One Step At A Time

WE DID IT!!!! We have finished Baby Step 1!!! We have a $1000.00 Emergency Fund!!!! Right now, it feels good to have $1,000.00 in savings. Checking off this step has encouraged us to keep going and we are ready to tackle Step 2, which is to pay off our debt using the Debt Snowball. Felicia and I worked hard to accomplish this. We had to hold each other accountable to sticking to the budget we both agreed to. It is not easy, especially when you get invited to parties, dinners, and going out with friends, but we are doing good saying no when the money isn't there. Living on the envelope system is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. If the cash is there, we use it and if it is not, we don't spend it. We are working on taking this momentum and applying it to our debt snowball. Because we budget and stick to it, we knew what day we were hitting this goal and budgeted some celebration money. Felicia and I got her parents to watch the kids while we went to dinner at L...

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 the 24th of this month, Felicia and I sat together and had our first Budget Committee Meeting. We instituted Dave's rules and got through the meeting without an argument. The goal of the meeting was to produce a realistic budget for the month of July and we thought we did. One of the rules for me was to shut up and give the budget to Felicia. That was hard to do. My hands were actually shaking when I handed her the budget and had to watch her make changes to it. In the middle of our meeting, the part where she looks it over and makes changes, I had to run to the store to get diapers for the kids and when I came back she explained the changes and how she made the changes balance to zero again. Her changes were reasonable and we agreed to the budget. I am pretty sure we both felt good about the budget and were looking forward to putting into effect. The next morning while I was getting ready for work I realized we forgot to budget for some very important items. We actually...

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...

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...

Felicia and I decided that when we become debt free and have a fully funded emergency fund, we are going on a debt free vacation to celebrate. A lot of listeners to Dave Ramsey call in to yell about being debt free and a lot of them talk about celebrating by going to Disneyland. We have never been and think it would be nice to take the kids when they are a little older. Right now, vacation is not in the budget, but we are getting started by adding in change that we get into a piggy bank that I made. All it is an old diaper wipes box that I painted green and wrote "Vacation Fund" on. I am thinking about updating the amount of the Vacation Fund once a month. We will see. Christmas was good for us. We did not buy any presents for any adults and stayed in our budget. My son got lots of presents from his grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Felicia and I got the best present, not having to worry about how we are going to survive on December 26th. I do have to admit I was a ...

Babe, I know I complain a lot about the budget and your new leader, Dave Ramsey, but I wanted you to know that I really do want to learn how to live on a budget and get better with our finances. Being able to take a vacation and not having to worry about paying the bills would be really nice, and I know we can do it. Just give me a little time. It's hard to adjust to not getting the kind of food I want all the time, especially when I am pregnant and craving things all the time! Maybe after Maya arrives, I'll be better :) I love you!!! Email written to Andres a few days ago I had a wonderful dream last night. We lived in a big, beautiful house and had a few friends over for a party. One of our friends mentioned something about being strapped for money and was worried about losing his house. Andres and I took him into a room that only had one piece of furniture in it, a dresser. We opened one of the drawers and there was bundles of money in it, and when we took some out, more of...