Miraculously Back On Budget | Miracle Story - Episode 10

Unknown Speaker (0:00): Miracle Story Episode 10. In our marriage, I was in charge of the checkbook, making deposits and paying bills. I was very new at this. I had a small checking account when I was in high school, but had very little money and no bills, so I spent the money on what I wanted. I wasn't very good at money management.

Unknown Speaker (0:23): I had very little money and didn't keep an accurate record in my checkbook. No one had ever sat down with me to explain and talk about bank fees, etc. I got overdrawn and the fees sunk me. I didn't have money coming in on a regular basis, so so there was no money to recoup what my error had caused. My mom had to bail me out and we shut down the account.

Unknown Speaker (0:48): My husband made good money and we did very good. I was very determined to tithe and I did. I was trying very hard to do a much better job at managing our checkbook. On occasion, I would still get overdrawn on a check and have to cover it. You have to understand, this was in the time when you got a once a month bank statement and you wrote checks out of a checkbook.

Unknown Speaker (1:14): If you wrote down the wrong amount in your checkbook register or forgot to write one down completely, you could be sunk if you lived with a very small margin in your bank. When at a store and writing a check, you had to make sure you wrote it down in your register right then and that the amount was right. I had small little ones and anytime we went shopping for groceries or whatever, it was chaos. It was not unusual for me to not write down a check from sheer distraction at the register. I began ordering duplicate checks.

Unknown Speaker (1:49): They provided an instant carbon copy of the check you just wrote. Then you could go back later and enter it in your register. It was a pretty good system, but with one flaw. It gave you a false sense of security. I could write several checks on a day outrunning errands and not sit down to write them in the register for days.

Unknown Speaker (2:11): Then I would be in shock. The mental register I was keeping in my head was never right. I don't know if I was mentally rounding down or adding a non existent buffer or what. Almost always, when I would sit down to fill out my register, I was always way below what I had thought I spent. I purposed to do better and was able to get on track.

Unknown Speaker (2:36): Then one late afternoon, I sat down at my desk to balance my bank account and pay bills. When you would receive your monthly bank statement, you would need to go through the process of balancing your account or reconciling your account. You would take the balance on the bank statement and deduct any checks that had not cleared. That amount should match your check register. That particular evening, when I sat down and opened the statement, I was gobsmacked.

Unknown Speaker (3:08): We were way in the hole. I mean way, way in the hole. As I began to read through and look at the canceled checks that had cleared, I saw that my husband was writing checks from his checkbook while I was writing checks from mine. Neither one of us was taking into consideration that the other one was also writing checks. Needless to say, we had both spent all of our money.

Unknown Speaker (3:37): It was a small town bank and they knew us, so they just kept clearing our checks and charging a big fat fee with each one. Not only was there no money to pay our bills, we were way more than his next paycheck in the hole. Even if we didn't spend 1 single dime, it would take us at the very least a two months or more of paychecks to get us even. We used almost all of his paychecks each month for bills and groceries and such. There was very little left over to pay the huge deficit.

Unknown Speaker (4:13): I had already laid our bills out on my desk so that I could write the checks and pay them. We had a house payment, two car payments, and of course utilities, and groceries and such. Thankfully, we did not have any credit cards. But we had a huge grocery bill each month, and he used a lot of gas to get back and forth to work. I looked at the desk covered in bills and the bank statement glowing in red ink.

Unknown Speaker (4:41): I was overcome. I rested my head in my hands and prayed. I cried. Then I sat up and I laid my hands on the bills and the bank statement and prayed. I made a declarative statement and called the bills paid and the statement in the black.

Unknown Speaker (5:00): I called things that were not as though they were. I shoved the whole mess back, got up, and went about my day. When my husband got home, I told him what had happened. We decided that there would be only one check book that I would keep and I would give him cash allowance each paycheck for gas and whatever else he needed going to and from work. Then other big purchases that we wanted like furniture or such, we would discuss or do together.

Unknown Speaker (5:29): In a side note here, he worked hard and I knew it. So often when he wanted a new gun or some other big item, I would just let him get it and then I would juggle behind the scenes. I felt like since he worked so hard, he deserved to have something fun from time to time, even though it was often very hard to juggle the money. But back to the checkbook mess. Then one day after praying, I sat back down to deal with the mess.

Unknown Speaker (5:59): I wrote down a plan, what we had to absolutely pay, and the very last possible day we had to pay it. I wrote down what his paychecks would be and when they would come. By my calculations, we would be in the black with all bills paid and caught up in two and a half months. I scrounged to make the food we had last. I I got real creative with our meals.

Unknown Speaker (6:24): But they stretched for a good while, at least until we got his next paycheck, which I cashed and kept enough cash for groceries and for him for gas. My husband already had some cash and he made that stretch for gas to go to work. When we got the next bank statement the very next month, not only were we in the black, but we had money in the account. Not much, but it was some. I looked at my plan.

Unknown Speaker (6:53): There was no way that could happen. None. I kept going over every single inch of it. No one had made any deposits for us. I thought our parents might have gotten wind of the situation and helped out, but no, there were no additional deposits.

Unknown Speaker (7:11): I looked over every withdrawal. Only the checks I had written at the absolute last minute for bills and utilities had come through, and all of them had come through. I got out my calculator. I totaled my plan one more time. The same, two and a half months.

Unknown Speaker (7:30): I totaled the bank statement one more time. It was correct. I was obsessed in figuring it out. It made no sense. None.

Unknown Speaker (7:40): I can't tell you how many times I tried and recalculated to see where I had made a mistake. I double checked the bills. I double checked the deposits. I could find no error. After about two hours, I sat back.

Unknown Speaker (7:56): The night when I had prayed and lain my hands on the pile of bills came to my mind. God had honored my faith and my request. That declarative statement, that declarative prayer that called for the money happened. It was a miracle. Thank you for listening.

Unknown Speaker (8:18): Be sure and subscribe to this podcast plus my other podcast, The Story with Nancy Jackson, where you will hear the actual professionally narrated novel that syncs with after the story. Link is in the notes.

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