One Step At A Time

This past Sunday was our 2nd class in FPU and it was about money and relationships. During the class, I could not help but look back at how Felicia and I have handled money and our relationship. We have always gotten along real well but when it came to money fights, we were seasoned fighters. Looking back, we had a lot of unnecessary fights. In a nutshell, it was her job to pay the bills and my job to complain about what happened to all the money. Honestly, that is how it was. I let her pay all the bills, then I would ask how much we had left and when I did not like the answer, I would launch an investigation into the matter. Understandably, she would take offense to the Spanish Inquistion and then the gloves would go on and 12 rounds later nothing would be solved. In hindsight, we both played a part in our financial mess. I chose to turn a blind eye to it and not deal with it; and she would deal with the financial stress with Ebay therapy. We have both gotten a lot better. I ...

A budget is not something you put off. When we do our budget, it helps us stay on track. In the past, I have written about getting off track but even during those times a budget kept us from going overboard. This time around we kept putting it off and putting it off and just kept spending without a plan. This laziness has hurt us and it pushes us further away from our goals. When we got paid on the15th, we did pretty good and had some extra cash in our envelopes at the end of the two weeks. This paycheck, I know we have spent more than we brought in and had to go tap into savings for non-emergencies. When this happens, it feels like I have let my family down. I am the one who is going to set the example for my children and their money. I could always just spin it and tell them that this is an example of what not to do. I know the habits that we are supposed to have that will make this work. It starts with making the budget. Duh! It needs to be done in order to make the money behave. W...

It has been a tough week for us and I don't think we are out of the woods yet. We spent every day this week except for Tuesday at the hospital with my daughter and I have been out of work the whole time as result. Finally we are home and she seems to be doing better but we are still waiting for some test results. We are praying that she is better and that the test will come back negative. We are also thankful for all the thoughts, prayers, and encouraging words our family and friends sent our way. As a result of being out of work for the whole week, I will not be getting paid for it. Unfortunately, I do not have any more sick time to use at work and we will have to be careful with every penny from now on. We pray this will be a small setback that we can recover from quickly. Knowing a storm is coming and not being fully prepared is a little scary. It has made us realize how important it is to get our finances in order as fast as we can. If we had a fully funded emergency f...

I have not written an entry in a long time, because it has been hard to find time since Maya was born. She was born 02/02 and weighed 7 lbs 7 oz. She is the prettiest little girl you have ever seen with thick black hair. We have been doing pretty good with our money, we only dipped into savings once and that was when we came home from the hospital. We may need to dip into a little bit in a couple of days with the health insurance being due but that is what it is there for. Felicia and I are looking into attending one of the local Financial Peace University Classes in our area. I am really excited about the thought of it. Following Dave Ramsey since July has allowed us to enjoy every moment with our daughter without having to worry about money to much and we wanted to see what else can happen when continue with the rest of the plan. We still have a small problem of eating out, but we are getting better each month. Got to get back to the kids!