Sojourn: Day Nineteen

  Today, I want to reflect on how I  have been learning to cut back.

  I started this journey thinking I was just going to be cut back on my food intake for 31 days, highlight hunger and hopefully get some people inspired to give to the cause of hunger (as well as give myself).  Yet, I've found it has impacted more than my food ideals but also taking a look at everything in my life and seeing where their is waste that can be cut back on.

  Hilary and I just the other day slashed our budget, giving us more room to lower our debt and to give more.  We noticed that roughly $200 of our current budget wasn't be used as best it could, so we readjusted the budget to better fit.  When we first moved into our house, we declared we wouldn't get cable and here, roughly 1.5 years later we haven't looked back. In August we had to readjust our internet to house basic cable (a whopping 15 channels) so we could maintain the lower monthly bill...but I only use it to watch Standard Definition Steeler games.

  This time of slashing was looking at how we can get healthier, cheaper foods from places like Aldi's rather than every month getting hoards of food from Sam's Club and wasting a good bit of it.  I will confess, Hilary has said these things before to me but I simply brushed it off and thought little of it, but thinking differently from this experience, I bowed to my wife's wisdom.

  I will spare you more details of our cutting back but it was substantial.  I am no one to cut back once I've gone ahead and made a plan but God has been teaching me that being wasteful is not the best plan he has for me, nor this world.

  I'm also learning a new appreciation for dinner.  By the time it comes I am so stinking hungry that I think about it starting around 3pm.  I've lost a total of 19.5 pounds in 19 days, so I am a walking hungry man!  I feel like I've crossed over the groggy seas of starvation because I seem to have more pep in my step the past couple of days, so that is very exciting!

  Let me challenge you with a thought:

  Are their places in your budget you can cutback in order to give more away?

Wrestle.  Think on it.  Take your time. Be honest.