trading money for time, various expenses became habits rather than time-savers; and as we got used to spending a bit more money, other expenses seemed more reasonable. I have many regular expenses these days that Wesley wouldn't approve of - soda pop, craft beer**, and Netflix would certainly be on his "no" list. Writing this blog is helping me rethink some of my spending priorities.
Where's a good balance between "saving all you can" vs. saving time and enjoying the pleasures of creation? On the one hand, the world is much more productive now than in Jesus' day; it seems unreasonable to all try and live like first century peasants. On the other hand, half of our neighbors are living on less than $2.50 per day - with this kind of poverty and our global economy, wouldn't Christ ask us to be leaders in caring for the poor?
What do you think?
What's a "reasonable amount" to spend on oneself? One's family? Is it even reasonable to ask this question?
*For those who are going to live in one place for a long time, buying is much better than renting, in terms of saving money. Our house equity is gone - we used it to pay for half a Habitat for Humanity house (which was great fun, and inspired much greater giving in our church).
**Wesley was not opposed to alcohol in itself. He was opposed to drunkenness, to the ease with which liquor led to drunkenness, and (surprisingly) to hops. He brewed his own hops-free beer (wort). His opposition appears to have come from his belief that hops were injurious to our health.
What's a "reasonable amount" to spend on oneself? One's family? Is it even reasonable to ask this question?
*For those who are going to live in one place for a long time, buying is much better than renting, in terms of saving money. Our house equity is gone - we used it to pay for half a Habitat for Humanity house (which was great fun, and inspired much greater giving in our church).
**Wesley was not opposed to alcohol in itself. He was opposed to drunkenness, to the ease with which liquor led to drunkenness, and (surprisingly) to hops. He brewed his own hops-free beer (wort). His opposition appears to have come from his belief that hops were injurious to our health.
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