By: Craig Rippy

Beware: The budget killers are everywhere! Summertime can be a money vacuum. Everything has fees. Church activities aren't immune either. CIY and Christian Camp takes money to attend. Even though Gasconade Christian Service Camp may be more than 50% less expensive than most of the Christian Camps, it still cuts into the budget.

Praise God that His servants at Solid Rock offer scholarships for CIY and Camp as needed. We desire our youth to enjoy Christian activities that not only offer a lot of fun, but also great Biblical teaching that can lead to eternal rewards.

With CIY and Camp a family can spend over $200 per child quickly. Add sports, music, and cheerleading camps and the price has doubled.

When school is in session, child care can be reduced, but summer can complicate things. When the parents work, summer child care dips into the family budget.

Oh, how about the need for refreshments during the summer activities. I believe more drinks and snacks are purchased during the summer months. You know, watching the second youth league game, its hot, and the family is begging for a soda. You got it. Another five bucks are spent that wasn't budgeted in.

We haven't even talked about vacations. Travel at $2.10 (and more) per gallon, meals on the road, overnight lodging, and fees for park entrance . . . Yep, a week of vacation can vary from the less expensive camping trip to five star motels in Hawaii. It's hard to do much in a week's vacation for less than a few hundred dollars, and that means tent camping, buying food from a local grocery store and visiting a few local attractions.

I don't know about you, but my family lives on a strict budget. If we didn't, we would be in huge financial trouble. Becky, the financial genius of our home, keeps a financial record of everything. She knows every dollar spent and where it came from. She makes a menu for the week's meals, estimates each bill that will come in and budgets for it all.

When we want to go on an activity, we ask Becky about our cash situation. She looks over the budget and tells us if it will take out of the grocery money or electric bill. If the necessities are threatened by an extra expense, we go with the necessities.

To add to the monthly expense by credit card purchases is unwise. Credit may have its place, but not for consumables. The house payment will usually bring about equity above the initial expense, but that motel room in Branson will not.

I believe if we Christians would manage the minor things - MONEY - with more integrity, God would give us more opportunities to manage the greater things. Luke 16:10-13,

10 "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. 11 "Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? 12 "And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? 13 "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." (NASU)

Money is a worldly necessity. Trade and barter has been around since the earliest of times. Those who lived through the depression have a better comprehension of watching the budget than most after them, because they were forced to determine the importance of every dollar spent. All could learn from their experience. Many, many have far greater debt than most of those having gone through the great depression, and most still spend as if they don't have to budget. Yet, the wealthy keep record of their income and expenditures. They know where their money is going. That's why they are wealthy.