Recently, we had friends over for dinner. We love deep chats, and so we spent most of the night talking about matters of our hearts and souls and asking some tough questions that help to form deep friendships.
At one point, my new friend asked me how much something cost, and then followed her question up with, "sorry, is that too personal?"
I joked with her about this moment, because money is such a taboo subject in our culture and in the church. We are super comfortable asking about deep, spiritual matters of people's hearts, but a lot of the time we leave money out of it.
But Jesus didn't, He actually talked about money a lot and I think it is a deep, spiritual matter of your heart. So since He didn't leave it out, I don't want to either.
As someone married to a CPA & CFP, we have lots of conversations about money. We talk about how to manage our money well, good stewardship, giving, investing and more. We also talk a lot about spending.
Recently, I read the book "The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry." A very practical and important action step included in the book was to have "spending rules." My husband and I were both intrigued by this, so we prayerfully started to craft our own.
They are rooted in the idea that everything we have is meant to be stewarded well because it is all from God. Our top priority with our finances is to honor and give back to God what is already His. But we also believe God is our provider.
We want to exercise wisdom as we spend and make purchases that make more of an impact than we might know if we aren't being thoughtful about it.
Our spending rules are to help us be more thoughtful about our choices when we spend money and how they impact our spiritual lives.
Here are our spending rules to give you some ideas if your decided to come up with your own!
Spending Rules
“Money is something you trade your life energy for.” -Your money, your life
1. If it costs more than $100, please write it down and wait a month before purchasing
2. Must wait 1 sleep before purchasing anything online
3. If you replace something, plan to donate, dispose, or sell the original
4. Consider saying out loud to your spouse (or to yourself) the spending madlib for any potential large purchase
Spending Madlib
Say it loud and say it proud…
I am buying this _____ and it will cost ____ hours of my life assuming my time is worth $20/hour. In order to get the most out of _____ I will also need to buy ________ and ______ which will cost an extra _______ dollars total. I am buying this _____ because it will ______________, _________________, and ______________. I expect to use this ______ as frequently as ______ and it will last for _____ of years. Of the other options and prices available this is the best fit because it is _____________.
What do you think of our spending rules? What would you add to our list? How do you choose to honor God with your finances?