A very quiet weekend.

I went back to Trader Joe's on Friday. Came home with bargains and some new things to try.

All the bills are paid. All of them. Tithing check is written and in my bag for church. I am nearly $450 less in debt than I was last Sunday. In four weeks I will have paid off a smidgen over half of the balance on my line of credit. If you had said to me, that morning I sat sobbing in my car in the parking lot of the Social Security office, that six months later I would have paid off or otherwise dealt with 75% of my non-mortgage debt, I would have sent for the men in the white coats.

These are tithing blessings. Heaven could not have enabled me to make this kind of progress had I not been writing that check each payday. I sit with my spreadsheet and watch the good numbers come up and the bad numbers go down. And I say,"Do You see what we are doing here?" Because I certainly could not have done this in the past, or alone. When I was young, I had minimal financial self-discipline. When I was married to the children's father, we had no predictable, steady income. As a single parent, I had intermittent child support. Even when I was empty-nesting in Fort Worth, I still struggled to break old habits.

Last year's counseling over the bills with Beloved, helped me to turn the corner. And I am so thankful. Now, the Lord continues to get His cut, right off the top as He has for years. Slightly less than 10% goes into my 401K's. Another 10% goes into short-term savings. And I live on what's left, using the scrimping skills I've polished to a fine art. And I don't feel as if I were missing out on anything.

Next year, when I will have only mortgage debt, the vast sums that currently go for debt reduction will go into savings. And when Lorelai gives up the ghost, I hope to pay cash for her replacement. I have saved almost all I will need for my banjo.

So blessed. So very, very blessed.