Show me the money!

Hello everyone!

So, no worries to anyone who has left me their email to be apart of my private blog. So far, I have procrastinated and not even started it yet. I'm trying to decide if I will make this blog be private or start a brand new one altogether. Either way, I've found myself so busy lately I haven't even been able to think about doing either. So for now, I will just keep writing here until I decide. 

So what am I keeping so busy with lately? Well, first of all, working! Kellen and I are taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class on Thursday nights and have found ourselves trying to get "our income up" so we can really "pay our debt down". If you have ANY desire to get your finances under control, I would strongly suggest you check out Dave Ramsey's program at daveramsey.com. At first its seemed a little silly to  me to pay close to $100 to take a class on how to SAVE money, but now, I am beyond happy we did. We've been going a strong month now and have saved quite a bit of $ that might have otherwise gone on our overdraft credit line- or our version of the "close your eyes and swipe" syndrome. 

My favorite things about being on a budget so far:

-Kellen's amazing commitment. At the beginning of this program we both agreed he needed to start making and bringing lunches to work, instead of going out to eat (like he normally would). I asked him what he wanted and he said "Peanut butter and honey sandwiches." I was like....um...ok...but don't you think you will get sick of them? "Nope!"--and one month later the guy is still eating (and enjoying!) those sandwiches like they are going outta style! Now thats commitment!

-Having money leftover before payday. Wow! What an amazing feeling to log into my account on Thursday night (we get paid Friday) and not see my account nearly drained- or worse- going onto our credit line. 

-I'm a geek. Dave ramsey talks a lot about the "geek" and the "free spirit" in a marriage. The geek is the one that drools over lists and excel spreadsheets. Yeah, that's me. I really do love writing out that pretty little budget and following up on it at the end of the week.

-My small group that is putting on the FPU class. We've just met all these new people and we are having fun getting to know them all. It's nice have more friends in this area that at can relate to this stage of life we are at!

-Thinking about how much money I will have at retirement. According to Dave Ramsey, that number is a lot. I couldn't be more excited to be 55 (or maybe even younger!) :)

I'm being pretty openly honest about this because realistically I think money is such a hushhush topic and it NEEDS to be talked about! Everyone struggles at some point in their life. I wish someone would have came to me when I was in high school and said "Hey! You don't HAVE to go into debt to live! You have other options! You CAN have financial freedom at young age!"