The $10 Blessing: Integrity Pays in Your Business Dealings

photo courtesy of snacktime2007

**I bet the title had you thinking I was about to post a chainmail message huh? lol

Ok it's Friday and I don't have time for a long post so I'm gonna give you the quick and dirty:

Yesterday I made a large cash withdrawal so that I could envelope our funds for the week. Everything was kosher until I got to the car. While I was allocating the funds into the various envelopes, I kept coming up with an extra $10 bill... so I sat in the car and wondered what to do. Return it? Keep it? Tithe it back to the Lord as thank offering for providing the 'increase'? It was a simple decision. I walked back in the branch walked up to the teller I banked with and said "I'm not sure... but I think you made a mistake," producing the $10 spot at the same time. He looked confused, but said "uh, ok...". I then said, "I'm pretty sure about it, just check your drawer when you close out this evening."

Fast forward to a few hours later... it's 8:40pm and I'm RUSHING home to catch the start of game 4 of the Lakers vs. Celtics .... but before I can go home I need to stop and pay one more bill, which is cool cause it's on the way, not out of the way. Long story short: My wife and I are standing at the window and the teller is counting the money we'd like to have applied toward our bill... BUT HOLD UP SON!! It's short $10 dollars!!.... @W messed up the count yo!!.... what to do?!? I dunno but it's now 8:53 and the "Lake Show" comes on in 7 minutes lol!! So I pull out $10 from my personal money, pay the man, and say to my wife "I'll straighten it out with the bank tomorrow, I know just what happened."

So today I return to the scene of the crime to get my rightful $10 spot back... I had my "combat face" on and walking into the place like I was about business! I've seen this type of situation swing both ways too many times... both for and against the combatant -- er customer. And plus -- let's be real here-- I'm trying to get money 'back' from the $BANK$. You've seen what I've had to say about them in other posts... So anyway I walk in, ask for the branch manager, and tell him the situation. We both walk over to my favorite teller, and before I get there he's like "Mr. Wright, I check my drawer last night at closing time and came up $10 over, so I just deposited the money into your account for you."

Cool. That was that. Romans 8:28 did it's thing again. "All things work together for the good..."

I'm thankful for the number of blessings that came out of that simple miscounted $10 bill. 1) I acted with integrity when given an opportunity to 'get over'. 2) I established trust with my bank teller by acting honestly. 3) They did the same with me in return by depositing the funds into our account. 4) The Envelope System once again proved it's worth to us. I might not have noticed so easily where the $10 should've been if I was just banking online and paying with my debit card.

This experience gives a new meaning to the saying "Count your blessings" right?

Now back to what I was saying about the chainmail... if you forward this to 10 people as fast as you can, you will broaden my readership and I will instantly thank you! "Thank you!" (See how fast that was? I did my part...lol)

God bless,

@W

1/3 way home?

photo courtesy of householdriot

Mark today on your calendar... Ok well maybe not you, but I sure will. Today we reached a minor milestone in the fact that we just closed out our 10th account out of the 30 we started this journey with. So we are technically one-third of the way to our vision of debt freedom. **On a side note, finding a title for this post gave me fits!! This is why there's a question mark behind it... people always say 'half-way home' 3 quick words. But no one ever gramatically uses any other fraction in the same way... it always has to be "one-third-of-the-way" ect. which for me was just too many words for a snappy title. So please consider my title as my one-man mutiny against that stupid gramatical convention lol.

Now keep in mind this is only meant as a symbolic milestone because we are NOT anywhere near paying off 1/3 of our debt in dollars and cents... But trust me when you're in the grind of trying to eliminate debt you take EVERY victory you can.

So now, this is where our Debt Snowball finally gets rolling. Eventhough the monthly minimum for this personal loan was under $200, that freed up money now serves as a nice infusion to our financial situation. It gives us options we could not afford before. And no when I say "options" I don't mean I can just go blow that extra cash each month now LOL! It gives us some flexibility in how aggressively we can tackle various aspects of our debt.

Though it's a shame, I'm already eyeing the next milestone. It's gonna be maybe the most pivotal factor in our journey (unless my job wants to promote me again haha). In November we'll be making the last payment on our other line of credit. When that day comes I'll be LIT because it will open up yet another $500 each month for us to really throw at this debt in addition to what we freed up today!! It's at this point that the end will be in sight for us! Kind of like when a runner hits his second wind during a marathon. I imagine that's what it's going to feel like!

While I'm here I really just have to testify of how good God has been to us as of late. He's really been carrying us through some of these trying financial times. I can truly say there has been NO lack in my house even during the leanest of times. There have been nights where my wife and I would look in the fridge and see nothing that would make a meal...I mean the jount would be BARE! But by the end of the night when my wife was done cooking whatever was available we were full and satisfied. I dunno. Maybe you've never been THERE before but I know someone reading this (besides my wife and I) is feeling what I'm saying right here.

The word says in Psalms 34;1-9...

(King James Version)

1 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
3 O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.
8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
9 O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.

His word is true, and the events we've watched Him carry us through lately bear witness to that...

See ya next time,

@W

May Madness *UPDATE*

Photo courtesy of Canobie Fan

Last Friday I posted about all of the various expenses that seem to all converge on our finances in the lovely month of May! Here's a quick excerpt if you missed it -- and if you did miss it just scroll down the page and get to reading yo! lol

"...So that's been the month to this point, but even more daunting is the rest of the month to come! My cousin is graduating from medical school on the 19th in Richmond (again gas is the issue), My mother has a birthday on the 23rd, I'm in a wedding in New Jersey on the 25th for the same cousin, and on the 29th my niece is graduating from high school in South Carolina... our mode of transportation will be by car... gas is approaching $4.00/gallon... not to mention that before we can even GET on the road we need to replace the 2 front tires and get an alignment and oil change as well (We're looking at maybe *$250 for those to be done)!! This is why I love and hate May at the same time!!"
*Though it says $250, it actually should have said $350. Big... big... difference ha ha.

So I just want to give a quick update... God has really been in the midst of this process. It seems that at every turn I see costs coming in below what we had estimated! This is great because it gives us more resources to throw away at the gas pump while we're on this trip.

I had estimated it to cost about $200 for the front tires to be replaced. But check this out, we ended up getting 20% off because we experienced some customer service issues where we got the work done. (A very long story, but as you can see it worked in our favor.) So we ended up paying $166 after taxes were included!

"But wait... there's more!"

So next comes the Oil change, tire rotation, and alignment.. I was expecting these to come to about $150 total: $40 for oil, rotation included, and $110 for the alignment.

Well I forgot that my car requires synthetic oil which adds $25 to the cost out the gate, but as a buffer they had a special going where it basically took $35 off the cost of the oil change! Truth be told the special on the billboard outside said "Oil change and rotation -- $19.99" but of course the synthetic oil removed that as an option. Sigh... So anyway it came up to $45 for the oil change and rotation (which worked out well since the tires were replaced the day before!)

The only thing left to do was the alignment. Man, again I'll be honest here... after I drove around with the new tires I REALLY had 2nd thoughts about having the alignment done at all. I wrestled with it for a while cause y'know this is $110 we're talking about! And to make it worse the more I drove, the more I realized that at least in MY opinion this thing was driving straight as an arrow! At one point I centered it in my lane, took my hands off the wheel, and just let it steer itself. I kidd you not, I went for a mile straight like this and the wheel stayed right where I had aimed it.

I finally decided to still have it done, with a lil prodding from my wife. Yes we could pocket the $110 and put it towards something else... but we just got brand new tires, so if we didn't get the work done now, WHEN would we ever get it done? Fact is there was no more advantageous time to do it than now. And besides we're not just doing it for the sake of this trip, we NEED our car in tip-top shape cause right now it's the only one we've got. Shoot, if you could've seen how it steered before we replaced the tires, you would NOT have ever wanted to drive in the lane next to us on the road. No lie, the alignment was so bad that if you took your hand off the wheel, it would INSTANTLY veer 45 degrees to the right! lol wow, the things that the Lord keeps us safe through! Final cost came to about $140 because we had a $15 coupon that we used towards the work.

So all in all, we came up to about $305 for maintenance on the car when we expected to pay $350... and guess where that surplus $45 is going? Yup right towards gas expenses. Sigh...

See ya when we get back,

@W