A Couple With Common Cents: A Short Story About Abundant Hope in Your Family Finances

By Ryan Eidson

How Does a Husband and Wife Come to an Agreement About Money?

Tabitha is a young mother of two who struggles with her family's finances every day. She's tried to talk with her husband, Jack, about their money struggles, but he won't listen. A friend of Tabitha's invites her to a weekend women's conference.?How can Tabitha take off work and go to this conference, when she doesn't have the cash to go, and can't miss a day of work because their money is so tight?

Find out how she overcomes these problems in "A Couple with Common Cents".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 5, 2016
• ISBN: 9781630477134

Book preview

Part One

THE SITUATION

"One person gives freely, yet gains more;

another withholds what is right,

only to come to poverty.

A generous person will prosper,

and the one who gives a drink of water

will himself be refreshed.

People will curse the one who hoards grain,

but a blessing will come to the one who sells it."

Proverbs 11:24-26

Tabitha heard many birds chirping as she drove home from work. It was the first day of spring. Even though the weather was really nice outside, Tabitha had some concerns nagging at her heart.

She drove to the day care to pick up her two young children. She placed Kyle and Katie in the back seat of the family minivan. Kyle reached over to Katie and stole the toy she was playing with. She started to cry.

It’s mine and I’m playing with it! Kyle said.

Get along back there, you two, Tabitha said as she drove home. Kyle, please give that back to her.

Kyle, four, loved to pester his younger sister. She just turned two the other day. He gave Katie her toy back, and she stopped crying.

Tabitha took time for reflection as she drove them home. During their first year of marriage, like most couples do, Jack and Tabitha were living high on love. They were young and did not give much thought to their long-term future. Now, nearly six years after their initial bliss, they were stuck in the grind of life.

As a handyman, Jack was truly the jack-of-all-trades. He liked to help neighbors and friends with their cars, houses, and anything that could be tinkered with. Because of his generous heart and willingness to help his friends, he often just charged them for parts and rarely billed anyone for his time. When he did, he only asked for ten dollars per hour. During business hours, Jack worked at the hardware store, so he figured that he didn’t need to ask for much from the other projects he did on many evenings and weekends.

Because Jack worked so many hours, and Tabitha was better at math, he let her do all the record keeping. She prepared the invoices for his side projects—it was hardly a business, more like a hobby that generated enough income it was considered self-employment for taxes.

She balanced both of their checkbooks. For some reason, Jack was insistent that they have separate personal accounts. She was fine with that when they wed; however, her feelings about separate bank accounts had changed since. Yet she kept to herself and had not brought up the subject with him.

Tabitha worked at a small store during the day, measuring and cutting bolts of fabric for customers. Soon after Katie was born, Tabitha and her husband, Jack, decided that two kids were enough for them. To provide for the increased expenses of a fourth member of the family, along with a new minivan and larger house, they agreed that Tab would also work a day job. This meant that someone else would watch Kyle and Katie during the day.

With no family members close by, and all their neighbors also gone from home during the day, they had few options for day care. The two ladies that watched their children were nice, but Tabitha wished that somehow Jack would earn enough so she could stay at home with the kids. Their money was so tight that neither of them could afford to miss work.

As she opened the mailbox, Tabitha looked to see what bills had arrived that day. Tossing the pile of mail into the empty passenger’s seat, she told the kids, We’re home! and pulled into the driveway. Let’s play outside for a while, she