Lent and debt reduction; How they can work together

Have you wondered how the season of Lent and debt reduction go together? The combination is not as far apart as you think. In fact, they can work quite well together.

The Christian discipline of Lent calls us to give up something in honor of what Christ has done for us. Fasting from food is a longtime tradition. Other types of fasting can include eating out less or abstaining during daytime hours. You can also give up bad habits like overspending. That's where Lent and debt reduction can can work together.

Let me explain.

Willow UMC in Willow, AK

Gaining control over my spending habits has been downright hard! Dragging my husband along with the plan has been even harder. Setbacks happen. Right now, we're making  room in our budget to prepare for the medical bills that have begun to arrive. It's time to work harder and Lent can be the perfect time for that.

I don't think it's enough to say "Yeah, I'll work on debt reduction for Lent." That's good but it doesn't go far enough. Giving up something specific and setting goals have helped us in the past. I'm doing that now.

The idea behind Lent is to give up something for God. I have committed to buy something very specific for my church with the money we save. You may be asking how this fits in with debt reduction. The answer is both easy and complicated.

There isn't any doubt that becoming debt free will help me work better in ministry. Lent gives me the chance to make a commitment to God (in this case financial). It will also push me to develop skills that can last longer than the Lenten season. Developing the skills to honor God gives me extra incentive and spiritual security.

I have the chance to learn skills that I can use to reduce debt long after Lent has ended for this year.  God gets the glory. My church gets something that they need. What can be better than that?

Organizing your bills will help reduce debt

We're finding that it's almost impossible to reduce debt if we can't see what we're working on. It helps us to keep a list. New bills are added as they come in. This helps us keep everything neat and orderly. We add the information for each but still keep the paper copies. That way, if we need to refer to something on the full bill we're able to do so.

My husband likes to use an Excel spreadsheet. I'm more of a visual person that sometimes finds Excel hard to work with. A plain old paper and pencil works fine for me. We review everything periodically together. This gives me a better feel for where we are. Seeing the totals come down also gives me the reassurance to believe that we can reduce our debt. That's always a good feeling.

Keeping the bills organized provides a road map for us to follow. It helps us see where we are going and makes it easier to plot how to get there. Who knew that something so small could make such a huge difference?

Use coupon savings to get out of debt

Since I started this blog about getting out of debt people have been asking me all kinds of questions. (Please, keep them coming.)

Questions about coupons are becoming more frequent. This is one of my favorite money saving tools. Usually I'm not a huge coupon clipper. That's beginning to change for me.

Restaurant coupons are my favorites. My day job necessitates dining out frequently. It's 60 miles away and calls for frequent meetings with colleagues. Why pay full price if you don't have to? Restaurant websites are the place to check first for coupons. My only exception to this rule is for upscale eateries for anniversaries and celebrations.

Last month, I was able to snag a restaurant coupon by becoming a member of the Ruby Tuesday email club. The Waffle House email club sent a coupon for a buy-one-get-one waffle. Bojangle's sent a coupon for a free biscuit.

Half Off Depot is another favorite place to check for coupons and deals. You can pick up vouchers for stores, events and restaurants here.

You can also pick up fliers and circulars at gas stations. These little papers have coupons for restaurants, oil changes and all kinds of things. They can really help with the bottom line.

I also like shopping the internet is for deals. We all know about the low prices you can sometimes snag on Ebay and we're used to hearing about Amazon for books and CDs.

For my daughter's 21st birthday we decided to price check Amazon for inflatable boats. They beat the local competition by $20. Because Hubby is an Amazon Prime member we didn't even have to pay for the shipping. What a deal!

Shopping for shoes online is my next big adventure. That's what my endless.com coupon is going to be for. I've heard from friends who have gotten very good results with shoe purchases online. We just bought shoes for my daughter so I'm next.

I try to put the money back that I would have spent. This helps me realize the savings and gives me a few extra dollars to put towards a bill. It all helps.

Let me know what you think about non-grocery store coupons. Do they help you? Where do you find them?

How StraightTalk wireless helps me control costs

I'm not affiliated with Straight Talk wireless and I don't get paid to promote them or anything like that. Straight Talk wireless helps me control costs and it provides good cell phone coverage. That's why I'm mentioning it here.

Costs have to be controlled if my plan to get out of debt is ever going to work. There are no more $90 cell phones for me to struggle with. Straight Talk has been a huge help to me.

I started looking into prepaid plans when a huge bill arrived that took forever to pay off. At first, the idea of prepaid plans made me nervous. Now, I've decided that contract free is the way to be.

Straight Talk wireless uses towers from big name companies. My coverage throughout East Tennessee and my other travel spots is very good. (See You've Been Reviewed to see some of my travel spots.) For $45 (about $50 with taxes) my unlimited plan includes talk, text, pictures, 411 and mobile web for no additional costs.

The bill comes out of my checking account every month like my previous phone company. Or, I can opt for refill on demand by buying a top up card. There's also no contract. If I decided end service today I wouldn't get stuck with a break contract fee.  Plus, I was able to keep my number.


The phone can even be picked up at Wal-Mart for about $40. That was less expensive that the insurance deductible on my previous plan. For me, Straight Talk has been one of the best steps that I've taken to get out of debt.

What I liked about Managing Debt for Dummies

Reading as many helpful books as possible is part of my getting out of debt plan. Obviously, I know nothing about dealing with or handling money. If I did, my family possibly wouldn't be in this mess.

Past experience with the"...for Dummies" series has always been pretty good. So, I decided to check there to see what is available. Once again, this series did not let me down.

I've found Managing Debt For Dummies to be a pretty helpful guide. The book cost me $11.55 on Amazon. Used bookstores may have a copy for less.

The chapters are well laid out and written in a light conversational tone. The author manages to help you believe that it's possible to get a handle on your debt situation.

Granted, the information in the book isn't always pleasant. No one likes 'Facing Financial Facts' as outlined in chapter 2.


The chapter in Managing Debt For Dummies that spoke to me the most is the Chapter 3. Adopting an Attitude for Success is something that I'm struggling with. This part of the book has helped me keep a positive focus, motivate my family to help and its helped me deal with the setbacks in a more positive way.

One of the things that is mentioned is to not beat yourself if up you feel like you are responsible for you family's financial woes (paraphrased). Managing Debt For Dummies is helping me see that if I am responsible for it then I can improve it.

Even better than seeing that is believing it to be true. The book is reinforcing my belief that things can get better and its helping give me tools to do just that.

There website www.dummies.com also has some helpful tools. Check under Personal Finance to learn about having fun for free, creating a budget, dealing with financial shortfalls and more.

I'll be posting about other tools as I find them. If you know of any please give a shout out in the comments section. I'm happy for all the information that I can get! :-)