Oklahoma Nesties
tjlovesthepokes
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Dave Ramsey Peoples
On the way home from San Antonio yesterday, we listened to Dave's Financial Peace University (I think that's what it's called) cds. While I didn't get to listen to all of them, I decided I really wanted to do it. H and I discussed it, and even though I'm not huge on New Year's Resolutions, that's ours. We are going to start it today.
So... how abouts did you go about doing it? Did you just listen to the cds, go to the classes, not do anything but follow the steps? Where do we need to start? Should we buy a booklet or a book or something?
Suggestions/tips/advice/whatever will be appreciated!
"Always have faith in God, yourself, and the Cowboys...'-Eddie Sutton
Re: Dave Ramsey Peoples
We went to the live event (there is one in OKC in Feb) and that is what got H on board (I had been wanting to do it for about 6 months before that). There we bought the Total Money Makeover Book and about 6 months later we finally started the plan. We just followed the baby steps and did a written budget together. We also sold my car and only had one car for about a year (until a few months after V was born).
It takes a lot of sacrifice, but it is totally worth it. I absoultley LOVE not having to make payments to anyone each month (except our mortgage). And even though we never had any CC debt (we used cards, just paid them off each month) I love not getting a statement in the mail. It is so freeing to have our money stay in our hands instead of sending it to other people all the time.
It took us just over 2 years to pay off our debt but for a year and half of that I wasn't working full-time since we had V about a year after we started the plan (and really most of the money we had saved in the first year went to pay V's medical bills that the insurance didn't cover--DR says if you are pregnant to put the TMM on hold and just bank money until mama and baby are home healthy so that is what we did and it was a good thing since we needed the money in the end).
Once you get started it seems like motivation snowballs too (although there are times where it goes), but if you stick with it, it is awesome. Good luck!
So, we know that I am not a big Dave Ramsey fan, mostly because I believe that some debt is good but I do agree with Tavia and Jen (and everyone else) that cc is very, very bad (unless it is 0% and in that case, not bad).
This is what DH and I do: We have a spreadsheet that is similar to a checkbook, but instead of only tracking current increases and decreases in cash, we track all future increases and decreases as well. The spreadsheet is detailed by week and includes fixed expenses like our mortgage and monthly bills, lunches, eating out, groceries etc etc. That way, when we decide to make a big purchase (for instance, a trip) we can see how it affects our future cash flow and not just right now. It is hard to explain, but I can send my version of it to you, if you would like. We have quite a few big expenditures coming up in 2011 and we really want to make sure we meet our goals - this has really helped us to see how one large thing (for instance, someone really wants a 3D television) will effect our bigger goals.
The other thing, we almost always use our debit card and trying to track everything on that spreadsheet and reconciling with our bank statement became a total nightmare. We make A LOT of debit card purchases for less than $5 (7-11, CVS, we are addicted). So now I know that we each get $50 a week for gas, plus $XXX a week for incidentals, plus $XXXX a week for eating out/groceries, etc etc so instead of using our debit card, I take it all out as cash at the beginning of the week.
Finally, I manage cash flow at my real world job (scary, I know!! but I am actually extremely frugal here!!!) exactly how I manage it at home. I think my boss was originally kind of skeptical but there are often decisions that are made that can effect our cash flow years and years out and this helps me to see the big picture. Its sad though when I go home and look at our sad little cash flow. Sigh.