Don’t Fall into the Home Improvement Trap

Remember when the only home improvement show on prime time TV starred Tim Allen and had almost nothing to do with actual home repairs?

Now home improvement shows are everywhere—Extreme Home Makeover, Love It or List It and Curb Appeal are a few of the dozens of reality shows that let us watch people turn their “ordinary” houses into dream homes.

Reality TV to Real Life

This isn’t just entertaining television; it’s a way of life.

We spend hours surfing Pinterest for design ideas. We spend entire Saturday afternoons wandering the aisles of IKEA and Lowe’s. And we spend thousands of dollars turning our homes into miniature palaces.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Americans spent $130 billion on home improvement projects in 2013. Yes, that’s billion, with a “b.”

Necessary or Excessive?

I understand that many home improvement projects are absolutely necessary. A hole in the roof, for example, is not something you want to overlook. But we all know a good chunk of that $130 billion isn’t going toward roof repairs. It’s going toward one creature comfort after another until we no longer have a reason to leave the walls of our home.

When did home improvement in the United States become an obsession—and an idol?

I’m not here to determine what is a reasonable home repair for you and what’s excessive; I’m just asking you to think about it.

I’m not trying to tell you how much money to spend; just make sure it’s carefully budgeted like anything else.

I’m not looking to give you a guilt trip about how your living space ranks on a global scale. I am reminding you to be thankful.

Finding a Balance

It’s good to make our homes safe, clean, peaceful places where families can live and play and grow together.

It’s not good to make our homes into idols, where precious time, energy and money are taken away from the most important parts of life—our relationships with God and one another.

I’ll leave you with the words of 1 John 2:15-17 from The Message. These are words that continually challenge me. I hope they’ll do the same for you.

Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father.

Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him.

The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

5 Things I Do Before Buying Anything

When it’s time to go shopping—whether you’re walking into a store or surfing the web—you want to make sure you’re getting the best deal possible. And locking in a great deal comes down to more than just “sale” signs. Below are five things I’ve learned to do before buying anything. Turn them into a mental checklist before you make your next purchase and see how much cash you can save.

Check my wallet

Few things are more infuriating than rushing through the checkout line only to find an unused coupon hiding in your purse…after you’ve left the building, of course. (Can you tell I’ve experienced this a few times?) Now I keep all my coupons in one place and sift through them before I get to the front of the checkout line to make sure I’m not forgetting anything.

Check my phone

Whether I’m pulling up a store’s discount app (such as Cartwheel from Target) or using a general barcode scanner app to compare prices, I try to make sure I’m getting the best deal possible. I also check through email and texts for any mobile coupons. Plenty of stores will regularly send you coupons just for signing up for their email alerts (Old Navy, Payless and Bed Bath & Beyond are a few examples). Create a new email account if you don’t want promotional emails clogging up your regular inbox.

Do my research

For large purchases like electronics, my husband and I are pretty thorough with our research. For example, we don’t want to pay full price for the latest iPhone if a newer model is coming out in a month. It’s also good to check customer reviews and get a feel for when certain products may go on sale (Black Friday sales, for example). Big purchases should not be impulse buys.

Use EBATES or AmazonSmile if possible

If you do any amount of online shopping, you need to check out these two websites. EBATES gives you cash back for online purchases you’d be making anyway. AmazonSmile gives a percentage of your purchase to the registered nonprofit of your choice. There are nearly 1 million charities to choose from. Some of my favorites are my local church, Compassion International, Samaritan’s Purse and Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (full disclosure: I work for BGEA). If you’re going to buy something anyway, you might as well help out a worthy cause while you’re at it, right?

Say “no” to the store’s credit card offer

If you can’t tell, I’m all about saving a buck whenever possible…with one exception. You will not see me digging through a wallet full of store credit cards. Believe me, I know it’s tempting to get that extra 10 or 20 percent off for “signing up today” for a new credit card from Sears, Kohl’s, Target, Marshall’s and on and on. The retailers push those cards so hard because they know that they—not the consumer—will usually win in the long run. Getting 15 percent off isn’t really a good deal when you have so many cards to keep track of that you forget to pay one on time and get slapped with a 20 percent interest charge.

Sometimes my prayers sound like a heavenly To Do List for God. I fill in different names and circumstances depending on the day.

Oh, God, please heal _________ from _________.

Comfort _________, who is struggling with _________.

Keep _________ safe while he travels.

Show my skeptical friend, _________ that you love her.

Forgive me for _________.

I know I’m not the only one with a laundry list of prayer requests. And the Bible says we should pray for one another, so there is nothing wrong with asking God for those things.

There’s also nothing wrong with putting the list down from time to time and just being thankful for what God has already done.

The Thanksgiving season seems as good a time as any to do so.

If, like me, it’s been a while since you set the list aside (God already knows it better than you do, by the way) and just thanked Him, would you join me in offering a simple prayer of thanksgiving this season?

If we practice thankfulness, perhaps our prayer list will begin to look a little more like this:

Oh, God, thank you for the time you healed _________ from _________.

Thank you for comforting me when I was struggling with _________.

Thank you for all the times you’ve kept _________ safe while he traveled.

Thank you for loving my skeptical friend, _________, even if she doesn’t know it yet.

And thank you, thank you, thank you for allowing your own Son to die and come back to life, all so that I could be forgiven. You are amazing. In Jesus’ name, amen.

The FaithWorks Financial Team wishes you a happy and blessed Thanksgiving.

Christmas shopping stresses me out.

I can think of about 20 reasons why, but I’ll just give you my top five: Big family, small budget, mall crowds, time crunch, and what I like to call “gift perfectionism”—the unhealthy need to track down the perfect gift for each person on my list, from my husband to that second cousin I only see at weddings and funerals.

Oh, and my “sleigh” is too small. I live hundreds of miles from most of my family, which means I fly to my hometown for Christmas. And for some reason, US Airways doesn’t seem to want to transport my 32 Christmas gifts from Point A to Point B without charging some exorbitant fee.

A Perfect Storm

You see, from the mall parking lot to the airport, the whole Christmas shopping endeavor is a perfect storm. More often than not, I end up losing my cool, busting my budget and more importantly, forgetting all about the fact that Christmas is not about me. Or presents. Or shopping malls. It’s about celebrating the day our Savior showed up in our world on a rescue mission.

So, this year, how about we rescue ourselves from the chaos and financial strain of Christmas shopping and free up some time to focus on Jesus?

We don’t have to skip the gift giving entirely, but we can certainly find ways to significantly cut down on shopping stress.

Trim the Tree…And Your Shopping List

One of the best ways to trim your holiday shopping list is to get the whole family (or church group or workplace department) to use the Secret Santa approach. You probably know how this works—put everyone’s name in a hat and have each person pick a name. Then set a spending limit and stick to it. If you typically purchase gifts for 10 people, you just reduced your shopping list by 90 percent. Can you feel the stress melting away?

If you’re thinking, “My family is far away, so the names in a hat thing isn’t very practical,” no problem. The online Secret Santa Generator has you covered, and it’s free.

Just make sure you don’t put it off. To make this new gift-giving method a success, it’s important to work out the details well in advance…not two days before Christmas.

Whether you try the Secret Santa idea or get creative with other ways of lessening your holiday shopping bills, now is the time to get everyone on board.

Don’t put up with another year of the same old, preventable stresses. Make a change now, and enjoy a truly merry Christmas later.

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I’ve heard it said that there’s a difference between “simple” and “easy.” The steps to getting and staying out of debt are simple, but they’re not easy. If they were, everyone would be debt free.

Here’s another truth about financial freedom: it takes more than willpower. Maybe you’re struggling to get (or stay) on financial track. Or maybe you’re doing pretty well but could use a little boost to propel you to the next level. If that’s the case, check out these five tips and be inspired to take that extra step toward financial peace.

 Have an accountability partner

We’ve posted about the importance of having a “foxhole friend” to keep you accountable when it comes to spending habits and financial goals. If you’re married, the natural choice is probably your spouse, but it’s also a good idea to have a friend or another couple to keep you on the straight and narrow.

This doesn’t mean revealing your salary, your 401(k) balance and every little detail of your budget. It’s about finding encouragement, seeking wise counsel, and having someone in your life who isn’t afraid to say, “no” to frivolous purchases and bad financial choices.

 Post goals and reminders where you’ll see them often

There’s something powerful about speaking a goal out loud. It makes it real. Equally powerful, I believe, is the act of writing (or typing) out your goal.

Do you want to be debt free by next Christmas? Write it down.

Do you want to save $40,000 to put down on a house? Write it down.

Post a sticky note where you’ll see it. Use your calendar app to remind yourself to take action. Whatever you do, make it concrete and visible.

Be part of a small group

Whatever challenge you may be facing, it’s important to remember you’re not alone. But sometimes we have no way of knowing someone else has gone through the same thing we’re experiencing unless we fess up and put ourselves out there.

Make it a priority to get involved in some kind of small group or Bible study. Many churches also offer financial education classes, which is a great way to learn about a biblical view of money while meeting others who are in the same boat. You can share ideas and help each other reach your goals faster.

Create space for a daily “quiet time.”

If you have financial problems, chances are they didn’t just fall out of the sky. There are underlying beliefs and habits that led to the problems.

So, how do we change our attitudes and fix what’s broken? Through daily, intimate time with God.

Whether you have to wake up 30 minutes earlier, find a quieter lunch break spot or skip a TV show, do what it takes to make time with God a priority.

Dive into the Bible.

Journal.

Pray.

It’s amazing how a few minutes spent communing with God can change us from the inside out.

Track and celebrate your progress

Nothing is quite as motivating as a win. When I’m working to lose weight and I see that I’ve dropped a couple of pounds since my last weigh-in, I get an extra pep in my step, and I’m motivated to work even harder. The same is true for most of us when it comes dropping debt or hitting a financial goal.

Track your progress carefully and don’t let a win slip by without some kind of recognition. We’re more likely to keep on pushing when we mark our successes and celebrate them well.

The celebration doesn’t have to be lavish; the simple act of pausing to recognize an achievement can go a long way.

So, are you ready to get that next win?

Go!

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