Written by Lisa Vitello in her “New Harvest Homestead” newsletter from 2005

One of the most useful lessons I have learned over the years is the concept of making money by saving money. Our 25 years of marriage have been marked by financial ups and downs. When I was a young, first-time mother, I joined the La Leche League. The Lord really used that lovely group of ladies to set me on a course for the rest of my wifely and mothering journey.

I was introduced to a wonderful book called “The Heart Has Its Own Reasons” by Mary Ann Cahill. In it, she tells the stories of dozens of mothers who made it their ambition to live on one income so they could stay home and raise their children. It was from this book that I learned to be watchful about where our money was going every month. I now call this The Checkbook Challenge.

Most of us conduct the majority of our daily transactions through the use of checks or debit cards. At the end of the month, take out your checkbook. On a piece of paper, start making categories for all expenses like groceries, gas, mortgage payments, etc., and then add up the totals. When you are done, you should have a fairly good idea of how and where you are spending your money – if it has been an average month for you.

Now, here is the hard part. Make two more columns on your paper, one marked “Essential” and one “Non-Essential.” You must be brutally honest with yourself at this point. All items that absolutely must be paid for, like your mortgage or food, can go in the “Essential” column. Everything else that you didn’t absolutely need, like coffee from Starbucks, obviously goes in the “Non-Essential” side.

You may be quite shocked at how much money is frittered away every month. I still need to take the checkbook challenge myself from time to time because it is so easy to become complacent in this area. It’s a few dollars here and a few there, but those seemingly minor expenses can add up to hundreds of dollars every month.

I have known many women over the years who have reluctantly taken on part-time work in the belief that it was necessary to make ends meet. However, after doing the checkbook challenge, most found out that their income was really just going for extras and luxuries rather than true necessities.

When you factor in the costs for transportation, wardrobe, child-care, take-out meals because mom is too tired to cook, and the extra taxes due to being bumped into a higher tax bracket, that “extra” income really amounts to very little after all. This hardly seems worth the stress, guilt, and sacrifice many mothers experience when taking a job outside the home, or a time-consuming in-home occupation.

It is all a matter of choice, to be very honest. Do you want to be home and available to your husband and children with all of your heart? If the answer is yes, then you need to be willing to scale back, economize, and do without.

When Guy and I realized we could no longer afford our ranch house in the suburbs of Southern California on one income, we sold the house and moved to the rural Pacific Northwest. Some might say we “bought down,” but we feel like our quality of life soared.

For the first ten years, we lived in a 60′ X 14′ trailer with a couple of rooms tacked on. We had only one car for a long time. We never went out to dinner and a movie or took vacations. I economized at the grocery store by passing on the pre-made foods like cookies, frozen food, chips, and soda. I learned to make a lot of things from scratch. There was no pizza delivery way out here, so I learned to make homemade pizza. I didn’t even buy paper towels or juice. I used cloth napkins, and we drank water, milk, and herbal teas.

But, I had my beautiful little homestead, my garden, my chickens, and, best of all, the blessed joy of being with my babies 24/7. I was there for every first step, first word, all the scraped elbows and skinned knees. Those are things you can never get back once they have passed. My oldest is now a beautiful 20-year-old woman, and I am grateful to God every day for leading us in His ways. I do not feel like have been deprived in any way.

As I shared in the opening article, I believe when we take the Lord at His Word, we will see that it is His will for wives and mothers to be home-centered. He has designed families to function best under these circumstances. If He has made it plain in His Word that this is His desire for us, will He not also make a way for us to achieve that goal once we have set our hearts upon it? I know for a fact that the answer is an unequivocal YES!

Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.
Proverbs 13:11

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