How we did it -- FAQs

Since my husband and I started our journey towards financial peace, we've received a lot of questions...what are we doing, why are we doing it, how are we doing it....

I've compiled our most commonly asked questions:

How did you do it?
We purchased the Financial Peace University at home kit.  (Ours had 13 lessons and I was able to get it for just over $100).

We began watching the first lesson within two weeks of receiving the kit.  We talked about how we felt about what we just heard and committed to following the program through.  We immediately cut up our credit card and then proceeded to watch two more lessons that evening.  I drafted up a $0 based budget to review with my husband at our first budget meeting.

Why did you do it?
We weren't in horrible shape, but we weren't making any real progress on our bills either.  Our monthly budget was tight and I didn't know how we were going to help my son with his college education.  I was also hoping to make a career move, but felt very trapped in the job I held due to our monthly expenditures and very little resources for emergencies.  I had met people who worked this program, and saw how well my church spoke of its success.  After some additional research, and reading the Total Money Makeover, it felt doable.

Is this a scam?
No.  Financial Peace University is not a "get rich quick" scheme.  This is an educational plan.  The closer you follow it (like if you were following a diet), the better the results you will see.  The only money we 'gave' Dave Ramsey, was the purchase of the FPU kit mentioned above.  That's it.  Also, we do not receive any kind of financial incentive to share this information with you.  I do it because it changed my life and that of my family.  I also firmly believe in the Biblical foundations of these teachings and feel the more people who can learn to live within their means will help reshape how government and elected officials view debt.

Do you really not use credit cards?
That is true -- we are an all debit and cash family. 

How did you do it so fast?
Hard work and dedication and living without.   We worked as much overtime we could get, I got a second job doing office work, lots of garage sales, we sold gold/silver, and we did not buy things that we didn't have cash for, and/ or were not a necessity.  (For example, no new clothes...for a year.  When we needed to get something, we shopped at Good Will.)

How do you live without the stuff?
You just do, because that's what you have to do.  We spent more time together as a family.  Rediscovered board games, visiting the library, and home cooking.  It wasn't about what we didn't have, but enjoying what we do have.

Who is this Dave Ramsey guy?
He's a husband, father, businessman, author and radio show host.  He lost everything once, and was able to rebuild his life and shares what he learned with others.

What would you do differently?
I wish I would have started sooner in my life. 

How are some of the ways you cut back?
We ate at home mostly, and only had meat a few nights a week.  I made my own laundry detergent.  We cut back on gifts...literally asked our in-laws if we could forego giving them Christmas presents which they found this to be a relief too.  We gave up cable, but kept internet.  We subscribed to Netflix for around $8 a month instead of the $120 our cable TV had cost.  No new clothing purchases for a year (and then it was from the Goodwill.)  We drank soda from 2 liters instead of individualized bottles.  Frozen pizza instead of delivery.

What was the hardest part?Some of our budgeting conversations were rough, but we got through them.  It was hard for me not to buy things for my son when I wanted to and to not let him have cable TV.  My husband missed getting to watch the Cardinals play in the World Series and we turned down an opportunity for tickets because we knew the person who was offering them was going to put them on a credit card.  That just didn't feel right to have someone treat us by incurring debt.

Did you still get to vacation and eat out?Yes, but we budgeted for it.  We each had "mad money" budgeted each month to do with as we wished.  We would use this to eat out, or see a movie now and then.  We also had the opportunity to travel with family to the beach.  We budgeted for this trip and used coupons and picnics to keep our costs down.

How did you handle gifts?
We set aside money each month to help pay for Christmas and cut back on what we bought for family birthdays.  And, in some cases, we simply asked brothers and sisters if we could cut back on gifts and they were very understanding.
How did you handle emergencies?
We had a couple of medical expenses during this time where we had to dig into our $1000 emergency fund, and then we would build it back up before paying on our debt that month.

Slave No More

This past weekend, my family and I traveled to Nashville.  While this great Tennessee town has much to offer, our draw was to share with  over 5 million listeners of Dave Ramsey's radio show our debt free yell.

This trip was very important to me...it was one of the goals I had set as we began working to kill our debt snowball in August of 2011.  Only 13 months later (September 2012), we finally paid the last payment to our home equity loan.  That was a great day.  We paid $48,000 and were now debt free.  Slave to the lender...no more!

I felt it was really important to celebrate the accomplishment, recognize our sacrifices and hard work, and most importantly...create a memory that my son would not soon forget.  By working this program, we are "changing our family tree" and let's face it...he's the only branch we have in our garden!

While we finished our snowball almost six months ago and have completed step 3 (and begun working on steps four, five, and six now) we also had to save up for the trip and find a time that our son was out of school.  (Thank you, President's Day!)

When we arrived at Financial Peace Plaza we were greeted by Director of Guest Relations, Martha Thompson.  She was so gracious and helped put us at ease.  She quickly made my son some hot cocoa and shared her delicious cookies with us.  (Her fudge peanut butter brownies were fantastic!)

While we were the "yell" in the 2 p.m. hour, we had a chance to meet Dave right after his show began at 1 p.m.  Martha took our picture, we had some quick introductions, he signed our copy of Entreleadership, and then he was back to the studio.  Now we just had wait!

Before we knew it, we were wearing our headphones...had a mic check and pep talk from Martha, and then on air.  The actual experience went very quickly and afterwards we were able to sign a glass panel that will be a permanent fixture at the Financial Peace offices.



So, in case you missed it...here's the audio from our Debt Free Yell!

Casting thanks.

Still trying to catch up -- I wanted to share what our fourth month working on our debt was like for our family.

November was a tough month.

There is extra travel to see family.  Extra food expenses for all the family Thanksgiving events.

And, the biggest hit to our budget...it was time to begin Christmas shopping.

Thankfully (no pun intended) we had been setting aside money for Christmas gifts every month.  That made shopping a little bit easier.  Honestly, the hardest part for me has been sticking to the budget -- I never thought gift giving was one of my 'love languages,' but perhaps it is. 

I am wired to want to give my son the world...and it has been hard hearing him ask for things, knowing that I can't provide them.

November moved quickly, but my husband was able to work overtime with his company, and I was able to make a few Mary Kay sales which allowed us to stay on  target for our debt payoff!!

**What kind of strategies or planning do you do to manage gift giving while paying off debt?

Month three.

Wow, it’s been a month or so – I guess you were either thinking I had given up on the task of blogging, I had been abducted by aliens, or life had gotten busy.  I'll do my best in the next few posts to catch you up on our progress of getting out of debt!

Well, as amazing as it would be to spend  some time with a few extra terrestrials  -- I’ll have to admit – life in my household got too busy for me to keep up with my blogging.

October is a pretty crazy month for my day job.  Extra weekends and evenings to work, and even more people to keep happy than usual. 

But we survived, and we’ll do it all again next year.

October was a hard month on our budget. 

With all the extra time I had to put in, my husband had to take time off of work to take care of our son, or help me out.  He’s paid hourly, and that definitely had an impact on us.

I also saw that we had an increase in food expenses this month – lots of eating out.  Whether for work events/meetings, or just because that drive-thru was easier to get to than my kitchen – we definitely went through hour spending money much faster than normal. 

I did have the opportunity to work at my second job at the end of the month, which was very helpful.

By the end of the month, we were able to pay an additional $925 on our snowball debt. 

That puts us at 11% paid off for our Debt Snowball.

As tough as this month was for us financially, it felt great to be able to scrape together funds to keep chipping away at our debt!

**How have you handled tough months?

Getting the ducks in a row.

One of things we learned through Financial Peace University was to make preparing for our legacy a priority.

We met with my attorney this week and began the process in creating our wills, trust for my son, and making sure our property is recorded correctly.

There are some great resources out there to create wills that are not as costly as using an attorney.  We chose to use our attorney since things with our situation can be a smidge complicated. 

This is a tough thing to do – not so much physically, but emotionally –thinking about leaving your loved ones behind and who would take care of your children is very hard.  But yet, it brings such peace of mind to know that you are taking care of them.

Our next step is to pull everything together in one place.  (In other words…get organized!)

**What kind of legacy planning have you done?

Small sacrifice.

We continue to work at our third month on the Debt Snowball phase as we work towards financial freedom.

About a month ago, we decided to get rid of cable, but kept our internet.  This reduced our monthly cable/internet bill by $70. 

We are one of few who decided to stay with Netflix -- but we only kept the streaming video service for $7.99 a month.  For us, there is plenty of kid friendly stuff for my son to watch, and I am quite content with the documentary collection.  My husband does miss his sports, but for important games (such as the Cardinals in the World Series), he's been able to go to his parents' house to watch.

I had tried the free month of Hulu.plus, but was very underwhelmed.  They have so many shows on their free portion of the site, along with what the networks have available for free -- Netflix was a better option for us.

I will be honest, I really miss my Bravo television shows.  (Yes, I am a recovering Real Housewives addict.)  While there are a few shows available online for free -- they are really slow to add new ones, so it as almost as if I've gone cold turkey.

I asked my son the other day if he missed having cable.  He responded with, "yes, I miss Star Wars (the Clone Wars) but all my Disney shows I can get on the computer."

I initially felt very guilty to take away cable from my son, but I think I had been projecting my disappointment in giving up something I really love (cable), on to him. 

I've also come to realize, that 7-year-olds are perfectly content with watching 'old shows' and don't understand the concept of TV seasons.  So, he doesn't realize (or care) that he isn't seeing the new show.

And, don't tell my son this -- but we're keeping our eyes open for used DVD's of Star Wars The Clone Wars to get him for his birthday!

**Have you given up cable?  What do you do for entertainment now?

Tip Tuesday -- getting started with couponing!

I've never been much for using coupons.  Perhaps because, frankly -- I'm a little lazy.

However, I've come across this great blog -- 'Couponing to Disney' that really explains how to get started.

Her 'getting started' with coupons series is very informative, full of links, and helps guide you towards how much product you truly need for your family.

I love how she breaks it down to be less intimidating. 

And, considering one of my goals for getting my family debt free is paying for a Disney Vacation -- in cash --this site is a great inspiration to stay on course!

**Do you have any couponing tips to share?