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But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. – 1 Timothy 6:81
This months debtorcise is believing that contentment will get you out of debt. The exercise is for me to write down all of our possessions. This will be a reminder of what we own. The list will be long. It may take all month. The purpose is to be reminded and content with what we have. I then commit to reading that list from top to bottom when the spending urge is overtaking the gazelle intensity of sticking with the plan to get out of and to stay out of debt. Why not start this debtorcise yourself.
Oh, and if you were wondering, I first heard the phrase ‘life on a diet‘ on an American Public Media’s, ‘The Story‘ broadcast from North Carolina. The host, Dick Gordon, was interviewing Chris McNaught who made a decision to have no more than 500 possessions. The host replied when told the overall idea of limiting yourself to 500 things as sort a life on a diet.
As comedian George Carlin once said, “You can’t have everything. Where
would you put it?’
Photo courtesy of bk
This was the most worn NEW book that I have ever seen at a bookstore. The sides other than the binding were yellowed. The binding was creased. Someone had dog eared a page in the back of the book. There I was reading it as well. Like many others before. It just struck me how the author wrote a book of helping others become debt free, but those same people choose to read only and not buy the book. There was one copy on the shelf. There is still one copy on the shelf if you catch my drift.
I heard this phrase for the first time yesterday. How appropriate. Payday. Our financial fitness small group homework for this week is to read Chapter 6 of Total Money Makeover and to work on the budget. The topic of last night’s small group had a theme of Learn to Give Every Dollar a Name. I joked that I would need many new cuss words if every dollar needed a name, but that wouldn’t be acting my wage. I just don’t want to name every dollar, goodbye.
Earlier this week, my wife and I saw an attorney to have our Last Will and Testament written. Tomorrow morning we pick up the Will. This was needed as part of a 30-day challenge that Dave Ramsey calls The “Love Drawer” Challenge. He writes, “A Love Drawer contains all your important information, from your last will and testament to budgets and insurance papers. The Love Drawer is neatly organized and makes finding important documents easy. Here’s the best part … you can put it together in 30 days.“
Do you have a Love Drawer? A simple box perhaps that loved ones can turn over on your kitchen table to read through and walk your spouse through in the event that you are called home to heaven? Tale Dave’s Challenge.
Photo courtesy of striatic
Don’t cuss the *B* word in front of me. I would cringe in the past when it was spoken. You know the word. It’s *budget*.
I had suggested that we use April Fools Day to start the budget. If we are going to act like fools in the eyes of anyone, is there a better day to start than April Fools Day? My wife had tried to put me on a budget before. It was nothing more than her giving me cash to use through the month instead of using the debit card and PayPal. It worked for a while. This was not a budget. It was simply bypassing the banking to have cash on hand to support the same spending habits. We are now expected to start using the envelope system. Call me crazy, but I’m looking forward to it.
I had a mental picture this morning of a small rudder on a large ship. Once it starts to make a turn, the ship can be slow to turn, but it will turn if the captain or pilot of the ship is in control of the rudder’s angle. The rudder in the picture is our actions taken on the HMS (His majesty ship) Family. I only got as far as that, but the image was the result of the rudder under the surface. The turning force not seen on the surface. Our spending habits will change direction if we apply control to the rudder.
In the movie Titanic, Captian Smith was listening to his pride. Imagine the headlines he must have thought if the Titanic arrived ahead of schedule. He apparently failed to see or listen to the warning signs of immanent danger from ice. External pressure. A force from outside of the ship he was charged with piloting. You know the rest of the story.
Ironic that the rudder was perhaps one of the last sights seen by the survivors as the stern of the Titanic bobbed…then sank. So I guess we were the fools for using other peoples money to buy things believing that tomorrow would come another day to re-pay the other person plus interest.
Welcome aboard family. May you find this adventure in Total Money Makeover rewarding once we arrive at the destination of debt-free living. You will be inconvenienced during this voyage. We assure you that by setting a course through budget, your parents have your best interests in mind. Until then, stow your gear. We are in for an adventure.
Photo of Capt. Arthur Henry Rostron of the Carpathia who rescued survivors of the Titanic courtesy of Library of Congress
We have agreed on the debt snowball list. The first target is in sight. Our plan is to pay the minimum payment on all but the debt with the lowest amount owed. The lowest amount owed will receive all extra money aside from the budget. Once paid off, that amount we have been using towards the first snowball will be added to the minimum payment of the second debt listed. We have seven items listed on The Debt Snowball list to be 100% debt free. This includes CCs, an unsecured “debt consolidation loan” from the credit union and a newer car purchase. I regret the new car purchase. We should have waited to get a better deal, but we cannot unsigned the contract. We will enjoy what we decided to purchase praying that it will outlast the loan.
We have covered baby step 1 in the Dave Ramsey program. This would be to have $1,000.00 in the bank earmarked for emergency fund to avoid the use of any new debt. That is the plan. A month ago this would have been crazy talk to me. I have a new found intensity to live a life on a diet to get out of debt. We are listening to The Dave Ramsey Show together. My wife and I are beginning to talk more openly about our concerns about money, but more importantly we are discussing goals.
I am now working on a wall of progress in the bedroom. This will be to post the letters of ‘account paid in full and closed’ that we have begun to receive. Also this wall will be used to wall paper using past Debt Snowball calculation forms that are part of the program. No one seems to be reading these entries at the present time, but once we get out of debt, those who start behind us will hopefully find encouragement from these entries knowing that struggling is OK and you will make mistakes. Just work together to make to make the money work for you.
Photo licensed under Creative Commons by redjar
O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusts in him – Psalm 34:8
Three hours a day? Who has time for that?
It was the last thing I wanted to do not too long ago. Now is it what I plan to do in order to stay motivated. What is it? Listening to the Dave Ramsey Show commercial free.
If I were reading this post last month, I would not have made it past the 4th sentence. Why? Denial. Shame. Self conviction. I simply could not see myself listening to a fellow take caller after caller who found themselves sunk financially and who needed advice. I struck a pose and believed that I was not that caller who needs the advice. How could I listen to three hours a day of that stuff? I tasted and saw. I became that much more motivated to want to stay on target. It is 180 minutes of commercial free money talk that will help me. How? Hearing others who have questions answered that I have yet to ask. Hearing advice on my commute to and from work.
So where do you get this commercial free talk? It’s not free. It is costing me $9.95 a month. Ouch. Another expense to justify in the entertainment budget. Or would that be the education budget?
UPDATE: We sprung for the one-year subscription rather than the monthly fee.
Photo courtesy of willaimli1983
“When you stand on the bottom and stare at the top, you know you’ve gotta change a thing or two.” – Bryan Duncan
Baby Step 1 – Putting aside a $1,000.00 emergency fund. This is money that can be easily assessable, but not easily spendable. As our small group leader puts it, “It is not to be used for an emergency pizza dinner”. The purpose of the money is to curb, to stop, to cease having to use a credit card when an emergency arises. Like the car breaking down. Where to put the $1,000.00 is the challenge. I have imagined a steel plate with four walls. Perhaps the size of an album jacket. Think of it as a metal serving tray. You place ten $100.00 bills on the surface. You then drop another steel serving tray just inside of that tray. Now on both sides are holes that match up. You have a padlock one it and your own key. Your spouse has his/her own padlock and their own key. The money is sandwiched between the two sheets of metal. It is kept at the house. Hidden. That is what I want. If I could weld and had the time and material, I would make it. Until then, we are still working towards the first baby step in the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover plan.
Tomorrow we will likely take that first step. We will transfer $1,000.00 from savings for the emergency plan. President Bush will then do his part in sending us money from his stimulus plan. Bush will do his part to stimulate us into becoming debt free. This check will be divided in two parts. We will replace the $1,000.00 in savings and the balance will be thrown at our snowball debt. Part two of Baby Step 1 is to be current on bills. We are current.
Photo courtesy of vubi
Shopping at Office Depot and Staples has been my impulse buying weakness of choice. Why? When was the last time that you went looking for a computer memory upgrade at one of these two stores? Likely never is the answer. Why? Unless you saw an advertisement for these two stores in the Sunday paper, you head to Best Buy, Frys Electronics, or on-line say eBay perhaps. For some reason, the business model at Office Depot and Staples includes carrying a wide range of computer related supplies for the home and office needs. The problem is the items they purchase to resell to you…don’t sell as planned or as store managers hoped or expected they would. Shelf space is valuable. Dead stock is not valuable. It may as well be blister packed dollar bills to them. So what am I getting to? Clearance tables.
Admittedly, my spending habits include impulse buying at the clearance tables of Staples and Office Depot. I find the best prices on computer related *stuff*. Here is a recent example explained postmortem for you. I found an 80GB Maxtor 3.5″ hard drive. Still boxed. No apparent visual damage. It was priced at $14.50. I bought it on a debit card. The money was taken from the checking account. You know, money that we use for household needs, like electricity and food. It was an impulse buy.
An 80GB drive is a good sized drive for an operating system (OS) only drive or a ‘backup’ in case one of the three systems on our home network were to fail. Truth be told, as I type this, the drive sits on top of my son’s computer. Unboxed and formatted as a slave drive. I have yet to copy one file to the drive. So, I have let you in on a geek secret to purchasing tech gear on the cheap. That’s my weakness. Oh, it gets better.
You see I did this often. I would hit the local Office Depot and Staples a couple of times a week. That’s four visits. Two visits to each store per week. I typically walk out without buying anything. The problem is that when I do find a gem of something that I can’t live without (remember the 80GB drive?), I would remember all of the times I had self restraint walking out without a purchase that *I deserve* this purchase. I have been saving nothing for it other than restraint.
The root of the need to shop is yet undiscovered, or not yet ready to admit, but I do recognize the pattern of shopping habits for tech gear. I may take a personal challenge to recite some text from the Dave Ramsey workbook before thinking of shopping or to divert a visit to one of these two stores altogether. Besides if we need copy paper, I can get it at the supermarket. At twice the price. Better to spend the extra $3.00 on the supermarket mark up, than $50.00 on the next memory upgrade. Perhaps it is my cranium memory that has received the most recent upgrade instead.
Photo courtesy of nomag
Leslie Stahl of CBS 60 Minutes talks to debt-fighting crusader, Dave Ramsey.
