The Breakdown of the Dave Ramsey Plan

      After  reading and listening to Dave Ramey.  I have found that it is very important to get the support of your spouse.  My husband, Ryne, didn't really know a whole lot about the Dave Ramsey Plan.  So, I put together our budget and my husband and I sat down and tweeked it so both him and I were happy.
      Let me tell you at this point, I know that I think I have have everything covered in our budget.  But, I bet I am forgetting something.  It is amazing how much money that we have going for our bills and how little we actually get t spend on ourselves for our needs and our wants.   I know that we are going to have to make sacrifices to be able to afford everything in our budget.
     So where did we start?  Well, we started with Dave's Seven Baby Steps.  Ryne and I acutally have double the recommended amount of an emergency fund, so were good to go.  The second step is to pay off all the debt with the snowball effect.
     The second step is a HUGE step.  This is actually a the step when you come to the realization of how much debt you actually are in.  This step does not include your mortgage payment.  I had to recored EVERY student loan amount, interest rate, and minimum balance.  With each individual loan, we have like 20 loans.  These have been consolidated to the point so we only paying 4 creditors.  Then we had to write down all of credit card debt information.  We currently do no have a car payment, so there is nothing to write down here.
   There are several Apps or Websites that can help you keep track of all your debt and can actually run the snowball effect for you.  You can get it set up to either pay smallest amount first or highest interest rate.  I personally like the smallest amount because though I would be saving money on interest rates,  I like the fact I woud like I am making a dent in my debt.  A website that I would recommend is the Dave Ramsey's My Total Money Makeover.
   After writing down, all of our debt, bills, and mortgage. The percentages were shocking.  One/Fourth of our monthly income goes to our debt,  One/fourth of our monthly income goes to our mortgage.  Another  fourth of our debt goes to bill and the last fourth goes toward groceries, clothes, toiletries, etc.  The thought of only having a forth to live off of is kind of suffocating. But I hope we can get to the point where it doesn't feel like we are on as tight of a leash.

Saturday Morning Friends

Saturday are my favorite.  It is a very relaxing time for us.  We get up, go downstairs, and Roarie plays with Keelie.  Roarie likes to "read stories" to Keelie.  Keelie likes to spend time with her sister, watch her, play with her, and try to do the things that Keelie does.

Keelie- 7 months

Today, I turned 7 months.  Let me venture into what I have accomplished this last month.  I can sit up by myself. I can get up on all 4s and like to rock.  I am still learning to master how to pick up my knee and move it forward.  Right now,  when I do that, I face plant.  

I am still sticking everything in my mouth. I have gotten better.  After I get done eating,  I don't need to put everything in my mouth.

I love strawberry oatmeal,  sweet potatoes, and bananas.

My hair is so long that it goes to the top of my eye lids.

Go Tiger Football

Tonight is Iowa Valley's first home football game.  In support of daddy coaching the football team,  the girls are wearing their Iowa Valley appearal.

Being the good parent I am and was in a super hurry,  I allowed Roarie to eat a bag of Cheetos for breakfast.

Decision: Dave Ramsey Plan

       I am soo sick of living paycheck to paycheck.  My co-workers and I have been talking a lot about our finances.  I told them that I just want to pay off our debt but I don't know how.  I was so tired of feeling like I was poor. 
      They  had asked me if I have ever hear of the Dave Ramsey Plan. Dave who? Ramsey who?  Plan what?  What in the world is that?  They told me about how he recommends cash budgeting and the snowball effect.  What? Who? How?  Where do I begin?  Cash, huh?
    I had all these questions and I would subtly ask my questions as time went by.  I didn't want to sound stupid.  I eventually went to the Dave Ramsey website.  Holy cow!  Where do I begin? 
   I decided that if I were serious about getting rid of my debt,  I cannot go at it alone.  I purchased the the The Starter Bundle from his website. It was $50 at the time of my purchase.  But I can tell you that it has been worth every penny. 
   Everything thing that he says or has written has  given me hope that I can get out of debt.  I know that I have a long way to go and this is only the beginning of the on the road to becoming debt free. 

Look at Me!!

Look at me.  It is 4 days before I just 7 months old and I can sit up by myself.  I am pretty hot stuff.  Of course the first time I sat up by myself was at Daycare, but mom and dad were excited to witness it with their eye for the first time.

As you do, I will follow!

Tonight was a great night.  We spent the night as a family. I just love just watching these girls grow up together.  Tonight was exciting because it was the first time that Ryne and I go to see Keelie sit up by herself.  Now that they both can sit up Keelie tried to copy everything Roarie was doing.  It was very entertaining.

Doing the hard work.

What a beautiful afternoon.  I mowed the lawn and weed wacked around the buildings.  We are trying to prepare for winter's arrival.  A few weeks ago I had taken down our pool and the lawn really needed to be mowed from the tall grass that had grown all around it.

After mowing the lawn, I had my little helper, Roarie pick branches and put them in our fire pit.  We were going to burn them but not all over beans that surrounded our house had been harvested yet.  So,  Roarie got ride in the wagon behind the lawn mower and then she ran around the house while I chased her with the lawnmower.

2 1/2 and 6 months

What a beautiful day it was.  The shade was cool, but the sun was warm.  Great Aunt Linda met us in Oskaloosa, IA to take our pictures.  Roarie is 2 1/2 and Keelie is 6 months.  Aunt Tami made us tutus when she came back home from Virgina.  The tutus were so cute we had to get the girls' picture taken in them.  These girls are so precious. I couldn't ask for a better couple of girls.

Keelie-6 Months Old

Keelie is 6 months old.  Her form of getting around is to do the log roll.  She love to get under the recliners.  We found out a her 6 month check-up that she has geographic tongue. Foods like apples, squash and carrots make her tongue break out.  It doesn't seem to bother her, it just looks painful.

At my 6 month appointment.  I was 75th percentile for my height, around the 50th for my weight and head size.

How we got into debt!!

      How in the world did we get here?  Between my husband and I, we are thousands of dollars in debt.  Through student loans, car loans, mortgage and credit card debt, we both feel like we are both swimming in a sea of debt just barely scraping by.  A few months ago, after talking to some co-workers, my husband and I decided to start on the Dave Ramsey Plan.
     We were young and dumb and did not value the dollar.  While in college, my husband, Ryne, and I took out the maximum student loans.  Looking back now, what a huge mistake!!  My husband got his college education for free and lived with his parents for the first two years of college.  He had no expenses besides gas.  I took out my maximum student loans because I was too proud to ask for money and I didn't want to get a job because I played softball in college and this was a priority for me.   I sent my money on fast food, even though I could have eaten in the cafeteria since I was paying for it anyway.  I bought items I did not need.  My family didn't have a lot growing up and I wanted to spoil myself.
     After college, Ryne and I both got teaching jobs in the same school.  Luck for us, that doesn't happen very often.  We had money coming out of our ears. But, we were not smart with our money.  We blew it on fancy electronics that we did not need.  We ate fast food a lot. 
     A few later, the school was making budget cuts.  My husbands position got cut and he got let go.  Though threw several applications and job interviews, there was no luck for finding a new job.  I still had my job and Ryne took a significatly decrease in pay as an associate at the school.  Come to find out, we were going to have a baby during this school year.  Which Ryne was my sub while I was on maternity leave.  This lead to a lot of credit card debt because we were not making as much as what we once were.
      A year later, Ryne got a new job.  Yay! Praise the Lord.  This would make for some big changes in our lives.  We were going the have to move.  We had to sell the house that we were living in and look for a new one 50 miles from where we were.
     Still not making as much money as with our house on the market it was very stressful. Ryne was driving 100 miles a day, I was working part time, and we were having to pay for updates in the house we currently owned. More money got put on the credit cards.
     We eventually sold our house and moved in to the school district where he taught.  We bought a 3,000 sq ft house that was a the maximum of our price range. I had to resign from my teaching position.  So then he was teaching. I wasn't. I substitute taught some but wasn't bringing in enough.
    I eventually got a job and Under Armour as a manager.  This was nice because I was bringing in a steady pay check.  The bad thing is that they give a 50% off discount to their employees.  In the long run, I think I paid to work there.
    The next school year, I got a teaching job and a neighboring school district.  FINALLY, steady pay with benefits.  This was huge!  So what did my husband do? We made another baby.  So just when we could have started paying things off,  we were paying doctor bills.
    Ugh!  Debt! Debt! Debt!  Medical bills, mortage, credit card bills, car payments!  Ugh!  My husband and I were close to 200,000 in debt including our house payment.  How are we ever going to get out?