So this summer I am realizing that something has to shift. My husband and I both do substitute teaching and there is no jobs in the summer so that is a major decrease in our income. I was thinking we can be frugal and make this work. We can thankfully use savings to help make up the difference. I was thinking this could be our summer of spending freeze. I thought of this series title as Summer of Savings. But I thought spending freeze/savings can both connote negative thoughts of strain and struggle. True discipline is not ever easy but it is worth it. But I thought a better way to see it as leaning into gratitude. “Summer of Savor” – we can lean into what we already have and enjoy the goodness of family, food, friends and free activities.

We have been in our new home about 3 months, mostly unpacked but not fully and there are still spaces that are chaotic. It makes more sense to fully unpack and enjoy this instead of adding more items into our home. But it can be so tempting to think there are still things we “need”. We have everything we need like clean water, food, and a roof over our heads. But often when moving to a new space we think of things we want but not truly need. Some of the things on my list that I “need”:

• a trip to Ikea (i.e. a marital fight, lol)
• Ikea mesh curtains to hang my fairy lights behind
• the rods to hang these curtains
• comfy armchairs for the front room
• lego/puzzle table for the front room
• curtain tie-back hooks
• few trees to plant since I can’t get enough of trees
• rose bushes (though I have plenty already but I love flowers)

So just a few things that I want but am choosing to hold off so we don’t put these things on credit. We have studied the financial wisdom of Dave Ramsey and so now we don’t purchase things on credit that we do not have money to pay off that same month. I realize typing this that this is so not the American norm. We have watched how others live under the strain of credit debit. We have watched it destroy marriages. There was a season when we first planted our church that we had to use credit to just buy groceries but we seek to never willingly choose to be in debt.

So choosing to lean into all the good we have and not seek more this summer. I hope to post regularly on this experiment. I call it an experiment but it is really something we have to do but I like to embrace it as a challenge to be grateful instead of seeing it as a constraint.