Some Improvement: December 2010

Well, I've tried fourteen times to make this image bigger, to no avail.

Not sure that a blog centered around the idea of accountability carries quite the same weight if your audience has to use a magnifying glass to read the data...please forgive me, I'll try to figure this out for next week, when the weekly updates really will start.

December was better. Not perfect, nowhere near, but better. We still spent more than we brought in, which is a problem, but much less than before.

And while we still spent far too much on food, we shaved more than $500 off of November's expenses, thanks in part to our action plan, which was:

1. Curb Starbucks spending
2. Eat out once a week (not quite there, but better)
3. Grocery shop once a week, with a list (almost)

We took a vacation in November, so those expenses were also gone, but we used more childcare and did some year-end giving that wasn't planned for.

In church this morning, our senior pastor told the story of a young couple who cashed out a chunk of their retirement when they were in their thirties to buy and renovate a house so that homeless families could have a place to stay while they got back on their feet. What an amazing blessing that must have been...both for the families and that young couple. My only prayer is that when God calls Giehl and I to make a leap of faith like that, that we'll be open and quiet enough to hear.