The problem with the things that we own is that they can end up owning us with the debt and stress eating away at the happiness in our lives.  Living simply and avoiding debt is a principle that will allow us to crawl out of the debt spiral and begin to experience the freedom that comes with debt free living.

Challenge:  Make one step toward debt free living today.  Some examples could include starting to pay a little extra on your car payment or credit card, eating out less to save more money, starting a savings account, or maybe even getting a second job to pay off some debt.  Come up with your own idea that fits your situation but start making debt free choices today!

Debt Free Christian is a site dedicated to information and free tools to help people get out of debt and recover their finances.  Visit us online at http://www.debt-free-christian.com/

Part of that is the blessing of the Lord on our lives and we ask Him to direct our steps and bless our decisions.  The other side of that is the enemy, or Satan, who the Bible says want to “steal, kill and destroy”….this can include our finances.

The Armor of God is a book about protecting ourselves as Christian by putting on the armor of God as he describes for us in the Bible.  The Belt of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Shoes of Peace, the Shield of Faith, the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit.

Following Biblical principles will not only afford us wisdom in dealing with our finances it will also bring the blessing and protection of the Lord on our lives and our finances.

But not having a budget, a roadmap for your personal finances, is possibly deadly to your financial future. You can’t get ahead if you don’t know where you’re going. You can’t get ahead if you don’t know where you’ve been.

Setting up a budget doesn’t have to be difficult or stressful. It does, however, require you to be honest in how you spend your money, be willing to make adjustments if necessary and have the desire to stick with the budget.

Although it’s not difficult to set up a budget, the end result must be this – your expenses must be less than your income. Sounds simple, but for many of us, it’s quite the opposite.

So, let’s get to setting up that budget. First, you must know how much you spend on things. If you haven’t been writing down how you spend you money, start do to that now. Keep track of every single penny you spend, so that when you set up your budget you’re able to be accurate in setting spending limits for each category.

Once you have a good idea of how much you spend in your various categories (which should happen after a month of recording expenses), begin to think about those categories. You’ll want budget categories for the obvious items like:

• Car payments and insurance

• Mortgage/rent

• Groceries

• Utilities

• Dining out

• Household maintenance

• Personal care

• Medical care

• Savings (include emergency funds, 401K and other savings categories here)

But you might also want to include additional categories, and you should add additional categories, as they fit your life.   How many of these budget categories might work for you?

• Hobbies/crafts

• Classes/education

• Books/magazines

• Pet care

• Leisure travel

• Clothing/shoes

• Kids’ school expenses

• Entertainment (include things like sporting events, movies, etc.)

Once you know what categories you need in your budget, it’s time to set the budget.  Think about how much you spend in each category and set a monthly amount for that category’s monthly spending.

As you set spending for each category, be sure to provide an amount that is realistic, but frugal enough for you to reach your budget goals.  Don’t be so frugal, however, that you immediately blow your budget the first week of the month.

After you set your spending categories, do last month’s budget. Go back through your checkbook, your credit card receipts and use your spending log, if you have one.  Make sure you account for all your expenses.

Once you have input information for the previous month’s expenses, add up the income for last month and put that in your budget. Now add up all your expenses, and subtract that from your income.  Do you have a positive number?  If the number is negative, you are spending too much each month and now is the time to cut some budgetary fat before you set your “real” budget for this month.

The Bible says much about being free from debt and enjoying the life of a debt free Christian.  Romans 13:8 encourages us to “Owe no man anything” and the Scripture is full of financial principles including the principle of the tithe.

While I will save the principle of the tithe for another blog posting I do want to spend a few minutes discussing how to get out of debt and where to start.  For some it may feel like you are so far in a hole you will never climb back out but is that really the case?

It is important to start off by figuring out where you are now and set some goals.  Several nifty free financial calculators we have on the site can help you figure out what your current debt load is and how changing the way you pay your bills could actually save you thousands of dollars.  In addition the debt snowball calculator tool will allow you to print out a repayment schedule to help keep you on track.

The first step in getting debt free is to figure out where you are and set some positive goals.  Try the calculators out by clicking the link below and start making some goals to move toward total debt freedom.

http://www.debt-free-christian.com/financial-calculators.html

Living the life of a debt free Christian is a dream for most people….start taking steps toward that kind of freedom today!