First, pay your tithing! Then and only then -- protect your family from hardship, eliminate debt, and save for the future.

How many billions of dollars does the church have, again?

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/personal-finances-for-self-reliance/4-creating-a-budget/learn-maximum-time-45-minutes?lang=eng

For a small fee, I'm willing to use a seer stone to help the church find its lost sense of common decency.

It was the year 2007 and I was an active LDS member. Our ward did instead of Sunday school a Relief Society and Priesthood combined budgeting class. Here are some of the advice I have gotten there. Pay tithing first even if you don't have enough money God will provide. Even as an active member nope first I need to pay my bills and buy food. You don't need Internet you can get free Internet at the library. Each family only needs one car for the person who works outside the home. Hmm how do I go to the library without a car? The teachers gave hand outs about cheap meal ideas like pancakes and scrambled eggs. Again I thought ofcourse I did not raise my hand a diet needs fresh fruit and vegetables too. Yes, I could live of ramen but long term that would not be healthy. Not once did the teachers mentioned the lds church resources like the bishops store house or the welfare square. But me believing in the lds church it didn't break my faith I just kind of didn't agree 100% with that class.

"Pay tithing first even if you don't have enough money God will provide."

My ex-TBM used this line all the time.It was an eye roll for me.

It always seems like the priesthood leader (it's never a woman) who they choose to teach about budgeting, finances and the importance of paying tithing first, is someone who is quite wealthy.

I remember a stake conference where I was in the foyer with my infant daughter, but I could hear the talks. I was positioned where I could look out the window and see the parking lot and the reserved parking spots for the stake presidency. The cost of each one of the cars in the reserved spots was most likely over $100K at that time over 15 years ago. A previous bishop who was new to the stake presidency got up and gave a long talk with tears and everything about the importance of paying tithing. It just seemed so wrong to me that someone who didn't have to sacrifice at all was telling others in our mostly middle class and lower stake what they should be sacrificing. Sure, maybe he sacrificed an additional trip to Hawaii every year to pay tithing, but he was asking others to sacrifice being able to EVER take their family on vacation or even provide basic necessities.

Yes, the lesson was taught by a rich priesthood holder. Some women did raise their hands and shared their money saving tips. One woman said that she uses coupons to lower her grocery bill another woman said that she shops at Costco to save money.

then I started to try to do everything right. And then when he told me he was cheating, there was a psychiatrist in SLC that dealt with this situation and it cost A LOT to go to him.

I told him no more tithing.

I can proudly say I haven't paid any tithing since 1988.

How many months of the church's shakedown money did it take to pay his fees?

The church has never gone without

Right. When Jesus needs something, you need to pony up pronto. When YOU need something, Jesus isn't going to be sending a check any time soon.

My wife and I were cornered by the bishopric because the ward was sponsoring a financial planning seminar at the stake center. It was one of the most depressing "church" events that I had ever attending, save for the nonsense at the temple. My parents had no interest in attending and I needed to coax my wife to dress up for the Saturday night event. She was not keen on wearing a dress, heels and pantyhose for a another dumb church meeting. However, she later told me that she was glad that she had conformed because other couples were fully dressed as if it was Sunday.

There were about 8 couples in attendance for the entire stake. It was an utter flop. Brother CPA steered me into his classroom and Sister Goop and I were his captive audience. And budgeting and saving money was so easy. He budgeted 10,000 per month where a couple could easily save 4 to 5 K and invest that into an IRA. My parents couldn't do that. I was a full time student working part time as a retail clerk. I think I earned about 600 a month if it was xmas time, otherwise my income was closer to 400.

Today, I'm lucky to have a hundred or two left over if my 15 year old car doesn't need fixing.