Sticking With It

It's been almost a month under our strict new budget, and things are going well. At first it seemed like we'd never be able to stick to our tiny, shiny new budget. Our car demanded (loudly) an oil change, Henry's feet demanded bigger shoes, and my family took us on vacation for the weekend, which meant traveling and food costs we didn't anticipate. We also found the double stroller we wanted on a clearance shelf, and figured getting it now would be useful since we can take Henry and my niece for walks (disaster, by the way).

On the plus side, Greg and Henry finally went on Medicaid, saving us about 1200 dollars a month. It feels crazy just to type that. Especially since, even with winter colds and ear infections, their actual health costs are probably around 2oo a month at the most. We're still paying for my insanely expensive insurance because we don't want to switch OBs this late in the game.

About half way through the month, I thought to myself, "this is never going to happen, we are going to have credit cards for years and not be able to save anything for our business, let alone a house someday." But then God is good. He provided the business and the money, and Greg made enough to cover our bills, our cash needs like groceries, and still have enough to pay down some debt. I still can't believe it. It's the first month that we've been able to do this since Greg started working for himself.

If this sounds worrisome, it's not. When we talked to others who have started their own practices we found out that it often takes a year or more to just break even. So making enough profit in month four to support us is just amazing. I'm not sure if things will continue this way, and I'm sure we will have ups and downs, it's just the nature of having your own business. But I know that whatever happens God will provide and I am just blown away by his faithfulness this month.

One awesome thing about making that long term plan: It's so much easier to stick with a budget and say no to small stuff when you have a plan. When I consider whether or not to eat out, the choice is no longer between something great and something lame. When I'm making food at home I'm picturing us four years from now, with a 6 year old and a 4 year old and who knows what else. We own an office building and a law practice, and we've just starting house hunting! It just makes the restaurant food a little less appealing I guess.