The Debt Free Post

I tell you the following story not to brag or to make you feel bad, but only to inspire. We have needed inspiration many times along the way and I pray that you find the same for your family. If we can be that inspiration you need, then it’s worth putting our story out there.

As of 9:00 this morning, our family became DEBT FREE!!!!!! We have officially closed the door on Baby Step 2, where all debts except for the mortgage are paid in full.

I made a promise to my readers that I would disclose our amount of our original debt once we became debt free. The debt we were facing in the summer of 2007 was almost $80,000. The debt was spread out so it didn’t seem that bad, until we added it all up. Here was our breakdown:

My car $12,000
Husband’s truck $9,000
Mower $3,000
Saxophone $1,500
Line of Credit Loan $44,000
Misc credit/store cards $10,000

A man named Dave walked into our lives and scared the heck out of us. He told us we were a normal American family, but normal families are broke. We had a good income and plenty of savings in the bank, but when you compared our income to the amount of money we were spending each month, we were broke. The more money we made, the more we spent. Does this sound like your family?

How we did it
Once the sense was knocked into us, we started selling stuff. Our brand new, shiny red zero-turn 2-month-old lawn mower was loaded up and hauled back to the dealer. The new saxophone we were making payments on for our son was returned to the store and we found a better quality used one on Craiglist. Those are some examples of the big things. Many, many little things were sold.

We wrote down our debts from smallest to largest. We paid them off one at a time and were finally able to start tackling the line of credit loan in February 2008. This one was going to be hard due to the large amount, so we dove into it with fierce intensity. We avoided restaurants, shopping, some entertainment, and cut back our spending tremendously. Every single extra penny went toward this debt. I was at the bank every Saturday morning having them count change I had come across that week and putting it directly toward principal. Since February 2008, we have made 121 payments toward our HELOC. Most of those were principal only payments. The smallest principal payment was a measly $4.00!

I’m going to be honest – it was difficult. There were arguments between my and my husband. There were times when we wanted to give up. Many shopping trips and nights out on the town were cancelled. The kids would yell, “I hate Dave Ramsey!” as they were told that our family doesn’t do this or that. Many relatives and friends made fun of us. We were told quite often, “You still have to have fun in life!” But who will be having fun now?

After today, we get to keep our paychecks. I can’t even imagine what that will feel like. Our lives have been changed, but most importantly the lives of our boys have been changed. They have been active participants in this project and are very aware of how loans and credit cards work (or I should say, don’t work). We will never borrow money again.

If our story inspires you and you want advice for getting on the right track, please contact us. We really do feel called to be of service to others in regards to family finances and are getting prepared to teach Financial Peace University in our community. We want other families to feel exactly the same way we do today.

More about our story can be found here.

"FUN" Run

I've been catching a lot of crap about never posting here. So I'm back. Hi there.

For those of you who know me in person, you may not believe this post. See, I'm running. Running, as in fast walking. Me, who is not athletic. Running.

I'm gearing up for the "fun" run in my local town celebration. I use quotes on that because I doubt it's actually fun. And while we're talking about quotation marks, you have to go check this out.

But back to running. I don't know a thing about running so I've had to do a little research. I downloaded the Couch-to-5K plan. I bought expensive shoes. I bought a treadmill. 

And now I run. I'm kind of liking it...

Smile & Move

Courtesy of Zig Ziglar

March 21 - One Year

We can shed tears that they have gone, or we can smile that they have lived.

We can close our eyes and pray that they will come back, or we can open our eyes and see all the good they have left us.

Our hearts can be empty because we cannot see them, or our hearts can be full with the love that we've shared.

We can turn our backs on tomorrow and live yesterday, or we can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

We can remember them and only that they have gone, or we can cherish their memory and let it live on.

We can cry and close our minds, be empty and turn our backs, or we can do what they would have wanted: smile, open our eyes, love and go on.

Love you and miss you - H

Cancer Sucks

I was in the middle of writing a funny post, but then was hit with some sad news. Mark Cosens put up a good fight, but cancer has a mind of its own.

We know Mark from his high school days in Jefferson. Most recently he blessed the Madrid School District with his presence as an administrator until his illness forced his resignation.

The world lost Mark this afternoon. May God bless his wife, sons, parents and rest of the family.

Cancer sucks.

Mark's Story

Swimming Naked

http://trendydollar.com/archives/swimming-naked

It's About To Get Ugly

I find it interesting that I still have a lot of people visiting this blog, but they rarely venture over to Trendy Dollar - which is where I spend most of my blogging time these days.

I know personal finance can be boring, but really you only have two options regarding your money: to not pay attention to it and be broke and in debt OR pay attention to every penny and live a happy, successful and peaceful life!

My current article on Trendy Dollar is introducing readers to a personal development dude who is most definitely not boring. Larry Winget. Come on over and meet him. Even if you don't think you need his advice, you'll at least get a kick out of him.

Back to Life As Normal

I'm back in Iowa and have recovered from my Diet Mountain Dew withdrawal. Did you know that they DO NOT sell Diet Dew in Houston? You can buy it by the case but if you want to just run into a gas station and get one, you are out of luck. I don't get it. I did drink my share of Dr. Pepper while in Texas just to try to fit in. I happen to like it but it doesn't have the same amount of caffeine!

On to a totally different topic...

Yelled by Green tonight during a heated game of Scrabble, "Mom you are going DOWN! I have SIBERIA!"

Making the Rounds in Texas

I'm in Texas this week and having a great time!

Today I spent the day in Lubbock visiting co-workers. I had a great day meeting everyone face to face rather than over email or messaging. Red Raiders are pretty nice people, even to a Cyclone.

Tonight I flew to Houston and got to have a VERY late dinner with my grandparents. Tomorrow will be spent with family all day. Should be a great day! Saturday morning we're back to Iowa.

Anytime you leave your home area, you pick up on the funny things about other parts of America. If there are any Texans out there, tell me if these are right or wrong:

• It's not "pop" down here. It's "cokes". Except coke doesn't necessarily mean Coke. It usually means Dr. Pepper. Seriously, everywhere I look there's Dr. Pepper.
• The street lights hang sideways. Iowa hangs them the long way - Texas hangs them on their side.
• Pool Boy is along with me and spent time at the mall today. He could not believe how much jewelry was for sale! Apparently Texans like their jewelry.
  

Speaking of jewelry, I got a gift on my trip! A co-worker gave me two pairs of earrings and a necklace. I love all of it and will wear some of it tomorrow.

Green Comment

"Mom, can you hot glue my blankets to the wall? I CAN NOT keep them on my bed at night!"

Green


I'm headed to Texas later this week for a part business/part personal trip. I've been cold since October so it will be nice to be someplace warm for a few days! More on that trip later...

Hanging with The Boys

Last night I had the opportunity to spend the evening with the boys at the Iowa State Women's basketball game. Three was a ball shagger for the game and Green and I sat in the front row. We had a great time and I proved that mom could hang with the boys at a sporting event.

But I think there were a few times where Green was thinking to himself, "Why isn't Dad here?".

Incident Number 1:

Me: Wow, that team is really doing a good job with their guarding!

Green: You mean D? They have good D, mom.

Me: Yeah. D.

Incident Number 2:

Me: I really like to look at all the different kinds of shoes the players have.

Green: Seriously mom? I like to look at the kind of plays they have. Who cares about their shoes?

Here is What It's Like

It's hard to explain what grief is like, especially when you are a few months or years out from the initial blow of it. This morning while reading the newspaper, I found it. THIS is what grief is. 

"At some point it becomes something bearable. It turns into something you can crawl out from under. And carry around - like a brick in your pocket. And you forget it every once in awhile, but then you reach in for whatever reason and there it is: 'Oh, right. That.' "

Free Book

In case you haven't visited lately, I'm giving away a free book over at TrendyDollar.com. If you want to go directly to the giveaway, here's the link. It ends tomorrow night so make sure you get your name in. This time there is quite a bit more competition, though.

In unrelated news, I cheated today.

I cheated on my health kick by eating a huge sugar cookie and drinking a large cup of heavy Mt. Dew. I'm going to feel icky soon because I haven't eaten like that for a long time.

I also cheated on my frugal kick because I spent $3.50 on the crap mentioned above. That also makes me feel icky.

I can't remember the last time I typed the word icky, and today I've had to use it twice.

First Day of School

Today was Payton's first day of doggie school. Her and mom are going to learn how to deal with each other, I'm guessing. Looks like she's all ready to go!

School was Cruel

A co-worker and I were discussing elementary school "back in the day" today. Looking back, I cannot believe how cruel school was.

For reading, the class was divided into groups like group A, group B and group C. Group A was the good readers, group B was the average readers, and Heaven help you if you were in Group C.

Same for spelling. The teacher read off two different lists. "Group 1, your word is presidential. Group 2, your word is dog." And if there was really a struggler in your class, there was the dreaded Group 3.

Seriously??

A Message

I promise I won't link you over to Trendy Dollar all the time, but this one is important! I friend of mine has a message he asked me to pass along to everyone at Green3 and Trendy Dollar. It's a very important one too. Please go read.

Presenting...Trendy Dollar!

It's done! Or at least done enough to share with everyone now. After many late nights and long weekend days, I am happy to say that Trendy Dollar is up and running! I hope you'll join me over there for a lot of information relating to personal finance. I expect Trendy Dollar to evolve over time in what people want to know and what resources they are looking for. I really want to help normal people like me figure out how money works and this was one way I could do that.

This blog will turn back into more of a personal blog. (and I know some of you will welcome that!) The new website will not link back to here so only my original readers are aware of both.

Have a great week and thanks for hanging out here at Green 3.

Being a Newbie Makes My Head Hurt

I know you've all been sad that I haven't been posting. I usually write my posts late at night after Three and Green have gone to bed but lately I've been spending those hours on a new and exciting project. I won't tell the full story yet, but I can tell you that it involves a lot of HTML, CSS and PHP. Here's the bad news: I have never seen PHP before.

I also don't know WordPress, which is the platform I'm using. After what I've gone through the past week, let me give you a little piece of advice. If you want to start a blog but don't know anything about web design, stick with Blogger where everything is done for you. I happen to know a little something about web design and it's going to take me a few weeks to get my project ready for release. Durn.

Project

Happy 2009!

My postings may be slim around here over the next few days because I'm busy working on a project that is somewhat related to this blog. After the kiddos go to bed at night, I'm plowing my way through the project so I can be back in full force as soon as possible. 

Have a great week!

Major Causes of Personal Failure

**This is a re-post of my 9/22/08 entry.

I'm still reading Napoleon Hill's Keys to Success. I ran across this list yesterday in the book and think it's worth sharing with you. Below are some of his "Major Causes of Personal Failure." As you are reading this list, make note of which things are holding you back -- and make a plan to do something about them!

1. The habit of drifting through life without a definite major purpose
2. Meddlesome curiousity about other people's affairs
3. Inadequate education - **Personally I don't take this to mean that you need a college degree in order to be successful. I just think you need to be always learning, reading, studying up on whatever topic needs to be studied to make yourself successful.
4. Lack of self-discipline
5. Lack of ambition
6. Lack of persistence and follow-through
7. Negative mental attitude
8. Lack of emotional control
9. The desire to get something for nothing
10. Failure to reach decisions promptly and firmly when all the facts needed for the decision are available
11. Overcaution or the lack of caution - **I think being overly cautious can paralyze you. You'll never make a decision and therefore be stuck in your situation forever.
12. Indiscriminate spending of time and money
13. Intolerance
14. Failure to cooperate with others in a spirit of harmony
15. Lack of vision or imagination
16. Egotism and vanity
17. Desire for revenge
18. Unwillingness to go the extra mile

This wasn't his entire list - just the ones I wanted to point out. I hope you read that list carefully. Read it again if needed. Any changes you should be making?