Welcome back, yesterday in Living on Less When It’s Not Enough Part 1 I shared with you how after paying all of our bills we had less than $70.00 to feed our family of 6 for two weeks and how I didn’t trust God that we would be able to make it on this amount. But after the end of two weeks we still had $55.08 left.
Continuing on with my story, today I’m sharing with you all of the events that occurred during these two weeks that proved God’s faithfulness.
The first thing that happened is we received an escrow check in the mail for $52.02. I was relieved knowing we could buy more groceries with this but at the end of the two weeks, we never used it. I guess it was God showing me that we still would have made it even without this check.
The next unexpected thing that happened, we returned an item at Walmart. The original item was no longer in stock so we found a replacement and ended up getting $20.00 back on a gift card. My husband points out to me — hey here is some extra stuff to buy groceries.
Then I received some coupons from Fresh and Easy and ended up buying $25.00 of groceries for $0.00. I had rewards points, coupons and a left over gift card for $7.00 and with the items I bought it just worked out perfectly.
This didn’t impact our income for these two weeks, but we also found out my husband got a salary increase. This was very unexpected because we were under the impression this would not happen this year.
I also scored some great deals shopping and was even able to stock up on some groceries. I found some awesome deals on cheese and lunch meats and which will last us several more weeks.
Now over the two week span we spent about $111.00 on groceries, toiletries and household necessities. Which averages to about $55.00 a week. This is amazing because we normally spend about $100.00 a week on groceries alone.
All of these events may seem like coincidences but I believe it was God showing me how much of an idiot I am and my belief that living on less isn’t possible. The stuff is right in front of us, yet we still deem it’s not enough.
We often look in our pantries, fridge and freezer and see stuff that we don’t want to eat. We actually have food on hand but we’d rather not make some of the stuff we have on hand.
I haven’t couponed in a long time and the only stockpile I really have is a few boxes of pasta and some canned beans.
This was my pantry, fridge and freezer and the end of our two weeks.
Pretty Bare huh? After my two week journey, I realized that what God gives me is enough and I am ashamed to constantly doubt him. I realized that his blessings won’t always just appear, that sometimes I have to work at it receiving them. I realize that he knows my finances but I control and must be disciplined to them.
Living on less is possible if we have/want to. Don’t doubt your abilities! If you are looking at reducing your debt, trying to make it to the next paycheck or survive a financial crisis you need to be aware of what you are spending and be willing to make sacrifices. It’s possible, you just have to want it. Living on less isn’t easy.
If you’ve found yourself in a similar situation, please comment below and share your story about living on less.
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Hi Gina, we also live paycheck to paycheck so I know how stressful it is thinking about gas and groceries every week. Those are my main concerns. Luckily things always come together to make it happen.
I love how things come together! Especially when you realize afterwards you have no idea how that happened. =)