The Times, They are a Changin'...

The Economy. Yikes. It's a scary thing right now, no doubt. No one is safe really. We have friends losing jobs right and left, and being self employed is no better, in some ways worse. So it turns out that ol' Dave Ramsey budget found us just in time! At first we had a sort of love/hate relationship, Dave and I, but it's working out wonderfully now. We started the official 'class' about a month ago and it's awesome. We've made some big changes and I know the Lord had been preparing us for this for awhile now! It's all coming together. His timing never ceases to amaze me...!

It's really pretty simple actually; don't spend money you don't have, and have a plan to save. Not exactly brain surgery. Financial Peace University has not only saved us from making really stupid decisions, it has saved my sanity. Maybe even my marriage at some point down the road, who knows. We learned on the first night that I am the "nerd" and Jus is the "free spirit", so there are ways we have learned to actually work together instead of pull apart when differences arise. Which they never really do, because we are both committed to following this basic plan. It's fantastic. There are 7 basic steps:

1. $1,000 in an emergency fund (done!)
2. Pay off all debt except your house using the 'debt snowball' (not much there luckily...Jus is getting the motorcycle ready to list in camera ads this weekend!...then, done!)
3. Three-six months expenses in savings. (Yikes! It's getting harder! This is actually do-able though, once debt is paid off...)
4. Invest 15% of your income in retirement plans.
5.college funding...
6.Pay off home early.
7.Build wealth and give!

What I love about this is that it's so "duh!". And you don't do everything all at once, you start planning. For starters, we (or I!) began by taking out (on paper) our mortgage, bills, and tithes for the month. Then I figured what we could put into savings and finally, what we could spend during the week (in CASH only!!). At first, I was very freaked out! It was a lot less than I thought we "needed". But, then I started getting really motivated to save, and quickly cut down our grocery bill by about 40% ...just by keeping a list and planning a menu! Before I knew it, I had a lot more "free" money left over for the week than I even realized. So, in my head, if I wanted to spend it "shopping", I could. And sometimes I do. But, it's not really at the top of my list anymore. I like having the left over cash to stash away for our... vacations! We are going to Monterey in April and I have saved about 1/3 of the spending money just in the last month. Whoo-hoo!

The biggest problem I found when really crunching our budget, was that , according to ol' Dave, our house payment was taking up a much bigger chunk than is was supposed to. Naughty house, how did this happen? I'll tell you. We figured what we could afford in a payment, what we could afford in utilities etc., but not how much we should be putting away for our future and our kids' educational future! (no, I won't be homeschooling them in college...) To be fair, at the time business was booming, and we figured our profits every year would be our "savings" plan. Bad idea. And when Jus mentioned a possible pay cut if business didn't pick up, I knew God was trying to tell me something... Get into a smaller mortgage you idiot! So as of Monday, our house was officially 'on the market'. Fortunately we're still really good in the equity department, and we should be able to sell fairly easily, according to our realtor friend. We'll see. All in God's time. Of course, there's this awesome short sale we've got our eye on, close to Mel and the Grammis and Papas, which would be great financially, so we're keeping our fingers crossed. It may be gone by the time we're in escrow and ready to bid...we'll see. Trust and obey...

So, yes, big changes around here. We also did the unthinkable and followed the Dave Ramsey "plastic surgery" plan...and cut up our credit cards! There was a ceremony in class last night...I actually cheated and cancelled them last week, but it was very freeing nonetheless. The credit card company begged me not to. Pleaded, argued, sweet talked..it all sounded really desperate honestly. Makes me realize just how badly they need people to stay in debt, so they can make money!! Our money!! Now I'm just darned mad thinking about it. All in all, I'm actually very thankful for this lousy economy. It's helped us to reprioritize, change some very bad habits, appreciate all that we do have, and not take anything for granted! Even my taste buds are adjusting. We love anywhere that has 'kids eat free' night or big enough portions so we can all split two meals. I keep my sugar free mix-ins in my purse to save a few bucks on kids' drinks...a little over the top maybe, and sometimes my hubby gets embarrassed, but he's adjusting. And you can always blame it on preventative tooth decay...Then I just look like a good and responsible mom... And with all these new changes we've made, you didn't expect that we completely give up eating out do you?! I've resigned myself to cooking about 85% of the time...any more than that would just be inhumane... :)