My husband went away last month for work. He was gone 3 weeks and made a lot of overtime. We were so looking forward to using some of that extra money to spruce up our kitchen a bit. Turns out, life had other plans. Murphy’s Law. One of our vehicles has needed over $1,100 worth of work in the last few weeks- and it’ll need even more work before winter. The other vehicle (our van) needs an inspection and possibly some other work- praying not too much. At first, I was feeling really grumpy that all of our “extra money” was going toward un-fun things like car repairs. And then…duh.
Thank you Lord for that opportunity to make that extra money, which made these car repairs affordable to us rather than completely financially debilitating. That’s better.
I’ve talked to my husband several times over the years about financial programs such as the Jim Sammon’s Financial Freedom Seminar (mentioned several times by the Duggars- I love them, though I didn’t love the seminar and my husband couldn’t even stay awake for longer than minutes during it. True story.).
And also Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. We don’t have a ton of debt. A small amount, mostly student loans. But we could definitely use some help in the planning department. I tend to get really excited about things like budgeting, and then I get a little fatigued by it and fall off the wagon. My husband absolutely loathes being stressed out by money. So we follow a general budget, but definitely not as structured as we could be (and structure would definitely help us at times). So basically, he hasn’t been very interested in any “Dave Ramsey stuff” because his brain doesn’t operate well on what he feels is micromanaging.
However, these unexpected car expenses has definitely renewed in us a desire to be more intentional about our money. We budget very strictly on things like groceries, but honestly a lot of the other “stuff” in life (clothing, car repairs, house repairs, and ::eek:: retirement planning) is kind of abstract and wishy washy. So we started listening to the Dave Ramsey radio show this week, and I was so excited to see the wheels start churning in my husband’s head. He’s still not ready to pay the money to take the class, but I’m praying he’ll come around. There’s a class nearby that starts mid-September and I’d love for us to jump in. I told him to think of it as a date night, and that made it more “palatable” to him. lol!
Successes:
- We used our family membership to go to our favorite 19th century living museum for free.
- We used cloth diapers on the baby. (I used disposables while husband was gone to make my life a little more sane)
- I made a batch of laundry detergent.
- My mom cut my daughter’s hair. She used to be a hairdresser when I was young.
- I went to Wal-Mart and the Dollar Tree to get some school supplies that are currently on sale.
- I made an overnight oatmeal recipe that the kids enjoyed.
- We have only used the central air minimally to cool down bedrooms at nap and bedtime.
- We changed our cell phone plan to reduce our bill by $30/month. We are researching switching to another provider soon, which should save us another $20-$30.
- I am currently researching some ways to potentially generate a part time income (maybe from this blog?). I used to do transcription work, and I was able to make $400/week at times just working at night after the kids were in bed and during naptime. However, it’s a job that requires hours of quiet time in order to hear the files you’re trying to transcribe. That’s not really an option during this season of nursing and non-sleeping babies ;). If doing non-medical transcription from home is something that interests you, I suggest reading this book
. I’ve read it through to make sure it’s good information, and it does a good job of describing what you need to know in order to get your foot in the door. Transcription was a huge blessing to my family during some very difficult financial times.
How did you save money this week?
This is a list of some of the awesome sites that I occasionally link my posts at. They’re all great blogs about anything from parenting, simple living, cooking, homesteading (backyard and large scale), gardening, Christian life, frugal living, etc. Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth- The Art of Homemaking, Backyard Farming Connection, Growing Home- Growing Homemakers, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Hope in Every Season, Green Thumb Thursday, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Hop, Front Porch Friday, The Modest Mom Blog, Nourishing Joy, Home Grown and Healthy, Hump Day Happenings, Living Well Spending Less. Homemade Mondays.
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Sorry to hear about the car, but you clearly have the right attitude about it.
My husband and I have a lot of debt, and I read five of DR’s books when we started thinking about repaying it. I think his program works and I respect him for helping so many people, but I have to admit that I find him pretty off-putting. I don’t like his “my way or the highway” attitude, and his tone can be pretty condescending. But, yes, his program definitely works.
I have a similar challenge with my husband. He’s with me in general terms and would like to pay off our debt, but is in much less of a rush to do so, and resists the idea of living by a strict budget. Luckily I do most of the household spending, so I’m able to manage most of our expenses.
Amy,
I agree with you that Dave Ramsey can sometimes come off as condescending. What’s ironic to me, though, is that my hubby finds him funny. He finds the system a little suffocating I think (though he is coming around, especially when he heard that Financial Peace University helps in the area of retirement planning). But after listening to a couple of episodes of his radio show, he’s finding that he kind of jives with Dave’s personality more than he thought it would. It’s funny how different kinds of people react differently to those strong personality types.
My husband isn’t into budgeting and I try to keep expenditures within my budget. one thing I have found that helps me. envelopes…now I don’t regularly drops bills into these envelopes. When I use the debit card to pay for groceries I get $20 in cash. I find it helps for small purchases when they need to be made. Sometimes it doesn’t get spent! Once a week I take the highest bill in my wallet and put it in an envelope. A lot of times it’s that same 20. My envelopes are pet, truck, Christmas, entertainment and household. By doing this I have ‘extra’ funds to help cover life’s bumps in the road. We are retired, living on a fixed income and have Credit Card debt