David & Fiona

We had someone to advise us and walk us through our options, and to be accountable to, (other than each other) and that helped enormously to change habits and stay committed.

A friend shared with me about how things had been so different for her since they had started meeting with Phil from Grandma’s Jars. We made contact with Phil in the middle of 2015. How life changing that one decision has been for us! For 18 years of married life, discussing finances had always been a sensitive issue. Two opposites – two different ideas – various situations to negotiate and work through as we journeyed through life. We had had our moments where neither of us handled the situations well. We had had our blues and somehow we would get through but never really feel that we were getting ahead. God knew what a difference Grandma’s Jars would make in our world and his timing, as always, was a huge blessing to us as we look back over the last 12 months.

After 4 monthly coaching meetings with Phil, where he helped us reign in our expenses and set some goals and establish our budget we had a number of unforeseen situations slightly rock our world. After the passing of Fiona’s Mum (2014), her Dad decided to sell up the family property that had been in the family for 4 generations. This meant us having to accommodate for a large number of 12 hour trips regularly to allow Fiona to help pack up the homestead and get the property ready for sale. Which meant that she had to take a number of days leave without pay from her work. During this time we discovered that we had bub number 3 (a surprise blessing) on the way, due in May (13 and 16 year gap from our other two children). In January David was told that he had been made redundant. Fiona finished her employment in April, our baby son arrived in May and David’s job finished in June. Wow! What a huge 6 months!!!

The difference that Grandma’s Jars has made in our home is huge!! Through all of these major life events, we had no reason to argue about finances as we had committed to our budget and Phil’s coaching and expertise were guiding us through. We had someone to advise us and walk us through our options, and to be accountable to, (other than each other) and that helped enormously to change habits and stay committed. Neither of us had the knowledge or the training to know how to accommodate and manage a budget before, let alone, handle these circumstances.

I seriously would not like to think about the state of our marriage if we had to negotiate our finances on our own, through those months. God has now blessed us with a great job for David and whilst Fiona is still on unpaid maternity leave, we know that we are way better off now than where we were.

Grandma’s Jars is such a valuable resource! The peace and unity it brings in our relationship, along with the financial rewards of being able to keep track of expenditure easily with the phone app and have a handle on our budget far out ways the cost of the investment we have made into this program. We recommend this program to everyone, especially newly married couples starting out.

Thank you Phil for being obedient to the vision God put on your heart. It is life changing for us.

David and Fiona Coleman