Dave Ramsey support thread - March 2011

[couponfan]

I LOVE me some Dave Ramsey!! We still do DR after being debt free except for the house. We have our 3-6 months emergency fund done. The plan is great but it is not always fun. Good Luck to everyone!! Remember you live like no one else now to live like no one else later.

Also Dave Ramsey's book Financial Peace is a great book to start with, It has all the baby steps listed out in the order for a beginner. I will gladly answer anybody's questions along your journey to debt free living.

[actvmom]

With farming, the winter and spring are slow months and obviously summer and fall are extremely busy. I'm practically a single parent for half of the year. I guess I'm going to have to use the route of calculating our expenses and then determine how much DH has to make for the month. He is able to work as much overtime as he wants to and he has also taken on some side jobs for neighbors (he used to be a John Deere mechanic). I have a steady income (salary) and a very secure job. I have great health insurance and retirement plan (it's not optional, if you work for them you have to contribute to your retirement account, 5.5% of my salary and they contribute 8.5% of my salary). I've thought about taking on a second job but I'd miss my kids growing up and with DH's varied work schedule, it's just not feasible. Anyway, I'm still working on creating our budget and cashflow. It's a lot of work and it's sad that I can't just fill in the figures. I guess I am officially pulling my head out of the sand. Do you recommend buying Dave Ramsey's book and which one? Or would you recommend buying Suze Orman's book and which one? Thanks for all of the encouragement.

Nope, not sad at all that you don't know how much ya'll make or how much the bills are. I had no clue either (and I'm a bookeeper, I just don't do my own books) as to how much we made, it was a complete surprise every year on our taxes. Now, we can tell you exactly what we spend our money on and why.

I recommend the Total Money Makeover book. It has a workbook that goes along with it too.

[actvmom]

I was wondering which book to buy if there is one that would be a great jumping point....and then I am hoping that my Borders that is going out of business has it still in stock. LOL

We got the book Total Money Makeover along with the workbook.

Listening to him on the radio really helps too!

[KmmCo]

I would say, take every extra penny and put to the emergency fund until you get the $1,000 back. You never know when "murphy" will show his ugly face again. Then worry about the credit cards. But cutting them up right now is a great way to start getting rid of them (that was hard for us to do, it was a crutch for us until we finally did it and it feels so good now).

I cancelled most of my cards a couple of years ago. But I have to keep one credit card for travel/car rentals (this is due to the nature of my work). I have become very diciplined over the last couple of years about not using it for anything else and paying cash or debit card for everything. Even the car rentals- I have them switch it to the debit card for the payment when I turn the car in - so I don't add to my credit car bills any. By just not charging anything, I do see my card balances going down a bit each month with the minimum payments - but I really need to find the extra in my budget to get the payments accellerated.

The overtime I do work all goes to pay cash for vacations so I should probably find another way to make some money as well. I used to ebay a lot, but the fees got so high that I gave that up a while back when it stopped paying off.

Yep. you are right about "murphy" though and that is why I am concerned about getting that fund built back up. Looks like I might have about $50 bucks left over from this last paycheck, but it seems like such a slow process to rebuilt that fund. I am trying not to get discouraged though and stick with the process!

I am doing really well though now with the household expenses thanks to the coupon trading. I can trim a lot out in my budget and have noticed a difference this month in my shopping so far. I used coupons before joining here, but now I have a way to actually stock up on sales with many multiples that I did not have before. (I am not beyond dumpster diving for coupons, but in the winter it is not practical here some weeks - so thanks to all of you that do!! )

[foggierbard9]

We got the book Total Money Makeover along with the workbook.

Listening to him on the radio really helps too!

Our Borders is going out of business so I got this one for 40% off yesterday. I wish they would have had the workbook too, but I guess I can't be picky when the store has been pretty picked over.

I started reading last night, and really like that it is enjoyable to read and not dry/boring. Don't get me wrong I like boring books(history buff, big time), but for something like this, I could never make it through a boring book.

[actvmom]

Kmm - sounds like you are doing everything right! Just keep it up and don't get discouraged!!!!

foggie - YAY for the book find!!!!! This deal may be a litte too late for you, but normally Dave puts his books on sale around holiday's. You will probably be finished with the book by Easter or Memorial Day, but I thought about if you still wanted the workbook at that point.....

[couponfan]

I cancelled most of my cards a couple of years ago. But I have to keep one credit card for travel/car rentals (this is due to the nature of my work). I have become very diciplined over the last couple of years about not using it for anything else and paying cash or debit card for everything. Even the car rentals- I have them switch it to the debit card for the payment when I turn the car in - so I don't add to my credit car bills any. By just not charging anything, I do see my card balances going down a bit each month with the minimum payments - but I really need to find the extra in my budget to get the payments accellerated.

The overtime I do work all goes to pay cash for vacations so I should probably find another way to make some money as well. I used to ebay a lot, but the fees got so high that I gave that up a while back when it stopped paying off.

Yep. you are right about "murphy" though and that is why I am concerned about getting that fund built back up. Looks like I might have about $50 bucks left over from this last paycheck, but it seems like such a slow process to rebuilt that fund. I am trying not to get discouraged though and stick with the process!

I am doing really well though now with the household expenses thanks to the coupon trading. I can trim a lot out in my budget and have noticed a difference this month in my shopping so far. I used coupons before joining here, but now I have a way to actually stock up on sales with many multiples that I did not have before. (I am not beyond dumpster diving for coupons, but in the winter it is not practical here some weeks - so thanks to all of you that do!! )

You are doing great so far. When we started the plan, we had a REALLY BIG yard sale. And we used that money to finish out our emergency fund. It is an idea for you.

We were just like actvmom, we had no idea where all our money was going. Now I like knowing where every penny goes and when Murphy shows up it is not an end of the world situation becuase of the emergency fund.

[cody82414]

so my DIL informs me that they will be paying us back
to the tune of $400.00 each month until caught up.

My feeling is to just put this all towards the deisel
which is our only debt
aside from the house.

Whatdya think?

BTW,
the deisel is not on the pay off in less than 24 months plan
UNLESS DH sells his current vehicle and uses that money toward the loan
which is the plan
but you know things sometimes don't work out in the time frame that you hope them to

[Kim1013]

I finally finished the first worksheet on the monthly expenses. Wow, the money goes fast. I plan on buying Dave's book in a couple of weeks so I'm hoping to get some ideas on where to cut some of our expenses. We no longer have a land line or internet at our house but I can't get rid of my cell phone b/c daycare has to have access to me and we live out in deer infested country so I'd hate to not have a phone in an emergency. I have the most basic package and phone (I don't text and my phone doesn't even take pictures, oh the shock. lol). We have a wood burning stove so we hardly use any propane during the winter and we cut all of our wood. I figured that the wood burning stove had already paid for itself after two winters so that wasn't a bad investment. I was showing DH the worksheet and said that to pay all of the bills you got to bring home X amount of money per paycheck. I don't what his deal is but he gets real defensive when it comes to money talk. I don't know if he thinks that he's not a good provider b/c he is and I have and never would say something like that. I think guys get pretty sensitive about money. Anyway, I'm hoping to get him on board, maybe we'll read Dave's book together. I take care of all of the bills (thank goodness b/c he only has one bill to take care of for the month and it's always late) so I need to get him more involved. I'm just ready to not have the stress of are we going to have enough money to cover the bills. Thanks for all of the encouragement and advice. I'm looking forward to starting our debt free journey soon.

[saving-n-va]

I've been reading DR's "More than enough" book. Interesting read.

Some of you know this already if are on the stockpile thread...but we got a check "out of the blue" today from a credit card company that made a miscalculation and they sent us a check for $500! It has to do with the Servicemen and Sailor's Relief Act.

Amen! If I could do a cartwheel I would! We are 2 days from dh's orders being over, and no job offer yet. So that was a wonderful encouragement.

I bought 9 lbs of rice and 5 lbs of beans over the last few days. And I'm going to go buy more tomorrow...Dave would be proud.