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Liv By Grace

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About

Hey there, I’m Liv

I’m wife to my best friend and mom to our senior (but lively) Squishy Pug. I’m also a daughter and a sister, and I’m an aunt to 6 adorable nieces and nephews. I’m a blogger, homemaker, budgeter, rainy day fan, and chocoholic. I’m completely imperfect but I know I’m forgiven, all because of the love and grace of my Lord Jesus.

About Liv By Grace | faith | finances | simple living | grace | imperfect | real #grace #faith #finances #frugal #simple #real #imperfect #solutionsforlife

My mission here at Liv By Grace is to provide you with real solutions for spiritual and financial victory.

I started Liv By Grace after quitting my job for ethical reasons, and I was so scared. I’d been working full-time for 10 years, and I didn’t know what to do after quitting my job when I couldn’t afford to.

I was afraid that I’d have to find another job right away because—I’ll be honest—we needed the money. But I was burned out. Majorly. And I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to continue in the same career. I needed time to figure out what the Lord wanted me to do.

So I set out to find a way to be able to afford to stay home for a while, even just for a month or two, while I figured out what I wanted to do and where the Lord wanted me to be. My dream had always been to be a homemaker, so I decided to make the most of my time off to see if there was any way to make that dream become a reality.

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Up until that point, my trust had been pretty well rooted in money. Just being honest. I grew up hearing that we would be eating out of dumpsters, so I learned pretty early on the huge value of the “almighty” dollar.

But once I found myself facing an ethical dilemma at work, and ultimately realizing that I needed to walk away (I never thought I would ever quit my job!), I had to make the choice to release the stranglehold I had on money as my provider. Friend, it is not the almighty dollar but our Almighty Father God who takes care of us.

I prayed for guidance, for a time of rest, for Him to give me the desire of my heart and try my hand at being a homemaker, and then… I placed my trust in Him.

Friend, it was so hard for me to do that. But once I did it, I noticed there was a peace in my heart that hadn’t been there when I was wearing myself out at a job I disliked because I needed the money. But you know what I’ve learned? Money does not take care of me. God takes care of me. And He is faithful to provide.

I had decided to continually place my finances in God’s hands, day by day. But at the same time, I knew I needed to be wise with the money we had. I needed to adopt a frugal lifestyle immediately, because I had to make ends meet on just over $15,000 a year.




And I knew that meant living on a budget. I’d never had any financial rules in place to limit my spending, and I felt overwhelmed (and scared) when I suddenly found myself needing to set up a super strict budget.

Yes, I was trusting God with it all, but old habits die hard (and to this day I am still a work in progress when it comes to this stuff). So I felt a huge sense of pressure and even panic when I realized that we’d have bills to pay and groceries to buy with an income that had just plummeted by nearly 60%.

So I sat down and got to work. And I worked. And worked. For the first few months of my new career as a homemaker, budgeting became my full-time job. Apart from doing the minimum of housekeeping and cooking, all I did was budget.

I’m not exaggerating. You can ask my husband. Every day when he got home he would ask me about my day and what I did. And for months I would reply with “budgeting.”

I took a hard look at my priorities, my habits, and my spending. And I built myself a budget from scratch, complete with strategies for finding ultimate ways to save and cut costs. And all of that hard work paid off. One month went by, then two, then three, and now here I am over a year later as a full-time homemaker. And here’s what absolutely blows my mind when I stop and think about it:

My husband and I (and that Squishy Pug) are successfully living on one income of just over $15,000 a year. Debt-free.

I’m truly living my dream because, guess what? I’ve learned that living a life of spiritual and financial victory really is possible. But only because I decided to place my trust in God above all—even money. And friend, I have to admit that that struggle was real.

And even though being a homemaker had been my dream for so long, I felt a little lost because, without knowing it, I’d always defined myself by my job. Now that I wasn’t working outside the home, my identity had done a complete 180.

I had to be sure that I was looking to Jesus for my identity. Without Him, I can do absolutely nothing. And that was huge in helping me to rely on Him for my provision. Both spiritually and financially.

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The grace of God is so indescribably amazing. When we choose to accept His grace for our weakness and struggles, and in all areas of our lives, it’s absolutely freeing. I’ve learned to embrace that fact that I’m imperfect, and that’s okay. Because Jesus is my perfection. I’ve accepted the fact that—no matter what I do or don’t do—I will never be enough. And that’s okay too, because Jesus is my enough.

And, having been hard on myself my whole life, I’m so grateful that I can now say that I’m glad I’m imperfect. Because the best thing we can do in this life, friend, is to be real. And being real is being imperfect. And if we can admit that, well then that qualifies us for God’s grace!

I’ve learned to embrace the fact that progress > perfection, and that has completely freed me to LIVE. BY. GRACE. And I’m so excited to share how you can use these real solutions for spiritual and financial victory to transform your life too!

If this is your first time here, I’d love to share a bit more about myself so you can get to know me. You can find my story of how I beat anorexia here, or read about how I managed to keep my joy through the heartbreak of losing my precious mom to cancer 5 years ago. And if you’d like to read about how I came to know Jesus personally, you can find that here. But enough about me, let’s get on to more of what Liv By Grace is about and what you can expect to find here!

About Liv By Grace | faith | finances | simple living | grace | imperfect | real #grace #faith #finances #frugal #simple #real #imperfect #solutionsforlife

My sweet nieces and nephews! (Photo credit: Country Crosses Portraits)


What Liv By Grace is all about

I’ve found that so many women struggle with living by grace in all areas of life, from their relationship with God to their finances.

That’s why my mission is to provide tons of encouragement and resources for growing in grace, spiritually and financially.

I’m super open about the struggles I’ve been through, and I share the resources that have helped me find victory so that other women can embrace God’s grace and live the joy-filled life that Jesus died to give them.

I also provide strategies to cut costs, find ultimate savings, and make budgeting simple. I share the same strategies I use that allow our family to live debt-free on one income of $15,000 a year.

And—I know you’ll love this—in everything you’ll find here at Liv By Grace, the focus is on being REAL, not being perfect!

Be sure to join our email community here so you won’t miss any updates, freebies, or other special stuff just for subscribers, and let’s get started on this journey of living by grace together!

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P.S. If you’ve never had anyone share with you the straight truth about who Jesus is and how you can know Him personally, or the no-holds-barred truth about what exactly happens after you die, this is for you.