This is how we do it. Phase II.

My intent in writing how we do things is not to teach you the Dave Ramsey way of life. Just give you a glimpse into his method. I, of course, hope to inspire and excite you into pursuing a debt free life but in no way want anyone to think that my way is "THE way."

My favorite and life changing thing that I learned during FPU (Financial Peace University) is the "zero based budget." I have been balancing the checkbook forever and when I started doing this I thought to myself.....why on earth have I NOT been doing this. I felt sort of stupid. Naive. Irritated at all the money that slipped through the cracks on things that, well, I don't know what. Junk.

Getting started was a daunting task. To tell you the truth I sort of went on a spending spree right before we went to FPU. That's the thing to do. Let's get even more into debt so that we can make it even harder on ourselves right from the start! It's kind of like going on a diet. You say your going to go on a diet on Monday so what do you do? You eat buffet style the weekend prior b/c you know what is to come. Restriction.

That is the most overused term in regards to a budget. It is not restrictive if done properly. It is freedom.

We wrote down what categories (which would soon become either envelopes or savings accounts) that needed to be filled each month. Here's the kicker. Even if there was no money to put in it we still wrote it down. Your brain will not like this at all. It is necessary though. You have to train your brain to think on those things that you don't have money for yet. That way, when you get a raise you will get SO excited b/c you can begin to properly fill that category that has been left unfunded for so long.

After we figured out our categories and set up our budget this is what we do.....we get paid....we pay each bill, fill each envelope or savings account, anything that's left over (that means ANY AND EVERYTHING) has to be assigned to something. In our case it's debt. All of our left overs gets paid to our debt on the day we get paid. Does that mean that your checking account will be zero? Yes. And that did freak me out at first. The good thing is I have my emergency fund in place and that will spill over to cover anything that might come up that we weren't expecting. It is a weird concept but you know what? If it ain't there and you both know it isn't, then it's not going to get spent on all the stupid crap that we spend our overflow on every month.

My second favorite part of Dave's method is the "blow money" category. Levi and I have decided on an amount that we each get every month for ourselves and we get to spend it however we want....no questions asked. Period. It's not an excessive amount but it's jut enough to where we feel freedom and not restriction from our budget. This is one of the most important things to make your budget work and your spouse happy. There is always a "free spirit" and they need this. Bad. Or there will be resistance all the way down the road.

I am a little anxious in thinking about the next month and half. And, by the way, we have only eaten out as a family at Chili's once and Taco Bueno once in two months. So, that's about $30 total on restaurants. I'm pretty proud of that. The girls and I had a play group at Chicken Red's and split a $7 plate and that came out of my blow money so that doesn't count.

I feel like I'm looking in to a big black cast iron pot and it's whirling around. Steaming. Bubbling. I look into it not knowing what all is going into it. Not knowing what the end product will be. Will it be that we don't reach our goal and have to use our story as one of endurance and not giving up even when things don't go our way? Will it be that God is pouring tiny miracles into the pot in order to make one big, massive, explosive miracle right at the very end? I hope so.

Alice in Wonderland. That's what I'm thinking of right now. Open doors. Some big. Some little. But open none the less. I prayed for open doors. Another one opened this week. I probably have a part time job starting in a week at Mia's school. I wouldn't make loads of money but it's an open door. What other door will God open? Is it right for me to just sit here and expect him to keep opening doors. Yes. I am not asking God to send me a check. I am pleading with him to give us the means to pay all of our debt off by November 30th.

Levi is working so hard I can't even begin to explain. Some think it's too much. To them I say, we know what's best for our family and are prayerfully seeking God's direction. God has blessed us beyond what we could have ever fathomed and to me, that's confirmation that we are doing the right thing. HIS confirmation is the only one we need. I don't need anyone else to approve of what we are doing as long as HE approves.

You know what makes me most happy about this post? I didn't have a typing war with the spell checker on how to spell anything. That is the true miracle here folks. It really is.

Updates and More.

I don't even know where to start on this post. So much to say. So many feelings.

By the looks of it we will not be out of debt on November 30th based on what WE can do.

We have hit a few road blocks again but that's just life.

It doesn't affect me like it use to.

It's just life. Things happen. Go on.

We had to pay two debts we forgot about. A loan from CMA due to pay schedule changes from a while back and a recurring balance on his business-only credit card. We don't know why there was a recurring balance b/c he expenses everything he should and all expense checks go directly toward that card. Who knows? Bottom line is we want to be 100% out of debt so those things had to be paid.

Despite our setbacks we praise God that for 1 year and 4 months we have been able to pay for everything that came our way out of our wee little starter emergency fund. We haven't used a credit card since May '06 except for business expenses which get paid back to us.

This includes car mishaps, Dr. visits, medicine, this, that, life, A CAR....etc.

Praise God for that.

On top of all the life stuff that came up we STILL have thus far paid off about 25k in debt.

This is really big considering we have ONE income and TWO children.

God obviously is showing himself to us through this process.

We have always tithed. Fortunately I was raised by parents who taught me this important principal so it comes easily for me.

Levi is right there with me on this one. We know that if we had not been tithing all this time that we would NOT have made such amazing progress.

I've been praying for God to open doors for us so that we can meet the goal that I know he set for us.

Funny enough, a contest came up at CMA where the winner could potentially win $1,000! This would obviously help us out. And the best part of it is, if Levi wins, he will be physically fit and in better shape than he's been since we got married. Heck, even if he doesn't win he will STILL be in better shape than he's been since we got married and that will be a big burden lifted off of him...literally!

Will he win? I don't know. There are lots of people that could use the money, not just us, and lots of people that are working very hard to win. My point is that God can open doors but they might not have an "easy button" behind them.

Another door opened would be a babysitting job for me. We decided that Mia really needed to go to pre-school and I considered getting a part-time job to pay for her enrollment but God didn't want me to have a job. He did however provide me with two weeks this summer of babysitting that paid for 1 month of tuition and 3 weeks of babysitting this month to pay for another month and a half of tuition.

God will take care of us. God will take care of you. His plan is bigger and better. Just sit back and obey.

There have been times where we got so off track I dreaded getting back on. It's so easy to quit when you get "off track" with anything. Working out, getting out of debt, eating right....it's the same concept. Getting off track is one of the biggest saboteurs of all of these things. I have not had that problem. Even if we get WAY off track I tell myself just to get back on and it will all get better. And it does. What's funny is everyone's definition for "off-track" is different. For me, it's like two days of not doing what I should be whatever that may be. For Levi I'd say it's more like two weeks b/c he's just more easy going than me. Either way, I don't listen to myself anymore. I just start again. Start over. Start over again.

That's just how we've done it. We haven't given up no matter what our mind, emotions, hearts, or people tell us. We keep going. Trudging forward even when there may not be light at the end of the tunnel.

Who knows, there may be no light at the end of the tunnel b/c that's where God put my house that I want SO BADLY.