NEW US

Ronny and I've been reading and listening to Dave Ramsey. We'd heard of him before, or at least I had, but didn't really get into it until recently.

Can I just say that our lives have changed since listening to him ?! CHANGED.

I'm all about penny pinching and saving, while Ronny has always been the spender.

When we got married though, I slowly learned to spend. Not crazy, but spend enough.

Still, I tried to keep the budget up by myself, while Ronny "supported me". I tried and tried to keep up the budget by myself, but to no avail.

YOU CAN'T BUDGET FOR THE "FAMILY" AND STICK TO A "FAMILY BUDGET" BY YOURSELF! duh.

So, 5 years into our marriage, we have very little saved, and some debt on our credit cards.

I HATE CREDIT CARDS...

but,

over the 5 years of being married, we got into the habit of saying

"okay, that's it! No more credit cards! we'll just buy this, then pay it off and that's it!"

come December each year, there was always some debt on our card.

"okay, let's try again. let's pay it off and never use it again!"

January always started good and we were off to a good start saving, but then by the time March or April hit, we found ourselves using the credit card again for "emergencies."

Overwhelmed and tired of this vicious cycle, I finally decided to pick up Dave Ramsey's books a couple of months ago.

I read a few pages, and was immediately sucked into it.

I booked marked (sticky noted) the pages I wanted Ronny to look through, and to my surprise, he did.

"I read the pages you wanted me to read and all I gotta say is; count me in."

is the text message I got from him a few days after I gave him the book.

Since then, we've borrowed Dave Ramsey's "financial peace" (something like that) audio CDs and have been listening to it in the car when we go places together, AND we have since been BUDGETING TOGETHER bi-weekly.

The changes have been NIGHT AND DAY. I still can't even believe it.

What's even more amazing (okay, budgeting together is HUGE), is that Ronny has become my number one supporter in helping me not spend, and he in turn, has really changed his spending habits.

I'll write more about this later, but these are a few things that's changed in our home since Dave Ramsey.

1. we budget together as all couples should

2. Ronny doesn't even like to spend on him eating out at work anymore (major!)

3. We use the cash system

4. we consult each other before spending--in most cases, as crazy as this may sound, even for "$10" purchases (really guys, it's not bad--)

5. we have been sticking to our budget SO WELL.

6. we always have LEFT OVER--in three digit numbers at the end of a pay period

7. we will pay off both our credit cards this month and have already cut up all credit cards--

AND WE'LL KEEP IT OFF THIS TIME TOO! ;)

8. our spending mentality has changed SO SO MUCH, that WE have lost desire to buy things at full price

9. we've realized that the less we spend, the less we see something is a "necessity", while before, everything seemed like a "necessity" and we wanted everything and anything. We loved spending and buying!

10. we're talking about investing and have begun to research mutual funds, retirement funds, roth IRAs, etc etc.

Oh my goodness, I can't even tell you how happy I am.

We have our emergency fund in place, will have our credit cards paid off, and we will soon begin to invest.

I'm confident that as we grow together and become financially wiser, we will be able to offer them one of the greatest gift of all to our children- financial peace!

I'm so happy!