Free Books!!

As we started our venture out of debt, the one thing we kept struggling with was the many good books that are available to read, "My Total Money Makeover" "The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom" and many others, was how do we afford books at $20-$30 a pop when you are trying to get out of debt?

This is just a plug and a reminder that your local public library is FREE! With the invention of on-line book buying, Libraries have become an after-thought. But, you can get a ton of good books - not just finance related- at your local library..and it's FREE!

And, for parent's, there are usually weekly activities for the little ones like story time and craft time!

What's green and hurts when you spend it?

CASH!

I have heard it said that when you spend actual cash, it gives the same sensation as pain! And, man, we are feeling the pain :)

We decided as apart of our new budgeting strategy and new life, we would enlist Dave Ramsey again and follow his envelope system. Simply put, we are cash-flowing our monthly expenses instead of credit card...it is an amazing thing to actually "THINK" about what you are spending..instead of pulling out the card!

Not everyone is on board with this system. We were at Wal-Mart this weekend for some shopping. The people behind us in line were none to happy when we made the cashier ring up our "gifts" separately, our household cleaner separately, our clothings and other items separately. I have a feeling that the cashier has been through this before..because she was very patient with us. But, I tell you this...doing this made us really think about what we were buying and where the money was coming from. We looked at prices...we put stuff back..we actually had to think what we had at home and what we could do without.

We have easily spent $200.00 at Wal-Mart without a thought. By using the envelope system...we spent $20.54 on our gift, $64.30 on our household supplies, and $3.49 on an infant tooth brush.

I would encourage you to make a list...set a budget...and carry cash into any store. You will become very wise to how these stores are trying to get all the money they can..and you'll get wiser on how to keep it for yourself!

Who is this Dave Ramsey character??

We have been in some kind of debt as long as we have been married. There have been those time when we were a little better off..and certainly worse off. The best time was November 2003 when we were completely debt free...except for the new house we purchased...and we had $30,000 in debt. And, that was just about 6 years ago....what did we do??

Sometime around July 2008, I was on in Oregon on business and driving around. I was listening to talk radio and heard this "folksy" guy with a thick southern accent talking about baby steps. - and a light bulb went off. That's what we needed...some little bite sized chunks to get ourselves out of this mess.

Dave's approach is really basic:

Step 1. build a $1,000 emergency fund so you stop using credit cards immediately!.

Step 2. List all debts smallest to largest (regardless of interest rate) and start throwing everything at #1 while making minimum payments on the rest until they are your top debt. This is referred to as the "debt snowball".

Step 3. Build a 3 to 6 month emergency fund after you are debt free (not including the mortgage).

Step 4. Invest in retirement

Step 5. Fund College

Step 6. Pay off your home early

Step 7. Build wealth

To be honest, step 4-7 isn't even on our radar yet. But, as you can see from our debt reduction section the left side of this blog...we are killing our debt. And, right now..that's the babystep we take!

I would encourage any of you to get Dave Ramsey's "The Total Money Makeover" (http://www.daveramsey.com/). If you are so far in debt..buying a book seems like an impossible dream - I checked mine out at the library for free! Remember that place? The library - yeah you pay taxes to have it - use it!