Related Posts:

• CVS Shopping for the Week of 8.29.10 – Saved $158, Spent $6, Made $36
• CVS Shopping for the Week of 8.22.10 – Saved $191, Spent $9, Made $31, and Learned a Lesson
• CVS Shopping for the Week of 8.15.10 – Saved $180, Spent $2, and Made $65!
• CVS Shopping From the Week of 8.08.10 Plus – Getting Paid to Shop!
• CVS Shopping From the Week of 8.1.10

© 2010, Khaleef Crumbley. All rights reserved.

©2010 Faithful With A Few. All Rights Reserved.

I read a number of great articles this week, and I would like to share them with you. Don’t forget to visit the  official website of the Yakezie Personal Finance network that I’m a part of, which now has at least 11 “member posts” up.

Also, I want to take a few seconds to thank you for your support in the Yakezie/Alexa challenge that I am a part of. I started out on 7.20.10 with an Alexa ranking of 1,704,000 and as of today (9.6.10) it is 171,359 (lower is better)!

This is basically a measure of short-term (3 months) popularity for websites. In order for your visits to KNS Financial to count, you must install the Alexa toolbar on your browsers. Here is what I suggested in the original announcement:

1. Install the Alexa toolbar to your browsers, on every computer that you use to visit this site
2. Visit this site often – you may even want to make it your homepage!

That’s it! Just do those two things and you’ll be able to help my Alexa ranking.

Now on to some of my favorite articles from the past week or so.

As what is fast becoming the custom, I’m naming my roundup after my favorite article of the week.

So, here are a few posts from the Yakezie network:

Roshawn Watson @ Watson Inc writes about the oversized homes that became so popular within the last decade in, “My Big, Fat Trashy Home: The Fall of the McMansion“.

Paul Williams @ Provident Plan takes a look at Matthew 16:26 in his Personal Finance in the Bible series.

Paul also received some coupons for lottery tickets the other day. He then wrote a post showing mathematically why you lose money with every lottery ticket you buy.

Timothy @ Wealth Artisan takes a look at why new cars depreciate sharply.

Timothy also gives us 5 reasons why he dislikes cable TV.

Jason @ Redeeming Riches examines 10 sure-fire money moves that will always pay off – or not. This article looks at 10 moves that the Wall Street Journal guarantees will make you money.

Jason also gives us 10 guiding principles for the “new retirement”.

Todd from Dealio wrote a guest post for Wealth Pilgrim telling us about budget saving coupons that you never knew existed.

Jeff @ Sustainable Life Blog wants to know what your debt free budget would look like.

Mike @ Saving Money Today gives us a few tips to keep kids safe in a crowded place.

Mrs. Money @ Ultimate Money Blog tells us why she’ll never make enough money. This is not because of her materialism, but is actually due to the expectations of those close to her.

Trisha Wagner from DepositAccounts.com wrote a guest post for Out of Debt Again explaining the new overdraft protection rules.

Jesse @ Personal Finance Firewall asks the question, “Do You Put Your Emergency Fund to Work?” in his 3-part series.

Jesse also tells us what to look for in a bank and then gives us 8 steps to insure a seemless switch from our old bank.

Joe Plemon @ Personal Finance by the Book gives us five steps towards automating [our] way to wealth.

The Financial Blogger had Go Banking Rates in to do a guest post about lifestyle inflation.

Kay Lynn @ Bucksome Boomer discusses the definition of needs.

Barbara Friedberg tells us how to design a budget with room for the fun stuff.

Jeff @ Deliver Away Debt writes about paying off his second mortgage. Working OT and delivering pizza has been great for him!

Flexo @ Consumerism Commentary writes about the sad fact that the size of lottery winnings has no impact on the winners chance of declaring bankruptcy.

David Hamilton from Financial Planning Tips wrote a guest post over at Canadian Finance Blog explaining the right way to use credit cards.

Sam @ Financial Samurai discusses the fact that many small business owners are being encouraged to fire employees before tax hikes.

Other great articles:

Matt Jabs @ Debt Free Adventure reminds us that all we have is a gift from God.

David Carlson @ DINKS Finance tells us that time management skills equals finance skills.

Craig Ford from Money Help for Christians wrote a guest post at Bible Money Matters that shows 4 steps to get your spouse to start budgeting.

Craig Ford from Money Help for Christians also wrote a guest post at Cash Money Life answering the question, “Why Do Millionaires Budget?“.

Mark from Buy Like Buffett wrote a guest post at Christian Personal Finance giving us 4 money principles talked about in the bible.

Michelle Traudt asks us, “What Do You Turn To?”. Very insightful post that will cause you to examine who/what you turn to when you get scared, lonely, worried, or even bored.

Kim Luu @ Money and Risk shows us how to save money with 4 simple questions.

KNS Financial on the web:

Articles from our “Faithful With A Few” blog were featured on the various websites over the last week:

Redeeming Riches

Young and Thrifty

Invest it Wisely

Personal Finance by the Book

Cool to be Frugal – Yakezie Carnival

Beating the Index

Provident Planning

Tight Fisted Miser

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff – Carnival of Personal Finance

Aspiring Millionaire – Yakezie Carnival

Since I found so many great posts recently, my next roundup will probably contain some posts from the past week since I was not able to include them all here.

Related Posts:

• Weekly Roundup for 8.22.10 – Obama’s Wrecking the Economy Edition
• How to Connect With KNS Financial Online – And a few announcements.
• Weekly Roundup for 8.8.10 – Government Challenge Edition
• Great Articles from the Week of 8.1.10
• Joining the Yakezie Alexa Challenge

© 2010, Khaleef Crumbley. All rights reserved.

©2010 Faithful With A Few. All Rights Reserved.

Another devotion by Grace Gems.

(J. R. Miller, “Saul Rejected as King” 1908)

“Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys!” 1 Samuel 15:3

“Saul and the troops spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, cattle, and fatlings, as well as the young rams and the best of everything else. But they did destroy all the worthless and unwanted things.” 1 Samuel 15:9

They utterly destroyed all the common spoil–but spared whatever was especially good. They kept all the fat, plump sheep and cattle–and destroyed the poor, lean and worthless ones.

That is the way with a good many people. They are quite ready to devote to God the things they do not care much for–but the things that are desirable for their own use, they keep.

This spirit is shown in the way many give to the Lord’s service. The gold and silver and the banknotes they keep for themselves; while they put the nickels and the pennies in the collection plate!

It is shown, too, in the way they treat their own vices and lusts. Those that they do not particularly love–they crush out with amazing zeal. But their favorite vices and fat, rich sins–they spare for their own indulgence!

The evil things in us–are our Amalekites, and we are to destroy them! Yet how many of us, like Saul, cut away at the little Amalekites–and spare the big Agags?

Do not some of us also see the story of our own disobediences and failures–in the way Saul treated God and His commandments?

photo credit: PortableChurch

Related Posts:

• Helping Those in Need is a Reflection of God’s Love!
• We really need very little! – Devotion
• Thoughts About Marriage on Our Anniversary
• The Sufferings of Some of the Early Christians – Devotion
• The nest was destroyed, and the poor bird lay bleeding and exposed! – Devotion

© 2010, Khaleef Crumbley. All rights reserved.

©2010 Faithful With A Few. All Rights Reserved.

College textbooks can sell for upwards of $250 for some subjects and then sell for less than $20 only 3 months later! The markup on textbooks is unbelievable and can present a serious strain on a student’s finances.

When I was a college student, I rarely ever purchased new textbooks.

Here are some things you can do to help avoid these costs:

Don’t buy it!

The first thing to do is to contact the professor and make sure that the book is required for the class (many book assignments are made by the department, and some teachers will hardly use them).

I had a number of professors who announced on the first day of class that we shouldn’t buy the book because we would be taught and tested on their notes!

Many students were then left in a terrible position because they had already purchased and opened the book – thus making it used (like driving a car off the lot)!

Shop online

Purchase your books used from Amazon.com, or if you have (or are considering purchasing) a Kindle, buy the electronic version. Amazon advertises that you can save up to 90% on the cost of textbooks by shopping on their website.

Also, if you sign up for their Amazon Student program (completely free), you are eligible for free 2-day shipping on any order directly from Amazon!

If you can’t find your book on Amazon, be sure to check out Barnes & Noble for their textbook deals.

Buy the previous edition

Many textbooks (just about all Economics and Finance books) will just make small updates and change a few pages around and release a new version.

Check with your professor to see if the previous version will be acceptable. I actually had a few nice professors that put the chapter and page numbers of the current and previous editions for all assignments!

Buy the international version

Many textbooks sold in the US will have an international counterpart that is nearly or completely identical and sells for a fraction of the cost!

Buy in a group

Get together with a group of classmates and buy one copy of the book to share. This will work wonderfully depending on the subject.

Finance and other business subjects, where students are often called upon to do group assignments, give ample opportunity for this.

This just calls for a little coordination and trust, but to save over $100 per book…it’s worth it!

Rent your textbooks

This is another option that is becoming quite popular. Sites like Chegg and Campus Book Rentals have become very efficient at renting textbooks recently. Even Barnes & Noble offers textbook rentals for my alma mater!

Visit your school’s Library

Many textbooks – especially older editions – can be found at your school library. If the book is popular, there will probably be a limit on how long you can check it out, but it’s still worth it to take a look.

Call or visit your campus library as soon as you find out what books are required. A benefit of larger universities (like my alma mater), is having a network of dozens of libraries to choose from, some at different schools.

A few questions for you

How have you been able to save on textbook costs?

Do you have a lot of professors who don’t require them at all?

Have you had success using and following the previous edition of a textbook?

Do you have any other tips that should be included here?

photo credit: Marquette La

Related Posts:

• Are These Expenses Necessary for College?
• CVS Shopping for the Week of 9.05.10 – Saved $254, Spent $11.50, Made $64
• CVS Shopping for the Week of 8.29.10 – Saved $158, Spent $6, Made $36
• Should You Really Pay for These Things?
• CVS Shopping for the Week of 8.22.10 – Saved $191, Spent $9, Made $31, and Learned a Lesson

© 2010, Khaleef Crumbley. All rights reserved.

©2010 Faithful With A Few. All Rights Reserved.

Related Posts:

• CVS Shopping for the Week of 9.05.10 – Saved $254, Spent $11.50, Made $64
• CVS Shopping for the Week of 8.22.10 – Saved $191, Spent $9, Made $31, and Learned a Lesson
• CVS Shopping for the Week of 8.15.10 – Saved $180, Spent $2, and Made $65!
• CVS Shopping From the Week of 8.08.10 Plus – Getting Paid to Shop!
• CVS Shopping From the Week of 8.1.10

© 2010, Khaleef Crumbley. All rights reserved.

©2010 Faithful With A Few. All Rights Reserved.

Most people have heard of the concept of an emergency fund. In fact, I even wrote about creating a $500 cushion in your checking account with the thought of an emergency fund (EF) in mind. Here were my thoughts about the connection between this cushion and an EF:

Let me first say that I believe that every healthy financial household will include an emergency savings account with at least 9 to 12 months of living expenses. If one is still in debt, I usually recommend having about $2,500 in emergency savings until the debt is paid off (then boost that up to 9 months). However, many people are not in a situation to make that a reality. So, this should be the first step toward financial freedom.

The point of this emergency fund so you can have money stashed away when something unexpected comes up. If you are not financially prepared for emergencies, then you may be forced to rely on high-interest credit cards, or tap into your retirement savings in order to get by.

So, this is why I recommend having about 9 to 12 months worth of living expenses saved up for emergencies. I would suggest having the money in an account that’s pretty liquid (easy to convert to cash or write a check from), so you can have easy access to it if and when an emergency hits.

Is all of this really necessary?

There are some who believe that the emergency fund is overrated. They will tell you that you are better off plowing all of your money into investments and putting any emergency purchases on your credit card.

The logic here is that instead of earning 2% interest in a high-yield savings account while you wait for an emergency to come, you can earn a lot more if you invest the money instead. The difference in interest income would be more than enough to cover the interest paid on your credit card.

There is a huge problem with this type of thinking:

First, you would have to be able to calculate the difference between the rate you would earn from your investments and your savings account. No problem, right? It’s pretty easy to figure out how much your savings account would pay you – just go to your bank’s website.

But how about your investments? If it’s anything more than a CD or Money Market account, you can’t be sure. So, you don’t know what the difference between these accounts will be.

Next, you will need to know how much interest your credit card will charge you, how much the amount would be, and how long you will take to pay it off. Estimating the interest rate is pretty easy – if you have good credit and your bank is not about to go under, just use your current rate.

But, how can you possibly know how much you will borrow and how long it will take to pay it back? If our “emergencies” came with that much detail beforehand, I probably wouldn’t be writing this article!

So, we don’t know how much we will earn from our investments, and we can’t predict how much our emergency will cost or how long it will take to pay off.

That situation sounds much too unpredictable for me!

Why you need an emergency fund:

• Because life is unpredictable, and many of those surprises come with a price tag!

• Having an emergency fund will help you to avoid running up your credit card when something unexpected comes up.

• It will also protect you from having to sell your possessions at a loss.

• It will protect you from raiding your retirement  accounts

• Save you from having to take out payday loans

• You will go a long way from removing a common source of stress (financial insecurity). Find out what the bible says about being content here and here!

Many common emergencies are related to:

• Losing a job/reduced income

• Huge medical bills

• Major car repair

• Anything else that takes money to deal with and you didn’t see it coming

How much should I save?

I recommend doing this in three stages:

First, create that $500 cushion in your checking account that I talked about earlier. In the article that I linked to, there are a number of tips to get you to that goal fairly quickly.

Second, if you are still in debt, I would recommend saving 1 month worth of living expenses. This is on top of the $500 cushion. Once you hit this goal, plow all of your extra money into paying off your debt. Be sure to cut all necessary expenses as well.

Lastly, once you are COMPLETELY debt free, bump this up to about a year worth of living expenses. Of course, if you have irregular income – this is especially true for artists/musicians and small business owners – then you may want to extend this even further.

What isn’t an emergency?

For many of us saving this much money will be a new experience. We may be tempted to spend our EF and a few “non-emergencies”. Here are a few guidelines:

Do not use this fund to save for any future purchase, such as:

• Your Carribbean cruise

• New wardrobe

• Big screen TV before the Superbowl

• New car

• Down payment for a house

• Tuition

• Investing in a “sure thing”

• Any other planned purchase

These are not emergencies!!!

Setting up an emergency fund and getting out of debt should be at the top of most of our lists. This will allow us to have the financial stability to handle shocks and the freedom to choose an unconventional path!

A few questions for you:

Do you have an emergency fund? How much?

Are you currently in debt? If so, do you still save?

Have you ever had to face an emergency with nothing but credit cards?

photo credit: gadgets.co.uk

Related Posts:

• How to Create a Budget – Setting Goals
• How to Create a Budget. Step 2 – Keep Track of Expenses
• NJ High Schools to Teach Personal Finance and Budgeting to Students
• Why You Need a Budget!
• Banks Move to Eliminate Free Checking

© 2010, Khaleef Crumbley. All rights reserved.

©2010 Faithful With A Few. All Rights Reserved.

Recently, Yahoo! Finance highlighted an article that listed 15 things you shouldn’t be paying for.

Here is their list along with my take on these expenses:

Basic Computer Software

I hardly ever pay for software anymore. There are so many free versions of most popular software – open source, online versions, and extensions of free trials can greatly reduce your software expenses!

Also, if you are a student, the computer lab may have those programs installed, or available for free downloads for students.

If you must pay for software, be sure to check for student versions, or see if you can survive with reduced features (if there is more than one version, the cheaper one may be sufficient).

Your Credit Report

You do not always have to pay for a copy of your credit report! As I wrote when covering the Credit CARD Act of 2009:

“The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (or FACT – isn’t our government clever?) Act of 2003 gives consumers the right to obtain a free copy of their credit report once every twelve months from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion).”

So, you are allowed a free report once a year from each of the three main reporting agencies. This means that you can view your credit report 3 times a year without paying a dime!

Of course, if you want access to your score or monitoring services, you’ll probably have to pay.

Cell Phone

Yes, it’s true that many carriers will give you a free phone (even some smart phones) if you sign a 2-year contract; However, most people are more concerned with the expensive monthly bills. A little while ago we covered exactly how to cut your cell phone expenses.

Books

The library is a great place to rent books. They will have magazines, reference materials, textbooks and other scholarly works, and even bestsellers. Just about every book that has ever been sold has also sat on the shelf of a public library!

If your library doesn’t carry a particular book – or it isn’t available in their network, you can always find it for next to nothing at Amazon.com!

Water

Bottled water is one of the greatest ripoffs of the century! Plain old tap water has to go through much more regulation and testing then the bottled variety. If you need it to be portable, just pickup an environmentally-friendly, reusable bottle with a filter.

Credit Card

The article was mainly dealing with annual fees, which is definitely something that can easily be avoided. However, reducing your credit card expenses is something that everyone can do as well.

Debt Reduction Help

Before deciding to pay for debt management help, the article suggests “start[ing] with a visit to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.” Also, if you just need a few tips to help dig yourself out from a mountain of debt, be sure to check out our Debt Management section, or contact us.

Basic Tax Preparation

The IRS maintains a list of services that offer free electronic filing of your federal tax return (there is usually a fee for adding your state taxes). However, if your tax situation is anything more than “basic”, visit our Tax Guide and contact us to schedule an appointment for Tax Preparation.

If you would like to prepare your own taxes with desktop software, here is a good list to choose from.

The News

Since just about everything you find in a newspaper is available for free online, there is no need to pay for it. Most towns/counties have websites where they announce everything from school closings to road construction and everything in between. However, if you use coupons, it is probably worth it to purchase at least the Sunday paper. Keep in mind that many coupons can be found online and you should check our Coupon Database before buying the paper, just to be sure you need it.

Budgeting Tools

There is a decent amount of budgeting and expense tracking software out there that you can get for free. In looking at tracking your expenses in order to create a budget, I highlighted several of them.

Pets

At my last job I met a number of animal lovers. It was there that I learned about the abundance of animal shelters that allow you to adopt pets for a minimal charge (usually to help cover the expenses of caring for the animals).

Shipping

Free shipping is one of the features that made Amazon.com the king of online retailers. Any order over $25 directly from Amazon ships for free. Also, if you are a member of Amazon Prime (free to students), you qualify for free 2-day shipping. Also, check out www.freeshipping.org for over 2400 sites that offer free shipping.

Checking Account

Although I don’t share the author’s disdain for banks being able to make a profit, I do hate paying for checking! There are physical banks and credit unions that still offer free checking, so don’t settle for an account that you have to pay for.

Also, many online banks offer free checking, and will also provide free access to your money via extensive ATM networks.

DVD Rentals

Most of us have seen those RedBox DVD rental kiosks around, however, the article also highlighted this fact, ” if you use one of the coupon codes from www.insideredbox.com you can avoid the $1 charge”! Also, don’t neglect your local library when it comes to free DVD (and CD) rentals!

Exercise

There are plenty of exercises that you can do around the house. Also, jogging or walking in a park (preferably before dark) is a great alternative to an expensive gym package. Oh, don’t forget about those free DVD rentals – pick up a workout video!

What are some things that you used to pay for that you now get for free?

photo credit: RambergMediaImages

Related Posts:

• Weekly Roundup for 8.15.10 – Forced Volunteering Edition
• Free Amazon Prime Membership for College Students!
• CVS Shopping for the Week of 8.15.10 – Saved $180, Spent $2, and Made $65!
• CVS Shopping From the Week of 8.08.10 Plus – Getting Paid to Shop!
• 12 Tricks to Make Us Spend Big

© 2010, Khaleef Crumbley. All rights reserved.

©2010 Faithful With A Few. All Rights Reserved.

I read a number of great articles this week, and I would like to share them with you. But first let me announce that the Yakezie Personal Finance network that I’m a part of, now has at least 6 “member posts” on the  official website.

As what is fast becoming the custom, I’m naming my roundup after my favorite article of the week.

So, here are a few posts from the Yakezie network:

Darwin’s Money discusses 5 Ways Obama is Wrecking the US Economy. This is a thought-provoking, well-researched article, and even the comments are good.

Sam @ Financial Samurai wrote about the $300 Million “A” Yacht owned by a Russian Billionaire. After you read this make sure you leave a comment discussing what you would do if you had that kind of money (mine was pretty boring).

Kevin @ Financial Poor discusses an important economic concept in “Cost VS Value- Three Strategies for Success“. Understanding this is a key to financial success.

Miranda Marquit @ Peak Personal Finance tells us 5 things we should understand about social security. Hopefully, after reading this you will be motivated to take your retirement into your own hands!

Joe Plemon @ Personal Finance by the Book teaches us how to successfully budget for an irregular income. This is a must-read for anyone who owns a small business or works on commission!

Joe also had Joy Paley write a guest post discussing what health care reform means for health care workers’ salaries. This is a good post that provides an alternative look into the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

Crystal @ Budgeting in the Fun Stuff had Sandy L from First Gen American discuss her college savings plan, look out for #1. I am definitely in favor of moving “saving for college” down in the financial priority list.

Jeff @ Sustainable Life Blog asks the great question “How much fun should you have while in debt?“. We must remember that personal finance is “personal” and this answer will be different for everyone.

Evan @ My Journey to Millions asks “What do you Think of Sure ‘Investments’ Articles?“. Many articles that claim to give a list of surefire tips usually don’t live up to their promise!

Kay Lynn @ Bucksome Boomer writes about finding money and using it to pay down debt. It takes a lot of discipline to do this – most of us would just spend it because it’s “found money”.

Car Negotiation Coach explains to us how not to negotiate when buying a car. New technology now allows for new methods.

Paul Williams @ Provident Plan continues his series on the practical applications of contentment by looking at how it should remove fear.

Jacob @ Early Retirement Extreme gives us great tips to stop throwing away food. This is one of the easiest things that we can change in order to save money!

KNS Financial on the web:

Articles from our “Faithful With A Few” blog were featured on the various websites over the last week:

Personal Finance by the Book

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff

Bucksome Boomer

Related Posts:

• Roundup for the Week of 8.29.10 – Trashy McMansion Edition
• Do You Really Need An Emergency Fund?
• We really need very little! – Devotion
• Weekly Roundup for 8.8.10 – Government Challenge Edition
• Great Articles from the Week of 8.1.10

© 2010, Khaleef Crumbley. All rights reserved.

©2010 Faithful With A Few. All Rights Reserved.

The other day I wrote about our CVS shopping for last week where we earned almost $67 in ECBs! By buying OTC medicine using our Flexible Spending Account, we were able to bank some Extra Care Bucks to use for this week (and future trips)!

Here is a list of what we purchased – all shown in the two pictures above (except for the cookies ):

2 Boxes of South Beach bars

18 Snicker bars (we had amazing coupons that were expiring)

4 Glade Plugins

2 Glade Sense & Spray

2 Bottles of Listerine Zero

4 Packs of CVS Hands & Face Washcloths

5 Bottles of Garnier Fructis Shampoo/Conditioner

3 Bottles of John Freda Root Awakening

1 Box of Cortizone-10

1 Jar of Vicks VapoRub

2 Bottles of Vo5 Shampoo

2 Sticks of Mitchum for Women Deodorant

2 Boxes of Wheat Thins

1 Stick of Old Spice Deodorant

2 Packs of Mentos Gum

1 Bag of Checkers Cookies – not pictured (my wife likes the strangest things – they were disgusting, by the way)

Every item on this list was either on sale, or we had a coupon for it (and in many cases, both)! Actually, we try very hard to only purchase items that are on sale AND for which we have coupons! That is why using the Coupon Database is so important!

Here are the totals of how much we paid, saved, coupons used and tax paid :

Total Value – $199.39

Savings from weekly deals – $62.47

Manufacturer & CVS coupons – $51.35

Extra Care Bucks Spent – $58.98

Flexible Spending Account – $17.98

Total Savings – $190.78 (96%)

Subtotal – $3.11

Tax – $5.50

Total Paid – $8.61

So, although the total was higher than I’d like, we were able to purchase $199.39 worth of items and only paid $8.61.

We also earned $31 in ECBs, meaning that CVS paid us $22.39 to take these products off their hands!!!

So, what was this lesson that we learned? Well, if you’ve been following these CVS posts, you’ll know that $8.61 is a lot of money for us!

Well, what usually happens is after the weekly deals and the coupons are applied, I will pay as much of the balance as possible with ECBs. Unfortunately, you can’t use ECBs to cover sales tax .

So, you have to find the best combination of ECBs to bring your pre-tax total (subtotal) down to zero. However, I did not do that this time, and it cost me a couple of bucks.

Now I make sure that I hand them over from largest to smallest, and I actually pay attention to the subtotal. It has now become a game that the cashiers love playing with me!

Have you made any great savings recently? Be sure to share them below.

Do you have any questions on how to get paid to shop? Any tips?

Related Posts:

• CVS Shopping for the Week of 9.05.10 – Saved $254, Spent $11.50, Made $64
• CVS Shopping for the Week of 8.29.10 – Saved $158, Spent $6, Made $36
• CVS Shopping for the Week of 8.15.10 – Saved $180, Spent $2, and Made $65!
• CVS Shopping From the Week of 8.08.10 Plus – Getting Paid to Shop!
• CVS Shopping From the Week of 8.1.10

© 2010, Khaleef Crumbley. All rights reserved.

©2010 Faithful With A Few. All Rights Reserved.

According to the bible, helping others is a very tangible, practical way to express God’s love.  We can’t be so focused on “getting more” that we miss chances to serve other people.

We must understand that it is God who supplies our needs, and we have to stop trusting in our possessions. Those who are wealthy have to be very careful in that area. That is why God gives these instructions to them:

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed. ~ 1 Timothy 6:17-19

Being “generous and ready to share” isn’t just a command for the rich. Hebrews 13:16 tells us:

And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

There are two main ways that we can disobey this command.

Trusting in riches more than God:

As 1 Timothy 6:17 says, we are “not to be conceited or fix [our] hope on the uncertainty of riches“. Trusting in our riches can make us not want to help others in two ways.

First, we may fall victim to what the bible calls “the pride of life” (1 John 2:16) – a strong feeling of pride over our accomplishments and possessions.  This may cause you to feel as though the needy person is just lazy and needs to work harder in order to better themselves. You may look down on them because you had to work hard to “earn” what you have, and you feel that they should do the same.

Second, we sometimes can gain a false security from having money. In these cases, it will be very difficult to part with our money or possessions in order to help someone else. We may start to think, “if I give money to someone who won’t be able to pay me back, what will I do if I get hit with an emergency?”.

However, if we are trusting in God to provide for us, we will be willing to give without the fear that we will have no provision for the future!

Overlooking small ways to be a blessing:

Life can be so busy and distracting that it can be easy to overlook those in need. Oftentimes, we can be can be so caught up in ourselves that we neglect to be helpful to others.

Many times as Christians, we are searching for huge ways to show God’s love to others! We have visions of doing grand things such as adopting a child, or flying to Haiti (or some other country) and helping out with disaster relief.

However, small, personal  sacrifices are what pleases God and impacts our brothers!

James 2:15-16 gives a good example of that point:

If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?

Here James is showing how faith and good works should coexist in a Christian’s life. Our good works should flow out of our faith; and a life without them is a good indication of a lack of faith!

He doesn’t use being a missionary, selling all your goods in order to support poor Christians, or even taking in orphans! Instead he uses as an example a brother or sister who is in need of the very basics of life.

We must never overlook those who are close to us in search of some “greater calling”; if God’s love is in our heart, we will seek to help even “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40)!

In 1 John 3:17 we find these words:

But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

This isn’t a verse that needs a lot of explanation. If you have something, and your brother (another Christian) is in need and you refuse to help, this is a good indication that the love of God isn’t in you!

Those of us who were blessed to have more than enough to meet our basic needs, should always be willing to share with others who are not.

Much more could be said on the subject, but I just wanted to share a thought that was on my heart.

A few questions for you:

Have any of these stumbling blocks stopped you from giving to someone in need?

What are some ways that you defeat pride in your life?

Do you incorporate helping others into your budgets and other financial planning?

Have you even been the recipient of this sort of help?

What has motivated you to help others?

photo credit: liberalmind1012

Related Posts:

• Honor the Lord with Your Finances
• Weekly Roundup for 8.15.10 – Forced Volunteering Edition
• We really need very little! – Devotion
• How Can I Be Satisfied in Every Situation?
• What to Look for When Choosing a Career

© 2010, Khaleef Crumbley. All rights reserved.

©2010 Faithful With A Few. All Rights Reserved.