A Recovering Cheapskate Speaks

I realize most people probably have the opposite problem. In fact, if your problem is over-spending, then you may want to stop reading this immediately.


Hi. My name is Debra. I am a cheapskate.

Well, a recovering cheapskate.

Until eight years ago I was a 'professional' penny-pincher--I took saving money to a whole other realm. Or thought I did. Maybe some of you will recognize my symptoms (you know who you are):

If I forgot to bring a couple 25 cents-off coupons to the market with me, I would not buy those two items I'd planned on purchasing. No, instead, I'd return days later, spending more than 50 cents in gas, and using-up inordinate amounts of time driving to the store, then weaving my cart down the store aisles (again), standing in line (again), then driving home through stressful traffic (yeah, again). I'd arrive home and whine, "I wonder why I'm tired all the time?"

All to 'save' 50 cents.

If I wanted to buy some shoes and I fell in love with one pair, but they were five dollars more than I'd planned to spend-- I would, instead, purchase a cheaper pair which I didn't like as much. And then almost immediately I'd grow tired of wearing them because they didn't look 'right.' Or they fell apart. All to 'save' $5. I would do that with just about everything imaginable: clothes,furniture, dishes, paintings, etc. (This one still trips me up at times.)

I'd buy cereal I didn't really even like just because it was a dollar cheaper than the tasty kind and oh, keep toasters, window screens, typewriters or anything which had broken 'just in case' I could fix them someday.

I'd almost never hire any teens to shovel snow from our driveway (forgetting that I'd be sowing good seeds by giving them a way to earn money).

I'd feel like we'd soon be packing for the county Poor House if I discovered that Tom or Naomi had left the lights and/or the TV on all night.

You get the idea. (Anyone else been there, done that?)

Then one afternoon God used Joyce Meyer to wake me from this insane nightmare. I watched her teach a message from her More Than Enough series in which she shared that she, too, was a recovering cheapskate and knew all the tricks we penny-pinchers pull.

And I was never the same. 

Oh, it's taken years to shed some of these scales, but Joyce shined the spotlight on my silly, penny-squeezing ways and for the first time, I longed to wiggle of that trap.

Yes, it is a trap when a Christian fears spending money on himself.

It's a trap when we fear that God will only provide a certain amount of money and then we will be cut off and when we put no value on our time--and frizzle and frazzle our bodies into an early grave because we tried to save 50 cents.

It's a trap to eat foods we don't even like (and let go stale in the pantry). Or buy clothes that make us look washed-out or frumpy(and ones that end up petrifying inside our closets).

It's a trap when we can't freely give to others in need, when we make financial decisions based on fear instead of wisdom.

And no, I'm not talking about spending twenty dollars more on a pair of jeans just because they have a cool, sought-after name.

And yes! By all means be a good steward of what God gives you!

But all I'm saying is that sometimes the Fear of Lack causes us (me) to be, well, stupid. There's a giving and receiving ebb and flow to life and I can clog it up by my fear-based, miserly ways.

I don't want to do anything out of fear! There is a better way: it's called Wisdom.

I'll choose that. So far it's making a huge difference, even saving me lots of money--surprise!



(Now, if any of you spend-crazies are still here, consider yourselves warned! If I hear that any of you are walking around saying, "Debra said that God said you can just spend all the money you want!"... well, I will look for you, and I will find you and I'll snatch your Visa card out of your hot little, spend-happy hand!)  ッ



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"...for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her..." Proverbs 8:11

Wisdom can help us avoid a whole lot of trouble...
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