Been there, done that with the financial clerk deal. You must be in the low end of a high-earning ward. Don’t feel too bad. The number you quoted is probably quite a bit higher than the average U.S. ward’s take on any given Sunday.

I’m too poor to have shopping sins. I have the anti-materialist sin of pride in abundance, however.

I mean, should I actually be learning how to fix my own roof so I can donate that $200 to the perpetual education fund? But then if had an excess, I would be more likely to save it for retirement or something.

I actually think the tithing burden alone is huge and I feel proud of myself for paying that, so I refuse to feel too guilty about not donating much else in addition to that. But obviously your post made me think about our lifestyle and my own spending and donating habits.

So where are all the other commenters?

I’ve been taking a lot of these things seriously.

I eat out for lunch five days a week. But this is worse for my triglycerides than my pocketbook.

I buy most all my books and CDs on Amazon instead of any independent bookstore. (And then I rip the CDs and turn around and resell them on Amazon right away for a slight loss.) I buy books and CDs at a much higher rate than I can actually absorb them, so I have hundreds of unread books on my shelves and I hear most songs only 3-4 times a year as they cycle through my iTunes and iPods (of which I own three, another shopping sin).

We give our kids too many toys for Christmas and birthdays. Too many in quantity, but we don’t spend a lot on high-end electronics and stuff.

I spend $6 a week on nonalcoholic beer to sip in the evenings at home as an alternative to Coke.

In directly related sins, I give only $20 a month in fast offering, pay tithing only on our net income after all payroll withholdings and child support; in other words, I pay only on cash that I actually receive, except not on child support because I figure that’s my ex-wife’s income, not mine. But hey, I paid tithing on my tax stimulus and will pay tithing on cash that eventually comes back to me from my 401(k). And I’ve never donated anything to any other Church categories like humanitarian and perpetual education, and I donate only $5-10 when asked for things like cancer and Scouts.