We're kicking it into high gear in budgeting, paying down debt, and saving - especially since we're one of the small group leader's for Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University held at our church. Leading has been a tremendous blessing to both Steve and myself. What I appreciate most about Steve is his willingness to serve, but also I get to see a lot of his counseling skills in action. He has a way of facilitating the discussion without taking over the entire class.
This year, we're trying things a little different and just within the last six weeks, we've noticed a tremendous difference. After creating our budget, we knock off 10% right away for our tithe. I'm not 100% convinced to sign up for automatic withdrawal from our checking account at this time, because I want to experience the "feelings" of writing out a check and putting it in the offering plate. Last year, when we did FPU, it was much too easy to give God the "leftovers" of our budget which wasn't very much. I hope that one day we'll be able to give above and beyond to our church, missions, and anyone who needs a little help. But for now... it's a start!
Most of our budget categories and bills are automatically withdrawn from our checking account, but for those things like our "blow money" (the money that Steve and I have to spend on whatever with no questions asked), family entertainment money, gifts, clothes, and groceries, I decided to go ALL CASH! It's very scary and I definitely "FEEL" the pain of watching our money dwindle down. However, I must say, it's been one of the best changes we've made. I'm more cautious about what I spend our money on and I budget a little better when we go to the grocery store. I've never been a fan of the envelope system, but now after nearly a month of using it, I'm sold! Once the money is gone - it's gone - and we haven't starved yet! :-)
When we found out we were expecting a little boy, Steve and my mom helped me do a big garage sale to get rid of a lot of Amaya's things that Weston wouldn't be able to use. We don't really have a lot of wiggle room in our budget to decorate his room, buy clothes, and buy diapers... so we've been using the money that we made from the garage sale to purchase some of these things. I brought a bunch of stuff to kid's thrift stores, and was able to get a little money, but then I discovered a couple of sites on Facebook to buy and sell things in Rochester. At first, I just bought a few things from people just to get a feel for how things work. Then I tried selling a few things with very little expectations. A month later... I've sold over 135 dollars worth of leftover garage sale things, clothes Amaya has very recently grown out of, and stuff around the house that we just don't need. The only downside of selling and meeting people on facebook is that I'm
running all over and praying that someone doesn't "no show."
Fortunately, I've had great success and everybody comes and most
everyone is either early or on time. One of Dave Ramsey's mottos is, "Sell so much stuff that the kids think they are next!" I don't think we're at that point, but it's amazing how much a person accumulates. It's a little embarrassing to have so much stuff that we don't even use! It makes me want to sell everything and SIMPLIFY!! (I'll admit... there's a part of me that wants to go live with the Amish.) :-)