How do you decide how much to contribute?

[Andruschak]

I have looked into both organizations a little bit, but I can’t tell that there is much of a difference between them. What have you found out?

Same as you. Not any difference, at first sight. I am sure the next 4 years will bring up something to make me favor one group or the other. (Or to forget the whole idea.) I would say that it was a very good idea to have prospects cool their heels for 4 years before making a decision they might later come to regret.

 

[mommyof4]

I think you’re right about needing 4 years to fully commit. It really requires a huge commitment of time and life style changes. After you are finished with RCIA, and if you decide to go on with the penitential groups, you’ll have to start another thread about your progress in that group! You’ll also have to tell us how your cats react to the process, too.

 

[Andruschak]

I think you’re right about needing 4 years to fully commit. It really requires a huge commitment of time and life style changes. After you are finished with RCIA, and if you decide to go on with the penitential groups, you’ll have to start another thread about your progress in that group! You’ll also have to tell us how your cats react to the process, too.

Hmmmmm…they might be unhappy as I spend more and more time in prayers, which means less time to venerate and adore them.

I am already half-way there in the clothing department, no problem for the cats. As long as I have a laundry of clean underwear for Silver to sleep on, he will be happy.

I am strict about the cats not eating human food, just their special dry food for senior cats. So my mild fasting is of no concern to them. If I go on to the stricter fasts, still no problem. The cats will NOT care how hungry I am, as long as THEY are well fed

But I just thought of something that WILL upset the cats. I sleep with the help of an electric blanket, with additional help from flannel blankets, flannel sheets and pillow cases, and flannel pajamas. This helps me sleep better by supressing the hot flashes and night sweats. And the cats LOVE being on top with all that heat seeping upwards.

Are electric blankets allowed for Penitents? Warm flannel? Or is it bare floors with a single thin sheet over us?

 

[mommyof4]

But I just thought of something that WILL upset the cats. I sleep with the help of an electric blanket, with additional help from flannel blankets, flannel sheets and pillow cases, and flannel pajamas. This helps me sleep better by supressing the hot flashes and night sweats. And the cats LOVE being on top with all that heat seeping upwards.

Are electric blankets allowed for Penitents? Warm flannel? Or is it bare floors with a single thin sheet over us?

Well, wouldn’t it be concidered an act of charity to continue sleeping with flannel sheets and electric blankets to keep the cats happy? I mean, let’s face it - cranky cats are no fun at all!

 

[YADA]

I like the cable bill reflection. We will be reviewing our discretionary spending this year. We have not increased our home parish support the last couple of years as we are caring for my mother [3.5 hours drive away]. As my husband has taken that primary responsibility and often times attends church there; we have added donations to that parish as our increased parish support.

Currently we only donate there on the Sundays one or both of us attend. I am thinking we need to set a weekly amount to that parish in addition to our regular parish. They gave us envelopes this last year even if we did not formally register.

Our other parish gets a check once a month for all Sundays whether we are traveling, at my mother’s or attend a mass with friends at another church. We decided to make a ‘parish support’ amount donation not just a token or the Diocesan average.

Also, Starbucks coffee. I have never quite gotten into the regular Starbucks habit but have friends who go every day and sometimes more than once a day. Some people spend far more on Starbucks [Pete’s, Seattle’s Best, Coffee People, Blue Joe’s etc.] than they put in the collection plate eithout much thought. That is why I think an exercise that places charitable giving in context is important. You can’t just be told to give, nobody likes that. We all have competeing financial needs…

I am like puzzleannie, I found out a long time ago that if I was generous, God woud see that we had enough. Perhaps, not as much as others but more than we needed. My husband is often times shocked at tax time. My accountant does not always understand our charitable giving; always worrying about what we should be saving for retirement. But we feel very blessed and we have to give back to God for this blessing.

I just think it is very important to support our local parish and diocese. The family is the smallest division of the local church, but the local church is the diocese. Between feeding and covering our personal expeditures and all of the various ministries of the diocese is the local parish. We must take this support seriously or parishes [and the associated schools] will continue to close.

Where will we gather together to receive the Eucharist Marriages, Baptisms, Confirmations and ministry to the sick and homebound. If your parish is anything like ours it provides a multitude of services beyond that most important of ministries the Sunday Eucharist.

God Bless our priests and the parish staff! They need our support, financial and other wise.

 

[mommyof4]

One of my plans over the next week or so is to go over my budget and figure out what I can cut out and how I can increase my charitable giving. Unfortunatly, I have a lot of credit card debt, and I really want to eliminate that sort of debt. I also need to start building some sort of savings - I really have nothing to fall back on if I have some sort of unexpected expense (like the ticket I got yesterday -$90.00! ). I have spent a lot of time praying about this, and so far, the Lord hasn’t balanced my checkbook yet. I really wish he would send me a budget and tell me how to meet all of my obligations, build up some emergency savings, and increase my chartiable giving.

 

[YADA]

We do not carry credit card debt as a general rule. I pay off the balance each month in full. If we have an unexpected expense, I might carry the balance a few months But I immediately look at the amount and set a period of time to pay it off, like 2 months or 3 months. Credit card debt is a real hazard to personal financial security, family harmony and unity.

I actually believe ahat many of todays family problems are rooted in credit card use. It feeds envy. For example: My neighbbor has a new car, why can’t we? Spouses fight over money. Credit cards are used to increase our life style beyond our means.

You are right to think of reducing your credit card debt and begin a savings plan. If you include some charitable giving in that plan, I believe you will have real success and feel so much better.

Set some realistic goals and then try to stick with them. Then look for ways to increase your effort… If you are going to eat out at a fast food restaruant try something like this. say you would go to Burger King ad get the Whopper Meal Deal. It is several dollars. Instead go to Taco Belll get a bean burrito [less than one dollar] with water. Take the savings and put it into three envvelopes when you get home. One envelope has money that will be paid to reduce the credit card debt, a second envelope for savings and a third envelope for charity. Once a month tally the money and put it to its designated purpose in addition to the budget. You still had a meal full of calories [much more than some people eat in a day] and you applied the savings to your goals [makes you happy to be disciplined and realizing your goals]

 

[YADA]

You can get a basic budget program free as a download from the microsoft office web page. It works in excel. It is not like fancy ones but you can track your budgeted and actual expenditures. It is easy to use and the cost is just your time [posting here you must have access to a computer and be computer literate]

 

[mommyof4]

Yada, thank you for the post. I was thinking of doing something very similar to what you wrote, and hearing from someone else makes me feel better.

 

[jmcrae]

Being in debt is horrible - it makes it incredibly difficult to budget. You’re right that job #1 for you right now is to get out of debt - do whatever it takes. (I put my car away, rode the bus, lived in a one room apartment, and ate vegetables and bread for five years.)

Then, once you’re free, you can look at your income, line it up with your expenses, and see what you can do, and what you want to do.

Rules I’ve seen before include:

10% charitable giving
10% retirement fund
40% housing
15-20% groceries

Divide the rest between incidentals, annual expenses and your emergency fund.

Ultimately, you want to build up your emergency fund to the equivalent of three months’ wages. Once it’s there, put it into a high interest savings account or flexible short term GICs (so that you can get at it in an emergency) and then just leave it alone - don’t touch it until you’ve got an actual life-or-death situation on your hands - otherwise you can talk yourself into calling any unusual circumstance an “emergency,” and then when a real emergency arrives, the money’s gone.

 

[YADA]

When I was young and my children were babies, I gave what I could. Back then I had more time than money [even with three kids - which says alot] I always tried to stretch the financial donations and volunteered, donated blood, etc. Now I don’t know if I really have more money than time but God has blessed us abundantly. I still donate blood, donate many more hours each week than at any time in my life and we support many charitable causes. Most of them are catholic but not all are. We have several causes that are dear to our hearts. Our local parish, the archbishops appeal, seminarians, un-born children and pro-life organizations, scholarships [college, high school and elementary school], homeless etc.

I was very rpoud of my 9 year old grandson. His birthday was in October. Instead of inviting his class to a typical birthday party, he has a special celebration. It was not an easy decision for him to make but this is what he did. There is a local organization that moves people from homelessness [on the streets] into permanent housing. This group has a list of move in needs [sheets, toasters, dishes, pots annd pans, toilet paper etc.] My grandson gave the list of items to his classmates. He had an age appropriate murder mystery party [A who was murdered? Who done it?] Seventeen third graders all wondering around reading clues, finger prints etc. Cake, punch and all of the presents re going to be delivered this week to help people who have very little.

Those kids had a good time and he really did not need more toys!

He got some real cool stuff too. Mixer, bowls, sheet sets, tilex cleaner, patatoe peelers, silverware, $30 in cash and the sense of doing something for people. All of the kids thought it was cool, they enjoyed the party. My daughter is going to take his picture so his friends get a picture of him delivering the gifts with a list of all of the items with his THANK YOU card.

The mom’s thought it was good too. A bright spot after all of the “Pump It Up” parties.

 

[Andruschak]

10% charitable giving
10% retirement fund
40% housing
15-20% groceries
.

Hmmmm, I’d say I am increasing charitable giving to 10%, my retirement contributions remain more like 20%, housing is about 40%. That leaves 30% for food etc.

That etc. includes cat care.

But the reason I can increase charity to 10% is that my food budget is falling as I get into the fasting/abstinence thingy, stop buying clothing and other not-really-needed items; all as I slowly strip down my lifestyle. PLUS I have medical insurance from the Post Office. Very important, that.

 

[puzzleannie]

we don’t use envelopes and have not for years, since our income stopped coming in the form of regular weekly paychecks, but in irregular amounts less frequently. We adjust our tithing amounts every year after we figure our taxes and know what our income was, make a lump sum payment to the parish, diocesan collections. Support for CFCA children is an automatic deduction from checking account. As soon as our parish sets up such a plan we will do it that way. We make our monthly building fund contribution through our bank’s on-line check writing service. We don’t pay any bills by writing a check and putting it in an envelope any more.

we recognize and teach our children and grandchildren that as a response to our baptism we owe as a rock bottom minimum an hour a week of service to the Church and God’s poor so that is our guideline for “time and talent”. As long as we try to adhere to that, the rest of our time commitments seem to fall into place. If we get to a stage where we forget it, it seems to become harder to manage the rest of our time each week.

 

[puzzleannie]

One of my plans over the next week or so is to go over my budget and figure out what I can cut out and how I can increase my charitable giving. Unfortunatly, I have a lot of credit card debt, and I really want to eliminate that sort of debt. I also need to start building some sort of savings - I

I think we all go through a period of time like this (sometimes more than once) and paying off debt is a priority since that is a duty in justice we owe to others. We sure went through those times, but we found if we used those difficulties as an excuse to cut tithing, we could just not manage the rest of our money properly. When we restored the tithing mentality, the rest of money managment fell into place. that is personal experience, by the way, not church law. Same thing applies with use of time.

 

[YADA]

Some note that tithing is ans “Old Testament” practice and that we are not bound by the giving of 10%.

I agree with that. However, when I reflect upon that less rigorius tithing of 10% rule for Christians in lieu of Christ’s atoning sacrafice, I believe that we are called to do more. We are called to be “Christ” like in the world. Where our Jewish forebears were required to give a minimum of 10% we are called to freely give in proportion to what we have received.

And just what did we receive?..We received Christ’s atonment of our sins. His gift of self upon the cross calls us to be generous beyond the minimum of 10%. We need to support the Church Christ left us, feed the hungry, cloth the naked abd serve our fellow man.

Just my musings…

 

[LittleCrown]

And just what did we receive?..We received Christ’s atonment of our sins. His gift of self upon the cross calls us to be generous beyond the minimum of 10%. We need to support the Church Christ left us, feed the hungry, cloth the naked abd serve our fellow man.

I agree whole-heartedly. We are blessed with so much, we should be making sacrificial tithes for the Church, the hungry, the naked, those in prison etc… The Corporal Works of Mercy are essential and we are called to give…

 

[JessicaCeleste]

Talk about a timely subject - my husband and I are trying to work on the tithing issue right now.

He is a non-Christian who dislikes the idea of giving money to organized religion, but is trying to respect my desire to contribute (and btw, he should get gold stars He’s being great about it) We have way, way more debt than is humanly possible (mostly his from before we were married) and DH’s main goal is to work to get us out of debt rather than so freely give to the Church, as I want to.

For right now, we’ve agreed on a small, bi-weekly contribution on my part and I’m finding other ways to give to the church. Ahhh…compromise!

Interesting thread Makes me want to run over to the rectory and see what the breakdown of contribution is.

Jessica

 

[Andruschak]

Well, wouldn’t it be concidered an act of charity to continue sleeping with flannel sheets and electric blankets to keep the cats happy? I mean, let’s face it - cranky cats are no fun at all!

You are quite correct. And it would be penance. I am forcing myself to sleep in a warm, soft bed, even tho I’d rather be on the hard floor with a single blanket. I do this ONLY to keep the cats happy.

Now if only I can convince my spiritual director…