dollars and sense...

some of y'all may know that my older brother is a math teacher; meaning he actually finds joy and purpose in teaching others about the wonderful world of numbers. it's one of life's greatest mysteries to me. i feel pretty confident in saying that he got all the "numbers genes" in our family. a math whiz i am not. 
luckily, jeffrey is also really good with "numbers" so he is able to correct all my addition/subtraction mistakes when balancing the checkbook and tell me how much to tip at a restaurant so i don't have to whip out my trusty calculator on my phone. he'll usually come up with a total while i'm still trying to count it out on my fingers and toes. 

we've been working on our family budget for a while now. it seems like it's always a work in progress, no? when i quit teaching to stay home with our girls, we went from two incomes to one -an adjustment to say the least. and since that time we've also endured hospital stays, a new baby, surgeries for the baby, medical bills, job changes, car troubles, house projects, and on and on. it's safe to say that no matter how prepared we think we are.... life happens. :)

we've known for a few months that we've needed to "tweak" our budget to better meet our needs and to be better stewards of our money, but we just weren't sure how to make those changes. so when sarah approached me about her new business venture, Dollars and Sense - i immediately knew that it was an opportunity we did not want to miss out on. Dollars and Sense is owned and operated by Sarah - an accountant - aka another one of those "numbers people" ;-)

Sarah is extremely passionate about helping others see the amazing things that having a budget can do for their finances. If you're anything like me, you know this to be true...but getting started is the hardest part. That's where Dollars and Sense comes in.

Dollars and Sense offers the following services:  

• Budget set-up
• Debt payoff schedules
• Budget check-ups for accountability
• Upkeep of budgets

We worked closely with Sarah and she helped us set up a budget that we were comfortable with and that worked with our finances. Through this process we were able to see right off the bat where our money was going. The first month working within our budget set up by Dollars and Sense was definitely an eye opening experience. It was humbling seeing how much money we spent on frivolous items and non-necessities. We are now in our second month of our new budget, and because of Dollars and Sense, we are more mindful of where our money is going and the benefits that it will have for our family. We believe we are called to be good stewards of our money, because after all - it all belongs to God anyway, and Dollars and Sense has helped us to put our words into actions.

Through our experience with sarah and Dollars and Sense, we never felt anything but completely confident in her abilities to keep all of our sensitive information secure and confidential. we were given a contract and a confidentiality agreement that we were all comfortable with and that detailed the exact expectations of each party in agreement. there were no "gray" areas. sarah was available to skype or facetime if we needed to and was otherwise just a quick phone 
call, text, or email away.  

the budget she set up for us is a tool that we can utilize for many years. and even if our financial needs change, we will still have our baseline budget set up by Dollars and Sense that we can tweak if needed, without having to start from square one. 

Working with Dollars and Sense has been such a blessing for our family, and i am so excited to tell you that Sarah is offering to bless one of y'all, too! she is SO generously offering her time and her talents to give one of y'all a $75 credit towards financial services.

need help setting up a budget?
want to figure out the best/fastest way to pay off your debt? have a budget in place, but just can't quite get it down to a science? Dollars and Sense help with all of these things and more!

follow the prompts in the rafflecopter box below to enter the giveaway. this is definitely one you don't want to miss...it could literally change your life!!! 

(Sarah is also offering 10% off if you mention TIPPINS10 when emailing her).

a Rafflecopter giveaway


thank you sarah for all of your hard work and for your generosity!! i am praying Dollars and Sense will continue to bless others the way it has already blessed my family!