In Scripture, Jesus told a great parable about discipleship and carrying our crosses. He said, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish” (Luke 14:28-30, NIV).

While the passage is meant to give us guiding principles for discipleship, it also gives us principles for budgeting as well. We don’t want to arrive at the end of a month not having enough income to pay our bills and meet our needs.

For myself, I always start budgeting my income that I can expect to receive monthly. For people that are salaried and receive the same amount every week, this is easy to do. When I was being paid by the hour, I will estimate the number of hours I could reasonably expect to work each week. Then, I would calculate the hourly pay rate multiplied by those hours and then would need to estimate what taxes are going to be taken out of each pay period. This gives me my “take home pay.” That’s where we start our budget. While we can sometimes use credit cards to spend beyond our income for a given period, we must know we will eventually have to pay that back. Credit card companies charge high interest rates when we don’t pay off the balances, so we want to try and avoid those at all costs. With living on a tight budget, the last thing we need is unnecessary expenses to add in.

After I’ve calculated my “take home pay,” I then calculate my tithe and offering amounts. The tithe is the basic 10 percent we have learned in Scripture to give back to God through our corps (church). An offering amount is anything we chose to give above that. When God blesses us, we want to give back additionally to Him. I start my expense budget by placing my tithes and offering first, because it’s a spiritual principle and personal commitment. In Exodus 34:26, God commanded His people, “You shall bring the very first of the first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God” (NIV). When I consider how I spend the pay I receive, I don’t want to give God just the “leftovers.” Some may think this is counter-intuitive to worldly wisdom, but it works! It’s spiritually the right thing to do, and helps us stick to our budgets better!

Once I’ve budgeted my giving to the Lord, I then budget necessities, items I have to have. Rent for an apartment, the electric bill, water bill, are all things needed. Health insurance premiums are also important. The cost for food and necessities, like toiletries and medications, are also crucial to budget. Once these are budgeted, I look at other items that are important to me. If I have a car, I need to budget how much gas I estimate I need to pay for, as well as my auto insurance premiums as well.

After these “hard costs” are factored in, I have money for items that are not as crucial: cell phone monthly bill, Internet access, television service, etc.

When I’ve completed my monthly budget and I still have money left over, I can budget for things like entertainment or recreational activities. But when I’m considering this, I also try to target a certain amount each month to put into a savings account in case an unforeseen emergency occurs later.

This all may seem like a lot of work but going through this exercise beforehand and knowing what will occur in the months ahead also helps provide some calm and peace. A wise author once said, “Our biggest frustrations are caused by unmet expectations.” I would gladly council everyone to take a few moments to go through this exercise and plan for the future. We must also trust in God’s provision when we are honoring Him.