I love pay day!

You know, most people love payday's because it is that tangible moment for all the hard work and long hours put in over the last 2 weeks (or whatever your pay period may be.

I am clearly the "nerd" in our family because I love payday because it is the day that we get to go to the bank, take out cash to re-fill our envelope system and pay down debt! Every two weeks, our debt takes a little dip downward...and that gets me excited - what a geek!

I would love to hear from some of those who are debt free (or are well on your way) as to what happens with that excitement, energy once you have paid it all off! What will pay day mean to me when that happens? My first thought...WEALTH!

Go get 'em!

Did you bring the "Dave Ramsey Book"

Have you ever wondered how getting out of debt impacts your kids?

Last night, we were walking through CVS and the requests started coming in! We need halloween candy buckets! Oooh! We should get that! Oooh! Do you see that car, can we get that? (You know the drill). Then, our oldest looks up to me and says "Did you bring the Dave Ramsey Book?" and I replied "no". Without any further discussion, our two boys went from the "I want's" to "oh, look at that!" without ever asking for anything the rest of the night.

The "Dave Ramsey Book" is his Envelope System for carrying and tracking cash for the budget.

I guess in the few short weeks that we have been on this journey...we really are changing our family tree! (Btw, my kids openly detest Dave Ramsey, his 'money' book, his TV show and would gladly go back to the "old ways" anytime! - lol)

The really cool thing in all this..our kids know what cash looks like...they watch it dwindle..and they watch us prioritize! Maybe our kids will NEVER have to debt snowball...that would be awesome!

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!