Oh My Poor Deprived Children. . . How Did They Survive Childhood. . .

My children think they are the most deprived things in the world.  I love it, I have made it my goal to deprive them of everything I can think of.  Heeheehee!!  Not really but, that is what they believe at their very core.  I will never forget when Sprat was in middle school and all of his friends had the latest iphones and poor little deprived Sprat did not have a phone at all.  I am polishing my mean mommy crown as I type this morning.  I know that some kids do need phones and I get that but, at this particular time I was not working and the boys were either at school or at home with me so there was no need for a cell phone for them.  That same year as I was buying school supplies preparing for the August back to school fun, I found this cute little eraser made to look like a smart phone.  You know where my devious mind is going don't you?  I decided to have a little fun with the boy.  I found a box and wrapped up the eraser phone and had it sitting at his place at the dinner table that night.  I think this was his eighth grade year maybe.  Needless to say he was not amused at my humor.   He did finally get a phone, he got a flip phone his freshman year of high school.  He was too embarrassed to carry it so I cut off the service and he did not have a phone again.  He did eventually get a phone his sophomore year because he had his license and I thought he needed a way to get in touch with us if something happened with the car.  He did not get an iphone either and I still have not heard the end of that.  I do not like i products and I will not buy them.   I still have not heard the end of that one especially since  Big T got a cell phone (not an iphone) in his seventh grade year.  He only got one because that was when I went back to work and he would be coming home by himself.  I needed to be able to get in touch with him if I got called in to work and his ride home changed.   Most recently we have had issues with the boys having a car.  Big T will start driving more regularly this Summer and Sprat is going to have to have a car to back to school in September.  Their big question is who gets what car?  Sprat thinks he is getting my car and Big T is getting his old car.  Which is partly correct but, we have not made the decision on that just yet.   While we were at mom's for Easter my brother in law had one of his cars, a cute little BMW, I am sure you can hear my wheels turning.   I asked if we could borrow it for a picture, Big T got in and I snapped a few pictures of him behind the wheel.  Yes, I sent one to Sprat at school via text, no caption just Big T behind the wheel of this sweet little BMW.  Again, I polish my mean mommy crown.  It did not take long to get that return text of "Who is that?"  I replied with, Big T is getting this and you get to take your little blackberry to MA since it has front wheel drive it will do better in the snow.  He replied with, "that does not seem to add up."  This went on for a few hours, he really thought Big T was getting a BMW and he was going to keep his car.  My kids are so gullible some times.  That Sprat even thought I would buy them anything that was better than what I was driving just makes me want to laugh and laugh.
He will never let me forget that Big T got a phone in seventh grade and he did not get one till he was a sophomore in high school.  I keep telling him it was a need based decision.  Loving your kids does not mean bending to their every whim.  Sometimes, it means saying no and meaning it. 
Stay tuned the Boy is on his way home for the Summer, the garden is growing, herbs are growing and I am about to get knee deep in making stuff with my herbs. 

Giving. . .Child Hunger

I told you earlier about my kids participating in the 30 hour famine for World Vision.  I would like to share a link to their site.  We are raising money for child hunger.   Here is a link to the website www.30hourfamine.org  our church is Christ Moravian Church.   Our youth is trying to go without food for 30 hours in support of all of those kids that go without food all over the world.   Our kids will get plenty of fluids and they do eat but in very small amounts similar to what children in other countries consume on a daily basis.  Our kids are learning about other countries and their customs and how their children live.
I know before we started participating in the 30 hour famine my kids did not know what famine was or what being hungry felt like.  I am so glad our church started this fundraiser because it introduced my kids to the world around them.   There are other churches in our area that have fundraisers that help bring awareness to how others, less fortunate than us, live.  One church, a dear friend attended, had their youth spend a day and night outside with nothing more than a box for shelter and water to drink for 24 hours.
You can also check out the World Vision website www.worldvision.org   My kids do not easily go without food for 30 minutes much less 30 hours and I am sure mine are not the only ones.   This is a good program for a good cause, please check it out.

More on Dave. . .

I told you when I started this, that you would probably get tired of me saying, "Dave says," or "According to Dave" and such.  I follow most of Dave's principles  which in reality follow God's principles.  Dave said, you could get a PhD in finance simply by reading Proverbs.   At that point we were in the middle of reading Psalms with the kids, so I decided that after Psalms we would read Proverbs.   In all my years of reading the Bible, I had never really sat down and read the book of Proverbs.  You know, you read a verse here and there relating to a specific sermon or a Bible study but you do not sit down and read every verse.   After Dave's class we read Proverbs.
One of the things that impressed me most about Dave Ramsey is,  he incorporates the Bible and God into his financial lessons.  I have read a couple different books on finance by different people and so far, not one of them does that.  Dave not only talks about saving money but he also talks about giving, stewardship. Not many financial gurus would even think of discussing stewardship much less devote a whole section of their financial class to the subject.    He encourages you to give to charities and to the Church.  His big point at the end of his lesson is that could you imagine the good that can be done if we were all out of debt and could give freely to those in need.   Cool idea.

He talks about the things that our grandparents used to say, "the more you give the more you will receive."  
Several years ago we were doing a stewardship series at Church and I was asked to give my testimony.  I was terrified and yet very excited about getting to share how God had blessed our family.  I am very passionate about how God has worked in our lives.  We were only supposed to do a two minute talk, when I had finished writing down what was on my heart I had about a 15 minute talk.  I did trim it down, I did not want to drive anyone away.  The hubbs and I talked about what I would say, so I had his approval.  I shared some very personal things about our first few years of marriage and how we struggled and strained with money some days.  My point to my talk was that even though we struggled we still gave to our Church.  Money always found us just when we needed it and I believe it did because we gave and had faith.  We are after all, mere managers of what God has given us.  

Happy Friday! Topic Today the Big B. . . Budget

Yep, it is time to revisit that nasty word, Budget.   That word always carried a restrictive connotation with me for many years.  It is actually very freeing to be able to sit down and tell each dollar where it is going before you get it.   If you do that you want be wondering where it all went at the end of the month.   I told you when I started this that I was terrible at balancing my checkbook and doing a budget.   I had never balanced my checkbook till I took Dave's class and worse than that I had never really looked at my bank statements before either.  I know, that is the worst.  That is why I tell you, I have made many mistakes and I wish I knew about Dave or anybody else for that matter earlier.  It would have saved me so much money and heart ache too.
Let us get down to the nitty gritty of the big B.  Dave says, managed money is like getting a raise.  That is so true, I would have never thought that before I put together a budget.  Do not look at your budget as restrictive, look at it as spending on paper for a purpose.  (another Daveism) The first thing I did was write out, longhand, what we spent in a month.  Even though we are in the technology age I still like using pencil and paper when working with my budget.   I took old bank statements and looked at each one and wrote down what we had spent to try and compile my budget.  Group your items together for example, restaurants, groceries, insurance, car payments, house payments, utilities, and phone bills etc. . .  Do not forget to put give and save at the top of your list.  Remember what your grandparents always say the more you give the more you receive so, always keep giving at the top.  You also have to remember to pay yourself (save).   If you are at the height of your debt snowball you may think, how can I give and save if I am paying crazy to get out of debt?   You may have to cut back on saving during your debt snowball period.  That is ok because once you are out of debt you will be able to save and give like crazy.  I did not believe it either but it is possible and we are giving and saving like crazy.  We are still paying down our house but it is not like before.    Dave says during the debt snowball that everything should be going to pay off your debt.  He talks about using your savings to get out of debt.  I guess if you were in several hundred thousand dollar debt then that would be understandable, we were not that bad off so we did not use any savings to pay ours off.  We used everything else though and, we never stopped giving.  To me giving was the most important part of our budget.  The old adage stands true the more you give the more you receive.  We are proof positive in that.  I cannot tell you how many times early in our marriage that we did not know how we were going to pay bills but we never stopped our giving and we never missed any payments.
Being able to budget and get out of debt has been a huge blessing and I want everyone to know how to do it.  Imagine a debt free world, imagine the amazing things that could be done if there was no debt hanging over our heads, imagine the lives that could be changed.  That is what I hope for, amazing changes for everyone.

Debt Snowball. .

How appropriate since we are experiencing crazy cool weather that we talk about the "debt snowball".   This snowball has nothing to do with cold though.  Yes, this is from Dave Ramsey.  It is an ingenious plan to get out of debt.  I am not judging anyone, remember,  I have made these mistakes and I know it is easy to get into debt.  In fact I got into debt in college with my first credit card, that I had no business having.  I had a modest job and was going to school and they gave me a crazy high credit limit.  Needless to say I let it go to my head and bam!! Debt.  I am sharing all of this because if my mistakes can keep someone else from making them or help them recover from them then it is all worth it.  You know the old saying, if I had known then what I know now.  Well here ya go.
Look at each of your credit cards and loans, list them  from smallest balance to the largest balance.  We are only going to think about the balance, the bottom line nothing else.   You want a quick win, that means paying that first balance off quick.  This means putting any extra money you have left after you; give, save, and pay bills.   Always give first, even if it is just a few dollars it will help someone else and will open doors for you that no man can close.   Then you pay yourself (save) and then take care of those bills.   Macy's should not get theirs if your house payment and power bill is not being paid.  Take care of your family first.  While you are pouring extra money into that one smallest balance try to keep up your minimum payments on all the others.   Once you have paid that first one off, shout wahooo and if it was a credit card cut it up.  As Dave says, do a little plastic surgery, it will do wonders for your bank account.  Now you take what ever you were paying on that balance plus the minimum you were paying and start paying the next smallest balance on your list.  This is called the "debt snowball" and it does work.  I am proof positive it does.   I kept a copy of my balances on my fridge and as I paid things off I took a red pen and marked through them.  It was a great feeling when we got down to just the house being on that list.  We are now dumping crazy money at the house to get it paid off so we will truly be debt free.   It took me two years and we were not in as bad a debt as some but we took things slowly and made sure we were giving and saving while we were paying off our debt.  

When I talk about giving I am talking about money, time, and things you may not need.  Especially this time of year there are so many that are in need that if you have things laying around that you cannot wear donate them to your local Samaritan Ministry, Church, Goodwill or the Salvation Army.  There is an old adage that when you give you get back ten fold.  This means when you give you get back ten times what you gave.  You may not see it immediately but it will come back to you.  Our family has been so blessed because we share generously.   If you have not realized, I am a very passionate person, about God and my family and what I believe in.  I truly believe in sharing and the blessing that we have received because we have shared.  I have gotten a little off track today, sorry about that but I do believe I needed to share.
So far we are trying the envelope system and working on that debt snowball.    Stay tuned who knows what I will tell about next week.  

Feeling Blessed. . .

Funny things just keep happening to us.  Not funny ha ha, but funny unusual.  Dear hubby and I have been sticking to our budget and we are paying off our car in record speed.  That is the only thing we owe on besides the house and I am so happy about that.  Anytime we get extra money we pay extra on the car.   We are also saving our 3-6 month emergency fund.  That has been a huge deal.  We have never had extra money to truly save before.  We have always saved through the 401K offered through dear hubby's job and that is growing like crazy.
If you have never listened to Dave Ramsey, I highly recommend it.   He has a plan that works.  It is working for us in ways we could never imagine.  I like Dave because he uses scripture to illustrate his plan and shows how the Bible has a plan for money management too.  I like Dave's concept of giving, hubby and I have always given off  the top to our Church and other local charities.  In Dave's budget giving is the first category, because you should give first.   The Bible also says what ever you give, you will receive in return ten fold.  I have seen this just this week.  It is so funny how things happen sometimes.  Think about sharing your wealth with your Church or a local food bank.  They are all in need and you will get back way more than you ever give.  If you are giving try giving a little more and see how your life can change.  Ours has changed in ways that would take me years to post.  We are truly blessed.