Taxes

Tax time really makes me take a look at our finances and shudder. I see our T4s and ask myself "Where did all of that money go?" This year I also received our mortagage statment for the year around the same time, showing we'ld paid a million dollars of interest on our mortgage (ok, a bit of an exageration) and a few thousand off of the principle amount. What an uphill battle!

All of these numbers have really challenged me to take a look at where every penny is going. Starting yesterday Pete and I are saving every reciept, accounting for every dollar we spend, and entering it into a spread sheet. We are heading into the bank today to make some changes on our account to help save more money. We've cancelled our cellphone plans and switched to pay as you go (which is saving us about $150 a month ... CRAZY!)

And yet I still feel like it is a huge uphil battle. God has blessed us with so much, I think we now need to start being better stewards of our blessing by making some better choices. I regularly talk with students about how wasteful it is to cut up their erasers, or sharpen their pencils down to tiny stubs for fun, and how that wastes the resources God has given us. It's funny how easy it is to say that to a child but not follow through with that thinking as an adult handeling bigger things.

I'm challenged ... now to keep moving Forward