Balance your books with god? Is his love conditional?
By the way, has god not heard of progressive taxation? I.e. 10% when you are earning $1000 means you have only $900 to live on. That is so unfair when the person who earns 10 times more gets to live on $9000.

I am not Catholic, but I sent my daughter to a Catholic K. (This was almost 20 years ago!) Anyway, I got the enrollment pkg and and it explained tuition was x amount for tithers, and y amount for non-church members and church members who didn't tithe. I expected church members to get a discount, but had no idea they kept track of who tithed!

My parents have varied over time in how much they give. I know when we were kids and money was tight they didn't give very much money but gave a lot of time. Now that they are older they give more money and more time. Over the course of their lives, they have exceeded the 10% mark, especially if you factor in all their volunteer time, but there are probably individual years when they didn't hit that mark. Life is long, OP, and you can balance your books with God in a few years when those daycare bills go away if you feel you have to do that.

We are Jewish and we do our best to tithe, but that doesnt mean 10% goes to the synagogue, but rather to charity - any charity. You can add the amounts you give to schools, your friend's charity 5K, the $5 you give to the homeless guy on the street, even $$ supporting those in your family, etc.

We donate to our temple as well, but certainly not 10%.

Also, that 10% is only on your taxable income, after commuting expenses and health insurance, etc. We also deduct religious expenses like jewish day school tuition and synagogue dues (not sure if this is totally within the letter of the law, but its the best we can do).

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Do you live in DC 15:11? I am also amazed at the amount of money we earn and burn through, but it is what it is. We can "survive" on $8100, but can't get ahead. A very rough budget for us:

$3200 - house/utilities/life insurance
$2000 - childcare
$1800 - student loans, credit card debt, car payment/insurance/gas/parking (minimum payments on all)
$800 - food/household goods like TP, paper towel, laundry detergent, etc
$900 - tithe

That leaves a grand total of $300 for all extras - clothing, diapers, toiletries, haircuts, etc. Survivable? Sure. Manageable? Yes. But very difficult to save extra. The first three big ticket items are fixed costs - we cannot reduce them by cutting corners, etc.

We are obviously house-poor. I know that is the problem, but moving is not an option right now.

Anyway - not the point of my post, but just wanted to show that it's possible for $9,000 (or $8,100) to not stretch all that far.

Thanks to everyone for your input and feedback - we'll be examining our budget again this week.

OP, my biggest concern is that you're only making minimum payments - especially on the credit card debt. If I were you and your DH, I'd run the numbers on three scenarios: 1) $900 goes to the tithe, 2) $900 goes to the credit card debt, and 3) $900 goes to some combination of the two. For each of the scenarios, you should figure out roughly what month and year you'll be debt-free. I'm not a financial expert, but won't you be able to give more to the church over the long term, if you put a stop to your (currently increasing) credit card interest charges?

I'm sure you've read the anti-usury verses like Exodus 22:25 and Deuteronomy 23:19-20. Obviously they apply to the lender rather than the borrower. Even more obviously, the modern day financial context is totally different from the OT. But anyway, wouldn't you think it's wise to consider being aggressive about eliminating your interest charges?

OP, here is a great NPR podcast on tithing. Really interesting.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/03/02/147749784/what-the-irs-could-learn-from-mormons

For the people who don't give money, giving your time to a church is a wonderful way to make a contribution and get to know people in the congregation, but it doesn't help pay the mortgage, utility bills, and other bills that the church has to pay monthly. Many churches were hit hard by the economic crisis and have been struggling to make ends meet. Even if you only give $5 a week, it can help.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope! We don't give anything except on Easter and Christmas.

Agree. I refuse to give on a regular basis because, despite my love of being Catholic, I hold a strong moral objection to the Church's incredible legal bills brought about by the monsters who preyed on children for so many years, and their continued insistence on handling this issue poorly. So you get no cash from me.

I volunteer my time when able, and donate concrete goods to specific charity. Tithing is a crock. God doesn't care about money.

I agree with this. Tithing is, IMO, bordering on cult-like activity.

Anonymous wrote:I am Mormon and feel tremendous pressure to "give" 10%. It is tracked and every member called in for a tithing settlement each December to make sure we're in good standing.

If you do not pay tithing, you can't enter the temple. Huge reprucussions if you need to attend a family member's temple wedding. I almost did not get to attend my sisters wedding one year until I could come up with another $3,000 to reach the status of full-tithe payer. I could've lied and still gotten in, but that is not who I am.

I find this to be so unbelievably awful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am Mormon and feel tremendous pressure to "give" 10%. It is tracked and every member called in for a tithing settlement each December to make sure we're in good standing.

If you do not pay tithing, you can't enter the temple. Huge reprucussions if you need to attend a family member's temple wedding. I almost did not get to attend my sisters wedding one year until I could come up with another $3,000 to reach the status of full-tithe payer. I could've lied and still gotten in, but that is not who I am.

Extortion.

Agreed. This is the very lowest of the low. I would never be apart of such a denomination. Reminds me of the evil-doing tax collectors in the Bible.

I am a non-denominational Christian. My Pastor frequently goes by this Scripture:

Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Cor 9:7.

If you give and it is not without any misgivings, stress, etc, that is not okay. God does not want your offering to him to come with a heavy heart. Give what you can give comfortably and do so cheerfully.

It really saddens me how the various denominations have different doctrines. Aren't we all, when it comes down to it, Christians?

Anonymous wrote:I am Mormon and feel tremendous pressure to "give" 10%. It is tracked and every member called in for a tithing settlement each December to make sure we're in good standing.

If you do not pay tithing, you can't enter the temple. Huge reprucussions if you need to attend a family member's temple wedding. I almost did not get to attend my sisters wedding one year until I could come up with another $3,000 to reach the status of full-tithe payer. I could've lied and still gotten in, but that is not who I am.

Extortion.

Anonymous wrote:Yes we do tithe as we pay off debt.
Do what you can and ask the Lord to lead as you grow in faith to increase your tithing amount to the full 10% if that is what you endeavour to do.

+1

We make $88k per year and have significant debt. We simply can't give much without going into further debt. How much should we give?

" But i think you can probably tithe and still make it. And rememver malachi 3:10. If you pay it, G
God will help you"

Wrong. God is no mans debtor and cannot be bought with the money you throw at the altar.
Malachi is misquoted. Read more carefully. You have to give 10% of the increase of the grain harvest
And give it to a levite priest.
You have to have 9 cows before you can give a cow.
Widows were not required to tithe. This was for the landowners at harvest time, not to give 10% of everything, just the increase in profit.
Many people have stopped going to church because of this, newly invented doctrine