Well alot of things happened in my life this week, some I may share in later blogs BUT the most exciting thing that has happened to me in a long time happened this week: We started our Total Money Makeover on Wednesday, January 27th.
Let me give you a little background here - When my mom was married to my stepdad they fought and fought and eventually divorced over money. So money confrontation was very, very upsetting to me. Scott and I don't fight about money, we just do not communicate about money, period. So for years I have had goals, he has had goals, they just weren't the same. I was the "primary" bill payer/checkbook balancer, he just lived in this la la land where money grew on trees, ok not quite that bad. This week things changed. It is something I have been praying about for a very long time. I had even been faithfully listening to my 3 Dave Ramsey CD's trying to figure out how to make sense of this mess. And by mess, I mean mess of debt we have. So much that I am embarassed by it and would never dream of telling the total, but maybe as we pay bills off I will share those amounts, I dunno. Anyway, this week we sat down with the budgeting software I got from the Dave Ramsey website and made a Cash Flow Plan. And Scott has made us stick with it. I am so excited, we have our little envelopes for fuel, groceries, babysitting, and blow $$. I can share that Murphy's Law has already hit us, but we are just regrouping and adjusting the plan as needed. This has been such a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. To think I was scared to talk to him about money, and he didn't even raise an eye. We both committed to never, ever borrowing money again. We don't care how bad our credit may or may not get because like Dave says, we won't ever need it again.
We talked alot this week about how did we get in this mess? Why don't we sit down together and pay bills, make a budget, etc. We both felt like our parents never really sat us down and taught us how to do this, and we all know the schools don't teach it. Now, I can say that my Dad and stepmom have tried. They gave us some literature and CD's a few years back. Obviously we didn't really soak in what they were saying then. But now it is. We are even developing Hannah her own little envelope system so she will know how to handle money. We also talked alot about how easy it is to get credit and how society has become so accustomed to wanting and getting on credit, not wanting, saving, and then getting.
Anyway, lots of other exciting and emotional (right Jess?) things happened this week too, but this by far is the best and most life changing. I am so proud of us!
Yea! Good for you all! After our adoption is finalized we're going to get more serious about it as well! :0) I would love to learn more about the software you got off the website...sounds like it might be helpful!
ReplyDeleteAshley & anyone else interested - you are more than welcome to borrow the software, CD's, or Total Money Makeover book (I have two copies of it). Just let me know!
ReplyDeleteMy mom gave us the book for Christmas and on Jan 1 2009 we started. We also took the FBU class, which was incredible. I am proud to say that by the end of April we will be out of credit card debt. We still have other debt, but just getting the credit card debt is totally exciting. It is a heavy weight that has been taken off. Congrats on a great week of debt free living, keep up the great work. It is truly worth it!
ReplyDeleteI would love to borrow the software and the book. I've read the book before, but would love to read it again!
ReplyDeleteGood for you, Jaimee. First Christian in Rolla is doing an FPU class coming up soon. I'd highly recommend it. While budgeting is important, it goes over so much more than that and gives you LOTS of tools/info about all kinds of things.
ReplyDeleteI am Sooooo Proud of you guys!!! I think you are the only ones of all our children that has ever taken this seriously, especially that you are teaching Hannah, too.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about not teaching our children when they were younger, just one more of our many failures as parents.
Do you plan on calling into the show, so you can yell, "We're Debt Free!" when you reach that goal. I know we plan on calling.
This is awesome! Ross and I don't "talk" about money either. I pay the bills and if we are a little short and I have to tell him that we don't have money, he wants to know what happened and when I try to sit down with him and talk about it, he says he doesn't want to know. Hopefully we'll get it together someday and start doing the same thing you are! =) And yes, it was an emotional week too, but hopefully it will all work out for the best in the long run.
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