Guess what....

Last week in my Thankful Thursday post I told you I had some exciting news to share! I can officially make that announcement now.....

We're debt free!

It feels so great to type those words. Something that wasn't even important to me or in my vocabulary just a couple of years ago now means so much! I'm so thankful that my husband read Total Money Makeover and encouraged me to read it too, even though I was skeptical. I thought we were doing fine because we were paying our bills on time and not having any balance on our credit card. TMM showed me we could do even better!

I'm so happy to say that the last student loan payment is processed and paid, and we are debt free (besides the house, as Dave says!). We plan to call in to his radio show to shout We're Debt Free. Caleb has been practicing. :)

I don't know your financial situation, but I'd like to encourage you today. If you are struggling with your finances or debt or even not struggling and just want to make a difference in your family tree, consider taking a Financial Peace University course and reading Total Money Makeover. Click on the link to find a class in your area by entering your zip code. New classes are up all the time. I encourage you to do something instead of living the way you've always lived. You don't have to live like everyone else! You don't have to live paycheck to paycheck with no thought of the future for yourself and/or your children. You've got to do something different if you want to see any change in how things are going.

One of the verses I remember from the course is from Proverbs 22:7: "The borrower is servant to the lender." It is a verse I hadn't really paid attention to before this course. It is true though. Now that we are no longer borrowers we have more money to plan for the future.

Thank you for letting me share our excitement about this. I thought before I posted it I don't want it to seem like I'm bragging about it. We did FPU earlier this year and wanted to share our success with you. We are so excited to move on to the next step of our financial plan and to be able to give more to others. I'm so thankful for my wonderful husband and his wonderful financial wisdom. He has made sacrifices for our family. He has taught me so much and I'm glad we can continue to learn new things together on our journey. We are so thankful to God for His blessings. We know it is all His, and we pray we are wise in how we use what He has given.

If I can be of any help to you or if you sign up for FPU please let me know. I'd love to encourage you on your journey.

My Funny Boy

I thought I'd share these stories to give you a Monday morning laugh! They make me laugh at least. :)


We have been doing the Dave Ramsey principles with our finances, and Caleb knows all about our envelopes. I have various envelopes to represent various funds (groceries, eating out, postage, dollar stores, clothing, RX, etc.). When my husband gets paid, I get cash and divide it into the envelopes. The idea is that if the envelope is empty then that means you have to wait till the next pay day for more for that area. It has worked out wonderfully, and I really see exactly where our money goes each month. Caleb has heard me say many times I'll have to check the _____ fund and see how much we have left. Anyway, last week Caleb asked to look at one of my Precious Moments. Daddy got it down for him and told Caleb to be very careful because Mommy would be sad if it got broken. Caleb said well we could just buy another one. Daddy told him no we have to take care of our things and not break them because new things cost money and we don't waste our money, etc. Caleb said we could just use money from the Precious Moments fund. It made us both laugh.


Saturday Caleb found a small blow-up beach ball in his toy box. This reminded me of the paddles I wanted to make for us using coat hangers and panty hose. Caleb loved them and we had fun playing ball in the living room. He had talked to Gramma recently about panty hose when we were at her house and thought they were so funny. He doesn't call them panty hose though.....he calls them "hosey drawers." He says it SO cute too! The "drawers" sounds like "draws."

Have a great Monday and blessed week! Thank you for stopping by. I've updated the prayer list for the week in the side bar.

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"Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his ; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture." Psalm 100:3

How could I forget this happy news!

Actually I know why I forgot to post this! I didn't make the payment myself plus the day it happened I was doing a continuing ed class so posting it to my blog didn't cross my mind till after the fact.

We got the truck paid off last week. Yippee! It was great timing actually. The window on the truck messed up. The front driver's window has broken several times. We've taken it to the same shop each time and they've repaired it under the warranty. This time they used a different brand of part so hopefully it will not happen anymore. Apparently the other brand has some issues because it keeps breaking on us. (I have no idea what the part is called, I just know it snaps and the window will no longer stay in place.) The same thing happened to the back window two weekends ago. Now both are repaired. The cost of the repairs was a little more than the cost we'd been paying towards the truck loan.

The next loan we're adding now to our "snowball" is for my husband's school loans. That one will take us longer to pay off than the car and truck, but I think once we get going, it will decrease rapidly!

It is nice to see progress, and I'm glad we've come so far this year! We're thankful.
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“I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws.”- Psalm 119:30

Did you listen to Focus on the Family this week?

Dave Ramsey was the guest on Focus on the Family this week. I enjoyed the program called "Let the Buyer Beware." It was in two parts. You can link to the radio digest here.

It is really about having financial discipline. So many of the financial principles used are based on scripture. These things really work! Something that stuck out to me was the idea of contentment. I've always felt that so many people in society lack contentment and continue searching for something to fill the void. He said he felt "contentment may be the most powerful financial principle there is." Another idea was that of delayed pleasure. We are bombarded with advertisements constantly, no matter where we go. It is so easy to give in just because the items are in front of us and we think we "need" them. When we sleep on it though, many times we'll find we don't really "need" whatever it is.

This Total Money Makeover is really working too! It was very exciting to see our statement for the truck loan. It is wonderful to see the amount decreasing so quickly as we have "snowballed" our payments towards the truck loan.

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"But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that." 1 Timothy 6:6-8

Financial Update

Since we've been doing the Total Money Makeover plan for these three months of 2008, I thought I'd give an update on how we're doing.

We are currently working on JMP's truck payment to get that paid off. After that will be the student loan. The truck should be paid off in a few months. I'm doing another payment tomorrow and will figure it then.

We've set up some some mutual funds. One is a Roth IRA for me and the other is a college savings plan for Caleb. This was some money we had set aside that I'd been saving from a gift for quite some time. I knew I wanted it to have some special use and thought the starting of these accounts would be a good way to put it to use. We know we're a little bit out of order on the order recommended by Dave Ramsey as far as paying off the debt and saving but this is how we saw best to use this particular money. After we filled out all the paperwork, I felt so proud of my husband that he is so responsible financially and cares about planning for the future. He isn't materialistic like so many in our age group. I'm so thankful for his wisdom and showing me how important this is for us.

We've been using the envelope system. It's great to plan at the beginning of each pay period how much will be spent on each category. At the end of the two weeks before I distribute more money to each fund I empty out the loose change in each division. I noticed how heavy our Tootsie Roll bank felt so I rolled the money today. It was over $28! Isn't that crazy! I wasn't expecting it to be that much really.

Also today I found out JMP's new pay amount. I'm thankful for his raise.
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"Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God's sight." Luke 12:6

Book #2: Total Money Makeover

I am so excited to finish reading this book. It is called The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. JMP received this as a Christmas gift. I knew he wanted it so ordered it for my grandmother to give him. He read through it very quickly. I cannot say enough positive things about this book.

I had heard many things about Dave Ramsey and his book. I really didn't know what all the excitement was about till now I read it for myself! I have always considered us to be pretty responsible and conscious about our spending. We are not frivolous, never have a credit card balance, pay our bills on time, and like to save. This book has brought about a whole new thought process for me now though. It is so exciting to think of the extra money we can have to put into retirement and a college education fund. Then to move beyond that to giving and having fun.

I am pleased to say we are on our way taking the "baby steps" in the book towards a "total money makeover." We established a written budget at the beginning of this month. Since JMP gets paid every two weeks and we're at the end of the first pay period, it is even more exciting to us to see the extra money we have left because we did budget. We had certain categories we used for the envelope system as well. We decided to use some of our savings money to pay off our car loan. We are using the debt "snowball" approach now to work on the truck and then the student loans. It all seems very do-able. At the end of the book Dave gives the reminder of not letting money control you. It is an excellent reminder and something I remember....it could all be gone tomorow and it's all God's anyway.

I've seen what a terrible thing debt can be. It really does create tension and frustrations and takes away peace. Money causes so many issues for so many families. I firmly believe that is not how God intends us to live. We need to be good stewards. I also believe that this book has some key points that can help anyone have financial peace.

If you want to have financial peace I would highly recommend this book to you. If you think you already have financial peace, I think you'd still enjoy reading it. You'll probably learn a lot like I did!
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"Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops." Proverbs 3:9