The Writer Bee

Well, it’s been my first full month of listening to Dave Ramsey and of plan/budget implementation. So far everything’s been going really REALLY well…

My official plasectomy* took place on February 15, but I had stopped using them on January 27. My full-out budget started around the same time I made confetti out of my credit cards, and as I’ve indicated previously, right now my budget is a pretty fluid concept, but is becoming more solid with each passing paycheck. The first 2-3 weeks, I think I was tweaking it almost daily. It has now dropped to a weekly tweak. I’m hoping that in another month I’ll be down to only checking it out when I deposit funds!

I’m also trying to find as many ways to bring in extra cash as possible. This is proving to be more difficult than I would like… Dave’s answer would be to start delivering pizzas or bar-tending. I’m not against those things, but my job is such that I cannot always guarantee being available for that kind of work. Additionally, I can’t be on my feet too much right now thanks to my still-broken foot. I have started selling a bunch of stuff on Half.com which so far has yielded about $100. I’ve also applied to become a Secret Shopper, but haven’t heard back on that yet. Anyone else have extra-money suggestions??

I want to just take a moment to indicate just a few ways in which I feel my life has changed in just these few short weeks…

1. I’m relaxed. Not that I was particularly uptight before, but I can just feel myself relaxing on a deeper level than I feel I previously have. I’m not checking my bank account each day and breaking out in a sweat out for fear that something might be coming through throwing my entire account into a state of confusion and chaos.
2. I feel in control. This may sound like an odd thing to say because one might think that, since I’m single, I’ve therefore always had control…and I think that before now, I would have agreed with you. However now I can see how much I was NOT in control. It’s like the quote that I heard Dave give during one of the FPU sessions - “Either you will learn to manage money, or the lack of it will always manage you.” Prior to January 27th, I would definitely say it was latter.
3. I have hope. Again, it’s not like I felt hopeless before or that there wasn’t a light at the end of my proverbial tunnel, but I definitely didn’t see such a bright light! Nor do I think I realized what might be sitting at the end of the tunnel quite like I think I do now.

I’ve actually gotten to a point right now where I feel I’m no longer questioning some of Dave’s positions as I initially did. I’ve been listening to him so much and heard him explain his position so many times over these past few weeks, the “why’s” of what he teaches are becoming clearer to me. In some ways I feel like George in that episode of Seinfeld where he decides that nothing in his life has worked out for him so going forward he decides that he’s going to just “do the opposite” of whatever his natural instinct tells him to do. If he normally would say no, then he says yes. If he normally wouldn’t ask a woman out, he does it anyway. If he normally gets tuna, he’ll order chicken. I’ve not been so stupid that I haven’t done ANYTHING right in the past, but I did get to the point where I felt that clearly my way of managing my finances has not led me to the place I want to be and so departing from my standard behavior might be just the thing to course correct.

So there you have it… My first month up. Not missing my credit cards one bit and am actually enjoying telling myself “no” to things I want to do but don’t have the cash for.

This is getting fun…

*Plasectomy - a permanent removal of credit cards (or plastic) from the wallet and life of an individual.

I’ve decided that losing weight is not going to be my only New Year’s Resolution. Getting control over the debt monster and being better about my cash flow management is also on the docket.

The announcement of our bonus’ (scheduled to be paid out this coming week) and the fact that I’m getting a lot back in my tax refund prompted me to begin a frontal assault. If I was going to get all this money, I wanted to make sure I used it wisely.

I’ve done a couple of things so far to get myself on the right path. First, I contacted Crown Financial Ministries and chatted with one of their “Money Map” Coaches. He helped me figure out a budget plan which included how I was going to apply the funds I’d have coming in over the next few weeks.

Next, I opened up an account (which begins with a 30-day free trial) with Mvelopes. Mvelopes is a money-management software (similar to MS Money or Quicken), but its primary function is to assist with budgeting and cash flow management. It operates off of the old-school envelope budgeting system but with the use of virtual “envelopes” which you fund with the money that is deposited in your account(s). Mvelopes downloads all your account transactions and deposits automatically, and then you fund your envelopes with the deposits, and as transactions are also assigned to each envelope, you can see how much you have left to spend in that area. So far, so good. The learning curve is pretty steep for the tool, but I’m starting to really get the hang of it now, so I think it’ll be something I stick with as opposed to MS Money which is what I’ve always used in the past. The problem with Money is that it doesn’t really work well as a budgeting tool… It has a budget feature, but tends to only tell me once I’ve gone OVER a given budgeted amount unless I think to go in and check the budget every day. Mvelopes can also be accessed from anywhere - including via a cell phone, so that’s an additional plus.

The other thing I’m doing is starting Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course. I’m doing it online (although eventually I’d like to have the full course materials, etc. - it just wasn’t in my new budget right now :)). I’ve completed Week 1 of the 13 week course. They actually have classes that you can attend which I would have preferred, but unfortunately the closest ones to me are over 35 miles away so I don’t think I can really swing that. Maybe I can talk my church into doing it…?

I really appreciate Dave’s approach to budgeting and finance. I’m not sure if I agree with everything that he says (everyone is different), but as I said, I’m only in Week 1 so my opinion might change as the course progresses. I think it will also be interesting to hear him discuss investing and finance (since this is my industry). I’ve also been listening to Dave’s radio program which you can stream live over the Internet on weekdays from 2-5pm ET. Apparently he also has a show on Fox Business Network which I haven’t seen yet, but intend to check it out.

Just to give you an idea, you can watch this little video Dave did on how to drive “free” for life:

http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/lms/drive_free

Very interesting concept, to say the least…although also made me kinda think, “Well, yeah…of course. That makes sense - why hadn’t I ever thought of this?”

Anyhow, with the plan I have in place - assuming (with God’s grace) I have the discipline to follow it, I should be debt-free (except for my house and my car) by the end of this year. By the end of next year, I will have also paid off my car (2-years early, I might add!) My aunt has agreed to help me out and I will be handing over all of my credit cards to her next time I see her. She has been instructed to not give them back to me until I can show her that I am, indeed, debt-free.

Kim came to visit me yesterday from NYC and we were discussing this a bit. She is also on a shoestring budget right now and said that it’s almost fun. “It’s like a game…a challenge,” she said. I couldn’t agree more. I’m kind of excited by the prospect of having to figure out how to live frugally again for awhile…especially considering the payoff!

GAME ON!