What am I talking about? Lots of stuff. Listening to the Dave Ramsey Show everyday, I keep picking up sayings and books. One thing that Dave Ramsey says is that you need to have a 'I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired and I'm going to do something about it' moment. This is when you are going to change something - whatever 'it' is.

It started with Financial Peace University (see http://www.daveramsey.com/ for lots more). We had fought with our finances for nearly 20 years. There was a lot of reasons for that - among them were things like breeding Birman cats for over 10 years and collecting stuff (we got piles of stuff - cheap stuff, electronic toys, not that much expensive stuff) and throw in no budget and anyone can figure out why we had problems. FPU forced us to wake up and stop playing the game of 'we're doing fine - no reason to work on finances now... let's go get more stuff...'

We got a budget working (it's been probably about six months) and we're paying down our debts. We are using the envelope system - meaning that we put the months money that we've already spent on paper on purpose, for the stuff that you might consider using a debit card (stuff like food or gas for the cars). And we're finding the budget working pretty well. The first budget wasn't really close - we had a lot of changes to it that month (yep - emergency budget committee meetings). After a few months, the budget gets to be pretty easy. Just minor tweaks here and there.

If you don't have a budget that you and your wife/husband agree to then you'll never get your money under control. I create the monthly budget (before the month starts) and it's zero based - in other words, we spend EVERY DOLLAR BEFORE WE GET IT. Yep - on purpose on paper. And then Maureen reviews it. I might have to change it because of something I missed. I'm the geek and she's the free spirit in this case. Once we both agree to the budget - we stick to it. No cheating, no spending outside of the budget. We're both accountable to the other for all of our money this way. It's the way we are working on our goals and dreams. I think other people think we're nuts. But that just spurs me on more. :-)

A cool thing happened this past week. Maureen had to have some dental work done (getting an implant... I'll skip the gory parts). We knew about this since December. So, we saved money to pay for it for a couple of months. This meant that our debt snowball was paused a little... but we had a bill we knew was coming. Wednesday morning I went down to the bank and took out the estimated payment in hundred dollar bills. I giggled all the way home. This was the first big thing we have payed for in cash, on purpose.

I'm going to try to never borrow money again - EVER! No credit cards, no paying for things with the home equity loan. No more debt.

I've closed most of our credit card accounts - there were a lot of them. Discover was the most pain in the butt one to close. The woman I was talking with made over seven different offers (lower interest rate, and on and on). I just insisted on closing the account and eventually she seemed to get the message. The Discover(debt) folks then sent us a new Discover card (a plain old ordinary one, not the platinum one we closed) - and we had to close that account too. Dumb.

We're getting out of debt and we're never going back into debt again!

Oh yea - you probably ought to check your credit report throughout the year. Identity theft isn't any fun - your credit report can identify that it happened to you. There is one company that has some good identity theft insurance where they clean up the mess (http://www.zanderinsurance.com/) and it's pretty cheap too. We'll be getting it pretty soon (like within the next month or two - gotta add it to the budget).

Part of FPU points out all kinds of things. Like careers - I love my job. There are up and down days - but if you love what you do, then you'll succeed at it.

FPU pointed out that you ought to get healthy - exercise. Well, I've been pretty remiss on that one. Today I started using my eliptical trainer hooked up to iFit (http://www.iFit.com/). My plan is to get into shape. I'm going to do my best to exercise everyday. Its another pain in the butt - but I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired and it's time to do something about it. Just walking the dogs isn't enough and I notice that I don't have that much flexability (if you gotta grunt to bend over and pick up after the dogs, then its definitely time to get in shape - I'm thinking of this as a budget for my stomach).

Other stuff - Our church (http://www.newhopechapel.net/) is going through the 40 days of community program (http://www.purposedriven.com/). We've gone through the first week and it's pretty easy going in some aspects. It's about love and the small group and believers. We've been in the same small group for about a year now. Being in a small group is great. You get to know people much better and get involved in their lives. If your church has a program for small groups - get into one. It'll change your life.

Well... back to work... I have to go collect some songs for one of church elders. It's part of the present we're giving him for all the things he does for our church. I won't ruin the surprise by revealing who it is yet. Once we've given the present, then I'll say who it was.
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