Sermon by Michael Bailey on March 19, 2023.
So far, in Luke 12, Jesus warns us to be on guard against greed and worry when it comes to possessions. That said, what is the purpose of our material resources? Why does God give us money and things? How do we be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us?
WEEK 3 HOMEWORK
To assess your monthly spending, we have created a spreadsheet for you to enter all your expenses from the previous month. To access the spreadsheet, click the link below. Once you open the link, click ‘File’ and ‘Make a Copy’ in the top left corner of the spreadsheet.
Step 1: Enter your income
Your first step for using this spreadsheet will be to enter your income for the month in the very top left of the spreadsheet. Enter your total income for the month in the green cell. Only enter your total income. Not your total expenses. You will enter each individual expense in the next step, and it will be totaled automatically. If you have irregular income, your total income should be what you estimate your monthly income to be based on previous averages. It’s okay if it is more or less than what actually came in.
Step 2: Enter your expenses
Next, you will enter each expense you had for the month in the columns below. You will enter the date, who you paid, and the amount. You also need to select the type of expense that it was using the drop-down for each row. This will categorize all of your expenses in the pie chart to the right to help you see where your money went for the month.
If you did not spend all of your income and don’t allocate it to a savings account, add an expense line to categorize this as general savings. If you do allocate some of your money to a savings account, make sure to enter that as an expense even though you are not actually spending that money. That will help you see what percentage of your income you set aside for savings.
Step 3: Assess your spending
Once you have entered all your monthly spending and the total income and expense numbers match, look at the pie chart to the right. This chart shows you where your money went for the past month. Where is your money going most? Are you spending more than you make? How do these numbers line up with your financial goals that you set last week? Is there anything that needs to change? Are you spending more in certain areas than you would like to? Does your spending reveal how you look for satisfaction in temporary things rather than eternal things?
We encourage you to do this as an ongoing practice. The goal is to assess and reevaluate monthly. Next week for homework, you will take your financial goals from week two and the assessment from this week and work on creating or tweaking your budget as needed.