are credit cards evil? because they certainly haven’t been evil to us. i know the reasons why they can be evil but overall, i think credit cards fall under the same concept-the love of money is evil. if you love money, it will be lord of your life, that is certain. and you can’t trust yourself with something that technically allows you to spend money you don’t have, i have one piece of advice for you: don’t get a credit card.

BUT, here’s what we’ve found about credit cards: they are manageable AND they can reap reward. here’s a little summary of my history with credit cards.

i got a credit card right when i turn 18, three years ago. i had a fulltime job and made way more money then i needed as a single lady living in cheap housing. i didn’t get a credit card because i thought i needed it. and i didn’t get a credit card so that i could buy things that i wanted.
i had heard of the sharky world of creditors and of people being swallowed whole by credit card companies because they owed so much. i had heard of that fateful credit report that made you or broke you. i had heard how little it takes to ruin your credit and how long it takes to rebuild it. i had also heard of all the young people who had no credit. and well, i wanted to start right. i wanted good credit.

so in my three years of credit card history:

• i’ve never carried a balance
• i’ve had one late payment
• i’ve made close to $250 bucks
• i have excellent credit

my experience with credit cards is that they can make you money. we have a credit card from chase bank that give us 5% rewards on all the gas we purchase at bp, 2% rewards on travel & dining and 1% on everything else.

we fill up at char’s, a bp station that i like to give my patronage to anyway and we spend about $150 a month on gas. that is $7.50 of FREE money each month-or $90 a year. um, i’ll take it!

we also buy our plane tickets on this card. we’ll probably fly at least once a year as bryan’s family lives on the coasts. we just bought tickets to california for $500 and got $10 bucks for it.

that’s already $100 bucks a year that we’re making because we’re spending on things we need and have budgeted already. other then those two major budgeted items, we also use the card for major purchases that we’ve saved for. for instance, bryan is going to the eye doctor next week. instead of taking the cash we saved, or writing a check, we’re going to use our card and get the 1% reward for it. might as well, right?

seriously, sometimes i secretly wonder if chase is kicking themselves in the pants because they’ve given me around $200 bucks and have not been able to charge me interest. but then i think about all of the people that are spending more then they have and are being charged 18% interest and i am reminded of why they can shell out these sweet rewards.

i guess this weeks frugal friday tip is to take advantage of FREE things, but be careful with those that are offering it. if we would have been unwise with our credit card, that $200 in rewards would have been lost a long time ago.

this is officially my first “frugal living” post! i wrote an introduction here explaining why its so fun for me to save money as well as how it benefits me and my husband!

i was always trying to save money during my 13.5 months of wedding planning. here is one big way i saved-we made our own wedding programs. we also did part of our invitations the same way, but as these were entirely hand-crafted, i thought this was a better example.

we used:

• about 300 sheets of printing paper-this paper was thicker then regular multi-purpose or copy paper, making it a little more durable during the process
• a cheap dark tea (in bags)
• ink. we had to replace my friend leah’s printer cartridges only once
• elbow grease-it took a lot of work and i had brown hands for about a week, but it was totally worth it

we poured the tea into these trays so that we could soak the paper more easily
we soaked each sheet for about a minute
oh yeah, note the design already printed on the paper.
we pre-printed a pretty design on the paper, and it faded as it got wet and baked-
it had a really cool effect!

after soaking the paper, we baked the paper for another minute at around 250 degrees

then we dried out the paper on towels

then we ironed for a flatter sheet of paper.
(this was mostly so we could run the sheets through the printer)

running the paper through the printer was probably the hardest part of the whole process. we made sure the paper was lined up correctly and that the paper didn’t catch on the inside.

these are the programs before they are cut and tyed together.

welcome to mrs. alsbury’s first official post about her strivings to live up to one sure aspect of a proverbs 31 woman: frugal living.
when i think of being frugal, i think of a few things:

• living within your means
• using the money you have wisely
• being efficient with your time (as my friend paige always says, “time is money”)
• being creative with what you have
• using your hands in a constructive way

in my opinion, the primary theme behind all of the above is, “not eating the bread of idleness.” in order to carry out those ideas, i can not be lazy. i must discipline my mind, my body and definitely my heart if i choose to be a frugal woman.
i am making that choice, because i really think it is biblical to be such a woman and such a wife. i have never really been so interested in proverbs 31 as i am now-now that i am a wife. as i was thinking about being frugal as a wife, these bold words really popped out at me in a new way. just look at all of the references to what i believe we can call “frugality!”

“an excellent wife who can find? she is far more precious than jewels. the heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. she does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. she seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. she is like the ships of the merchant; she brings her food from afar. she rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. she considers a field an buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. she dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. she perceives that her merchandise is profitable. her lamp does not go out at night. she puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle. she opens her hand to the poor and reaches her hands out to the needy. she is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet. she makes bed coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple. her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. she makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchant. strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the days to come. she opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. she looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.’ charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. give her of the fruit of her hand, and let her works praise her in the gates.” -proverbs 31:10-31

there are so many aspects of this woman that i want to emulate in my own life and being frugal is simply one of them. but i was amazed and encouraged by how many references there were to hard work and making the most of what you have.
i wanted to share with all of the friends and family who read this blog my goals and striving to be a godly woman and an awesome wife. i’m so excited to share our ups and downs with you!

Goal #1: pay off our debt!
we are super blessed to have two pretty great cars but unfortunately, both of our cars are the reason for almost all of our debt. we also owe on our wedding rings. and that is all the debt we have. thankfully, it’s not a huge number (around $5,500.00 after some big payments we made in june) and even more thankfully, we are both employed.
we are both committed to paying this off by november! this summer (july and august) we’ll hopefully be able to whittle this number down to $2,500.00 as bryan has been getting more hours (even some overtime this week!) at the bank.
paying off our debt is not only super fun, but it will enable us to pay for bryan’s college tuition entirely our of pocket-which is a huge financial goal for 2010 and 2011!

Goal #2: live within our means
this one isn’t as fun for me, but i’m certainly learning to make it fun. we have a pretty solid budget set-up right now. we’re almost done with our first month and we don’t think we’ll make any changes. this is great because we are technically living below our means so that we can pay over $1,000.00 each month on debt.
however, it is still difficult for both of us to not be tempted by the “extra” money we have. whether its the extra money we’re paying on loans each month, or the money in our emergency fund or just our “floater fund” we have in our primary checking account, we have both found so much we want to spend it on. but, so far, we’ve stuck to our budget and we’re faithfully saving for those things we really really want to buy.

Goal #3: give generously
ultimately we want to pay off our debt, pay for college out of pocket and live within our means so that we can give generously. we both agree that for “some reason”, we’ve been incredibly blessed. and it’s no secret that “some reason” is so we can give to those in need. i love that the prov31 woman is able to provide clothes for her family and servants and that she opens her hand to those in need. she is woman who works hard to make the most of what she has so that she can give the rest away. i want to be that woman and we want to be that family.