A little over 2 years ago, I went through the Dave Ramsey course, Financial Peace University, at my church. A month after the class ended, I became a single mom. This class saved me financially. I have no idea how I would have made it financially those 2 years on my own without having finished FPU. When I started dating again, one thing on my "list" of MUST HAVES for the guy I married was that he had to take FPU, and we had to be on the same page financially. In my DivorceCare class that I took shortly after my separation, I learned that finances was the #1 reason for divorce. So, if you are on the same page financially, you are off to a pretty great start!
I met Bryan, and as things started going well with us while we were dating, I told him before getting married, he had to take FPU or read Dave's books or something. The church he was attending at the time amazingly decided to offer the class shortly after that. He was on board with the Dave way after that, so I agreed to marry him ;).
Well, we are ready to really focus and work through the baby steps that Dave sets. These 7 baby steps are:
1. $1000 in an emergency fund
2. Pay off all debt using the debt snowball
3. 3-6 months expenses in savings
4. Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement
5. College funding for children
6. Pay off home early
7. Build wealth and give!
We had accomplished baby step #1, but then had to dip into our emergency fund when our car had some problems. So, our first focus is to build back what we had to spend. After that, we are ready to tackle debt!
I'm going to be transparent here, because I want us to be held accountable for paying off our debt and to accomplish our goal. We added up our debt that we have and the total is about $31,000.00. A lot of this comes from previous marriages...seriously guys, don't get credit cards and don't get divorced. Both are just financial killers! We were listening to Dave on the radio as we were coming home from a trip this weekend. A couple called in and they had paid off $25,000 in debt in 19 months, making less money than we make right now. That just set off a light bulb in me. Why do I think we can't accomplish that?? We are just as capable as anyone else. All it takes is focus and some self-control with money. I know we can do it and I'm looking forward to seeing that amount go down every month. If that couple paid off $25,000 in 19 months, I don't see why we can't accomplish our goal in 2 years! Yes, it takes sacrifice, it takes saying no. No more eating out, no more random trips that we decide to take at the last minute, every extra money we have we will put towards our debt payments. I know that doesn't sound like a very fun way to live, but as Dave says "Live like no one else, so that later you can LIVE like no one else." I know we will get there and I know that with us working with the same goal in mind, together, we will reach our goal! I'm excited to see how this goes!
Now, I'm working on ways to save us money. Obviously, the no eating out and spending less on gas. My biggest struggle has been getting our grocery bill lowered. I used to use coupons, but I have a hard time with that now. I like to eat healthy, and unfortunately, most coupons are for processed foods, which I don't buy. So, any tips on how to lower the grocery budget would be appreciated :) And, any other money saving tips in general would be great!
I am thinking this may be the way to go for us too!
ReplyDeleteWe have been doing FPU for 4 years now and just finished steps 2 and 3! It feels amazing and is soooo worth it. You totally got this!
ReplyDeleteKaleb and I are tackling our last bit of debt too. I save money by comping and shopping around. I know at Aldi I can normally get $0.25 avocados, $3.19 milk and a host of other things cheaper on a regular basis unless I can comp it at WM. I do coupon as well, but I only buy stuff I know we will use (razors, toothpaste, canned veggies, pasta, cereal, dog food) because I don't like living off processed food either. We grow a garden every year for fresh veggies and I "try" to can salsa, peppers, etc. We are lucky enough to have fruit trees as well but in the past I have let the fruit lay on the ground and rot. This year I plan to can applesauce, apple butter, pear butter and just plain fruit in general so we have it all year! This is getting long winded, but the other thing I do is plan a menu and try to plan it where we can have leftovers for lunch and buy a couple meats in family packs instead of buying a different pack of meat for each night of the week.
ReplyDeleteLeslie, feel free to send any of that leftover fruit my way!! I would love to learn how to can. I want to grow a garden, but I'm not sure we can do that in a rental. Surely there's a way...anyway, maybe you can teach me how to can. Especially things like applesauce. My kids will eat that a lot but it's hard to find any without added preservatives or HFCS. I do shop at Aldi a lot...it really helps out on the budget!
Delete