One Step At A Time

Last Friday, I saw what Gazelle Intensity looks like when a spouse has it. I did not know what it was at first; I saw Felicia getting mad and frustrated and I tried to step in. Felicia and I were talking about not being able to go to the Taste of Dallas or not being able to buy something that we needed, and she got frustrated. What I was expecting from us was that we would temporarily lose our minds and do what we wanted to do. But before I could react, Felicia pulled out the envelope system and started placing cash in the right envelopes according to the budget. She was getting frustrated because she thought that the math was not working out, but she ended up being right on with the figures. I saw her saying that this was too hard to do so I took over the envelopes and checked the math. She had it right. I started to say something like "it's going to be tough but we need to keep at it" or something to that effect that could come off as encouraging or lecturing. I ...

This week, we do not have class due to the 4th of July. All this week will allow us to continue to put into effect some of the things we learned. Our budget is still on track, we have had to make some adjustments but not from under budgeting. There were a couple of categories where we budgeted too much money, so we re-allocated those funds. The thought behind the re-allocation is to not have money floating around, but to spend every dollar. I even got an extra $8 dollars in my paycheck that helped us with some of the 4th of July expenses. The nervousness I was feeling after we did the budget has helped us stay on track. We try to make sure every dollar is well spent and it feels good. The next time we get paid is 07/10/09 and we are pretty sure our money will last that long. I was really nervous about the grocery envelope, it is getting kind of low, but I just looked in the kitchen and we have enough food to last until payday. However, we still may need to get some bread, milk...

On June 28th, we had our 4th class of FPU and it was all about DEBT. I think this is the part that drives people to look into Dave, they hear bits and pieces about his program and getting out of debt, but when they hear him talk about never BORROWING money again they are quickly turned off. For Felicia and me, we liked that part. This lesson is about how to get out of debt, taking an honest look at what it cost to finance things you could save up for, and what you could do if you had no debt. How to get out of debt? Listening to Dave on the radio , I know that when I hear a new caller talks to Dave the first things he will tell them is to get on written cash plan, stop borrowing money, start saving money, and work the debt snowball. I know what you are thinking, "you need to listen to a radio show to know that." Well, sometimes you do. Sometimes you need a stranger to knock some sense into you! If it was that easy to do, we already be doing it. It would not take an ...