When we started Chi Alpha, I left my teaching job...which means that I left my teaching salary. The awesome thing about being a teacher is getting paid all year long, even when you have the summer break. So, we started the internship in June, and I still received paychecks until August. So, in September, we started receiving our income in a different way.
We are not paid a salary by Chi Alpha. We are supported by our family, friends, churches, and businesses who send money to an office in Springfield, MO. This money is designated to us...and when we started doing Chi Alpha, we didn't have a lot of people on our support team. We only get the money that is sent in, and there were months when it just wasn't a lot. Thankfully, over the 4 years that we've been doing this, we've had a number of people join our team to help us in our budget requirements...and we're close to being at 100% of what the national office of the Assemblies of God expects us to have. (I wrote more about this in another blog...you can read it by clicking here).
Anyways, I'm going to start couponing!! I know that I can't do these major hauls like on Extreme Couponing on TLC...and I'm not sure that I want to do something that big ever. But I'm really excited about saving money for my family. I chose to leave my teaching job to be a full-time Chi Alpha missionary. I chose to stay home with my kids and help with Chi Alpha when I can. And this is an opportunity for me to have fun being a good steward of the finances that God has given us. I don't want to spend 40+ hours a week doing this, but I do hope to turn this into a fun hobby for me...and reap the benefits of saving money...It's going to be another adventure!!!!!
That's awesome, Bri! I've been couponing since August and it has made a major impact on our kitchen! Okay, well, my bathroom & laundry room too. Even my make up! It takes about six weeks to really start feeling the benefits of it as far as your meals go, but once you do you will never go back to the old way of shopping!
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