Missionaries of the Sacred

The reality of unforeseen and large expenses such as medical bills, or temporary loss of income due to cut hours or layoffs, underscore the need to guard against attempting to live beyond our means. Not only should we guard against racking up credit card debt, especially to purchase non-essential items, we also want to make a point to save money. While sometimes we may find ourselves in a situation where we are barely making ends meet, often we do have room in our budget to save, except that we forget to budget savings! Part of living within our means is trying not to “max out” on what we can afford. Just because we can technically afford the monthly payments on a larger house or sportier car doesn’t mean that we should buy that house or car, especially if doing so will prevent us from setting money aside in savings.

One of the steps we can take to help ourselves live within our means is to create a budget. We should also track our expenses to see if we’re sticking to our budget (and also to make sure we budgeted correctly, especially for expenses that vary by month such as utility bills). In general, we should try to leave a little bit of a cushion in case  our circumstances change for the worse. By making savings a priority in our household budgets and being honest about what we can really afford,  we will increase our resources to deal with unforeseen difficulties, such as layoffs or medical expenses.