Reflections on God and Money: Creating a Budget (2)

King Solomon was king over all Israel, and these were his high officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was the priest; Elihoreph and Ahijah the sons of Shisha were secretaries; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder… Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household. Each man had to make provision for one month in the year.

1 Kings 4:1-7

I ought to say, again, just to be clear, that a budget should not dictate your lifestyle but be a means to help you live successfully – especially if you live in a consumer society where almost everything has a price tag. It should be a means of you controlling money, not money controlling you.

This does not mean, of course, that there are not some things that you have any choice but to pay for. You have to pay taxes and often for housing, electricity, food, clothes, transport communication and other ‘survival’ costs. But, even though you cannot avoid these costs, you can often do a lot to minimise them and free up money for other things.

This is the point of a budget: not to ensure that you pay what you must only but that you can maximise your ability to live the way you want and do the things you want. You may wish to live selfishly, you may wish to be generous; you may wish to gratify your desires, you may wish to live for the glory of God. A budget will help.

The first thing to decide is what time period your budget should cover: a week, month or longer? This will almost certainly depend on the frequency of your main income. If you are paid weekly, budget for each week; if monthly, for each month. If you receive State benefits that are paid once a fortnight, then budget for these two-week periods; if you are a college or university student who receives part of your student loan or bursary at the start of each Term, then budget for each entire Term and also for each vacation in between. If you receive an irregular income, budget for single weeks. If you are planning a long trip, like a ‘gap year’, do your best to plan for the entire period, so that you can be confident of having enough money to last and to get home safely at the end of it.

Prepare a table with three columns: the left hand column is to describe your income and spending (such as ‘salary’, ‘rent’, ‘food’, ‘birthday presents’, ‘nights out’ and ‘giving’); the middle column is for the amounts of income and spending; the right hand column is for totals. The table can be drawn on a sheet of paper, or be a computer spreadsheet, but the principle is the same.

Why do you need to take such a detailed approach? For the same reasons that King Solomon appointed officials to oversee his affairs. He did not take it for granted that, because he was so very rich, that the provisions he needed would always be there. He wanted to be a good steward of all the resources that God gave him and to meet his obligations to his people in a structured way.

I will resume this series next weekend and consider how to prioritise items in your budget.

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Handling money and dealing with debt can be complicated and neither the author nor anyone else involved in the production of these Reflections is responsible for any action you take, or fail to take, based on what is written here. You are invited to put a link on your website to these Reflections. You are welcome to copy these Reflections for personal study or for circulation to family and friends on a non-profit basis. For any other purpose, whether or not for profit, you will require written permission in advance from the author before copying, reproducing or transmitting extracts in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or using any information storage and retrieval system.

Saturday 26 January 2013

Creating a Budget (2)