His Faithful Shepherdess

  STARTING AGAIN AUGUST 19 2025 Frugal Goodies 1 Food: Tomatoes and Peppers fom church friends. Got a few tomatoes and peppers from our garden. Using food from freezer 2 Household: Making my own Laundry detergent  Cooler weather means AC is off and windows open Using dryer less and hanging clothes on racks downstairs with fan blowing. 3 Other goodies: Freedom stamps aplenty! Free zoo visit last Thursday with complimentary popcorn and ice cream. 4. Books: Using county library and Kindle for books. Park pass can be use for local museums and gardens. 5. Health: Eating healthier, exercise, sleep, lots of water, less stress.  Now that I'm on disability I stay home and keep busy here. Karen, loving life and living like no one else!  Leave a comment!

 Some of my ideas for staying frugally minded   Photo by Taryn Elliott: https://www.pexels.com/photo/clear-glass-jars-on-white-wooden-shelf-4112620/ Have a well stocked working pantry, which has all the staples to make a meal. Catch things that I use on a regular base on sale and buy a few extra.  I do this as often as I can I have invested in good cookware.  I have a set of Pioneer Woman cookware and a few thrift store finds that are Emeril cookware.  I wish Emeril cookware was still in the stores, it's the best! Savings: Retirement, Emergency, Freedom, New to us Car, Health   Budget Spending on Bills: Shelter and HOA, Transportation, Communication, Electricity, Insurances Giving: Churches, Missionaries Spending on Other: Food, Gas, Restaurants, Other Debts: Medical, 2 credit cards, student loan   I'm working on selling things that we don’t use to raise extra money.  My husband usually does not want to give things away that he hasn't ...

  God-Sustains Us credit https://unsplash.com/photos/yL9qjDDmmMU?   How we are planning to pay off our debt and live life more reliant on God. Credit Card 1668 paid off July 2023 Credit Card 2 owe 137 in Aug 2023 For my Student Loan we started making double payments Putting extra funds on mortgage principle, which means we are paying $100 more monthly We are planning ahead on all utility bills.  Which means this month there is enough for July and August.  So we will always be a month ahead. Reduce and conserve power and water usage.  I'm using my clothes rack for any clothes except dress clothes, jeans, and towels. We are on peak usage so during the week I do not use my dryer or dishwasher between 2-7pm.  Use time and money wisely. I volunteer approximately 10 hours a week depending on the season. I look at sales at stores (Aldi is my favorite) and stock up when there is a good sale. I have a small garden.  Right now the flowers are d...

Hello! And welcome!  So there is just the two of us and our cat.  We live in a nice condo in SW Michigan. We live here and do our ministry from here. I recently had to resign from my outside job due to health reasons, and am doing more around the house and with our church and our ministry. So we may have to tighten our belts as they say for a little bit but we are doing okay, really! Here are some of the things I've learned recently: Freedom: It is great to have a budget!  Right now I've moved everything to Dave Ramsey's Every Dollar, and it's going quite well. Grocery shopping: I do most of my shopping at Aldi, and some at Meijer and Walmart. I get some things at Amazon and CVS, and our local thrift store.  Recently at Meijer 80% lean ground beef was on sale for $1.99 per lb!! (I bought 6 lbs) At Aldi, strawberries were 1.49 a lb (I bought 2 lbs).   Gardening: I have two tomato plants and two cucumber plants, along with marigolds and petunias.  I cann...

 Losing my mind for the Lord Anxiety.  It's been with me for almost all of my life.  When I was younger, I was afraid that my mother would die. I was afraid of bullies in school.  I was bullied at my first job out of high school as well.  Many things made me anxious, but at that time I did not know the Lord. In 1987, my life turned around when I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. But I was still anxious. I had insomnia and did not eat much by the way of healthy foods.  I ate a lot of junk food.  After my husband and I married, I still had anxiety.  Ministry, work, personal life, relationships with family, having children, taking care of our home and our children.  Sometimes it felt like way too much. Then we went to missionary candidate school.  We prayed much about this, starting before we were married.  The Mister was interested in Bible translation since he was in college.  I became interested in missionary work as...

 It has been on the warm side this winter.  Well, Christmas weekend was a blizzard and really cold temps, but we were in North Carolina. January has been so warm it feels like spring.  There are actually green things coming up in the garden, and others have seen dandelions!  Now its snowing and next week the highs are to be in the 20s.   I have a lot going on without my job, which I just lost.  I am only afraid of what our budget might look like without my income.  It seems like I should do something from home that doesn't require lifting or anything heavy. This year my focus is on RENEWING MY MIND and BE FEMININE.  I've always loved florals and shades of rose, and different shades of blue. I am renewing my mind, especially through the passage Philippians 4:8.