Tag Archives: Financial Peace University

Just Checking In!

Good morning!

I am running behind this morning, as it seems I am most mornings nowadays!! So, this is going to be a quick post!

This morning, I am being fiscally responsible, paying bills, getting organized, etc. etc. Last night I filed our taxes and found out that we are getting a nice refund back – enough to finally push us completely out of debt!!

YEAH!!

My husband and I have been actively working on getting out of debt (non-mortgage debt) since September 2012, and we are SOOOOO CLOSE that I can almost taste it!!! 🙂

We have been following Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, and it has literally changed the way we deal with money and credit!!!

Being debt free is not something we are going to take lightly.

It is going to change the way we do everything!!!

I really can’t wait!!

I do not ever want to be in debt EVER again!!!! Dave Ramsey says, “You become a slave to the lender.” and man, do I believe him!!

I will keep you posted! Now back to getting on with my morning!

Here is to a FABULOUS day! 🙂

Signature Line

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

 

A Day of Movement!

CrownGood evening!
Today has been almost a picture perfect, albeit a bit chilly Spring day here in Oregon!!!

I have been in a go-go-go-I’m-on-a-roll-crossing-off-all-sorts-of-stuff-off-my-to-do-list-kind-of-mode all day!! and even though I have a tendency to be a bit manic while I am in this mode, just ask my sweetie, it is really awesome to get to the end of the day and realize that because of all the work you did today, your life may be just a little bit better tomorrow!!

Tonight, my sweetie and I, and our three four-legged girls are hanging out, watching the tele, and just enjoying being quiet while hanging out at our little bitty home!! Ok, so truth be told, my sweetie and I are watching the tele and the girls are actually sleeping, one of them is even snoring!! Nice, right??? That is how we roll!!! 🙂

I tried something new dinner-wise tonight, and let’s just say, it didn’t turn out exactly as I had planned! It was a breakfast skillet kind of concoction that may have been a bit of a let down! I was sure that it would be fool-proof, I mean seriously??? Eggs, bacon, peppers, onion, hash browns, salsa, cheese???? There is no way that could possibly fail, right??? Yeah, well, that is what I was thinking BEFORE I tasted it!! LOL!! 😉 God bless my sweetie, he ate it like a trooper and never said a peep, but I am telling you – that recipe is not gonna be written down for posterity sake!! Matter of fact, I am sure that humanity will thank me for letting that one go out into the ether!! 😉 Oh well, no one ever said that having an Artsy Life was going to be an easy thing!!!

I am still working on my  The Right Brain Business Plan, and I have made some process, and will be happy to show you some pictures tomorrow of how that is going!! The hard part now is trying to decide where I want to start. There are so many baby steps that I can take right now, from where I stand, utilizing what I have on hand, and that it is almost paralyzing me with fear in making a decision and just taking action!!! As the lovely Melody Ross says, ” She was __________ but she did it anyway!” For me, this sentence might look like one of these:

  • She was overwhelmed, but she did it anyway!
  • She was scared, but she did it anyway!
  • She was unsure, but she did it anyway!
  • There were people out there who do it better than she does, but she did it anyway!

But, that is the clincher, ins’t it??? “She did it anyway!!!” I will be able to say the same thing about myself too – hopefully VERY soon!! 😉

What else??? Oh, gosh!! My sweetie and I have been following Dave Ramsey‘s Financial Peace University plan to take control of our finances and get out of debt. We have been actively working on this goal since September 2012, and since then we have managed to pay off about $7000 in debt so far!! YEAH!!! We have a little more than $11000 to go – WHEW!!! 😉 I know we can do it, it has just been a lot of hard work so far, and I know we have a lot more hard work to do in the near future!!! I will keep you posted on our progress!!

I realize that what I thought was going to be a short and sweet kind of post has actually just become a brain-dump of all sorts of my random thoughts as they are falling out of my brain, but that is alright with me! Sometimes us girls just need to let it all out, and then get back to the business of breathing again!! 😉

Life is good – my weeds are being dealt with – life is good!!!
(I will explain the “weeds” thing tomorrow!!!)

In the meantime…

Here is to a FABULOUSLY ARTSY evening!! ;-)

Signature Line

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

Financial Peace University!

Good evening!

ok, maybe “good” is too strong of a word!!

In all honesty it has been a “meh” kind of an evening!

No, what it has really been has been a O-M-G-I-JUST-CUT-UP-ALL-MY-BELOVED-CREDIT-CARDS-THIS-HAD-BETTER-BE-WORTH-IT kind of night!

Hee-hee-hoo-hoo-hee-hee-hooooo!!!

OK, so maybe I had better start at the beginning…

God has really been convicting me to get my financial house in order! Now that I have seriously dealt with my marriage, then my church home/spirituality, and have taken HUGE LEAPS in my health, I know that He is telling me that it is time to stop being a dang fool, always living for today, dreaming about tomorrow but never doing anything about it! So tonight, Jason and I attended our first night of Dave Ramsey’s 9-week Financial Peace University class at one of our local churches, that I just happen to drive by on the way to work every day!!

There has been a large banner posted at this church, advertising that this class would be coming, and I had seen this add the few times the class had been offered before. I kept trying to get up the courage to go take this class, and for the life of me, I just could NEVER seem to make myself do it before!! I know, I am SUCH A CHICKEN!!! 😉

Anyway, I had finally decided that because I have gotten so many other things that had been flailing around in my life back in God’s hands, it was time to do the same for my finances!! The other things were:

  1. My Marriage DONE!
  2. My Spiritual Life DONE!
  3. My physical health WELL ON IT’S WAY TO BEING DONE!!
  4. My finances

and eventually my list will also include:

  1. My Home
  2. My Career
  3. and My Free Time/Fun

Soooooo, like I said, after driving by the Financial Peace University class notification sign every day for the past few weeks  – I knew it was NOW OR NEVER!! So, to the chagrin of my sweetie, I signed us up (at the very last minute, mind you, because I was trying all week to figure out a way to rationalize my way out of going), and thankfully, this evening, he came along with me – even though he was a-whining, a-kickin’, and a-screaming the whole way there!! Nevertheless, we both showed up, and on time, but just barely!! 😉

I am not sure if you have ever heard of Dave Ramsey or of Financial Peace University, but those of you who have followed my blog for a while know that I had gone through Dave’s Total Money Makeover a few months prior. I KNOW what I should be doing, but the step that is even before step 1 is to cut up your credit cards, and for some reason I just COULD NOT DO IT!! The whole plan had to be stupid, because didn’t Dave KNOW THAT I NEED MY CREDIT CARDS???

Ok, I realize that is the same pathetic attitude that got me into the crazy kind of debt that I have gotten myself into in the first place, and I know that if I want to live a different life then I have to LIVE DIFFERENTLY!! So tonight, I did the unthinkable – more than just going to the class.

I have made a commitment.

A commitment to what I know God has been telling me to do.

A commitment to the process.

and a commitment to just putting my big girl panties on and cutting up my credit cards!!

I had 6 credit cards to cut up, well, 8 if you count the 2 practice cards that I added to the stack just to “practice” the cutting of the cards motion (I had two cards that had expired that I had never done anything with, and cut those up for practice!) Sad, I realize!! 😉 but, anyone who has had a love love relationship with credit cards know that they can be deceivingly fun!!!! Or at least that is what I have been telling myself!! Foolish me!! By the time I got to card number 5 (of the now 8 credit cards), I had to call in reinforcements because my hand was cramping, and Jason came in to help me finish the job!! He is kind of like my plastic hit man!! Thanks, Babe!! I really needed that!!!

Photographic Evidence of my Plastic Homicide!

The hardest card of all of them was my Nordstrom card, which I had saved for last and I have to tell you, I seriously had to have a “come to Jesus meeting” when I finally did get to that card. I have put so much value in these cards. Ever since I was a little girl I remember thinking that rich people did or have a list of certain things, and one of them was having a Nordstrom card. (a couple of others were, rich people drank tea, and rich people had clean houses – who knew???) Anyway, I digress! For some insane reason, I had made it ok to spend on my credit cards because somehow I had earned the right to be in crazy insane debt! Isn’t that really what the American dream is??? I know all my friends are doing it!! Even so, I know it is time to jump off of the band wagon, and just like Dave Ramsey says, it is time for us to live like no one now, so that we can live like no one later!!

Scary steps being made tonight, but you know what? I feel a cool sense of peace about it, like I have made the right decision, and that everything is going to be alright!! My tomorrow will be so much richer, both figuratively and literally, and I know that God will be able to do so much more with us and our lives if we are able to give back in a more substantial way. Now, I know that cutting up our credit cards was only the beginning, and it may take us years to actually make through the next 4 of the 7 step process, but I know that THIS TIME I am not trying to do it alone; and isn’t that all that really matters??

Here is to a PEACEFUL-NEW-BEGINNING kind of evening!!

 If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!