Next Two Weeks: Budget Blessings

Clever readers of this blog may have noticed that I didn't do  a second update on our thin budget after the first installment. I had one all planned out,  showing the next few "cheapie" meals I was going to make and talk about how we're all doing. But then something changed- and the whole course of this blog series was turned upside down.

Instead of going out, Jake and I spent tuesday cleaning up the house, we dug out boxes that have been packed since our first move. In one of the boxes was all the memories from my trip to France from high school (Yeah, I went to France. It was pretty sweet.) in among the sugar packets (Yeah...I don't know.) old metro tickets and tourist maps, was over 50EUR!  I kept a few coins for memory purposes and we're depositing the rest.

So, adding what ended up being $70ish to our account took a LOT of the stress off. I knew my kid would have diapers, we wouldn't need to eat ramen for 5 days straight. I was feeling pretty good. I even wrote a little "p.s" segment to put at the end of next budget post.

Then I was checking my emails and goofing around on blogger (did you notice my new color scheme? I'm still tweaking it- tell me what you think!) and I got an email from app.socialspark.com- one of my advertisers. I had been paid for my past three sponsored posts- giving me $28 in my paypal account! We used $14 for some "extra" groceries and the other half for gas. I also have another $15 coming my way next week! So instead of budgeting a whole two weeks on less than $25- I've gained over $100!

Jake was also blessed- he managed to get extra overtime shifts at his everyday job, plus a  translation job from his on call gig. While we don't get that money right away, it will help very much in us "bouncing back" from this week. On top of all that, my mom sent us a care package with a hamburger helper dinner kit, some muffin mixes, and most importantly- a new water filter for Chucky Sue!

While I know we would have survived if all these things hadn't happened, they were such great blessings. I know 100% we got these blessings because we decided to pay tithing first, even though we knew it'd be tough. We're now enjoying this week, instead of just living through it.  Heavenly Father made it possible for us to find/discover/earn this extra money this week specifically- letting me know that He does indeed love me and care about even my smallest of problems.

So this who series took on a whole new turn- and I think it's become something even better than it could have been before.