One Step At A Time

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 ...

Last Sunday was our 3rd class in Financial Peace University, and we talked about the the dreaded B-word, Budget. Since I read Total Money Makeover months ago, we have been doing the budget and have posted several times about it. Therefore, I am not going to go over every detail of this past Sunday's class, but will discuss some of the issues I have with budgeting so far. I believe if I keep honestly critiquing us and our money management, it will help us in the long run to win with money. Having a lot of money is not the desired result of this process, the results we are looking for are Financial Peace, retire with dignity, and pursue some of our dreams later in life. Below are just some of the things and habits that gets in our way of achieving our goals. One of the things that I do that absolutely does not work is create the budget and never look at it again. I work hard to make a zero based budget and making sure every dollar has a name, but never pull out the game plan to m...

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 ...

We are still trying to get back on track with our money plan, and I am trying to remind myself what motivated me in the first place. Last June, we found out we were having our second child and that made me stop and evaluate where we were financially. Honestly, I did not like it. This is what I saw: no savings, renting a small house that would not be big enough for all four of us, knowing that Felicia would not get paid on maternity leave, and $20,000 worth of debt. Stressing out about our current financial status lead me to a billboard I kept seeing on my way home. This billboard had a picture of a bald guy on it and the words “Act your Wage”. I started to realize that we were not acting our wage and digging ourselves deeper into trouble. I changed the radio station to hear what this bald guy had to say and immediately realized this guy made a lot of sense, especially for people in our situation. I began to research the bald guy online, and found out that his name was Dave Rams...

I have not posted anything in awhile and so I am going to try and catch up on everything that has gone on. Starting To Turn It Around I feel like we are starting to turn our downward spiral around. The week before our son's birthday party we spent way too much money and still had to pay for a party. Initially, we had planned a low budget party and we kept to that game plan. I thought it came out nice and Anthony had a good time. I think Felicia has the gazelle intensity now because she got after me the other day. On my late day for work, I thought I did not have time to make my lunch so I decided to buy lunch and when Felicia found out she nearly hit the roof. She looked at me and reminded me of the sacrifices we need to make now to get where we want to be. At first I was offended, who is she to be getting after me for buying lunch? Later in the day, she looked at the bank account online and discovered that I also bought breakfast instead of making it because I thought I di...

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!