RAMSEY to the rescue!

Yes, my love-hate relationship with Dave Ramsey is NO secret to the world. The man makes perfect sense…and makes me crazy at the same time. I guess I am quirky like that. If you haven’t read any of his books or googled him then I suggest you do that. He is pretty much a stickler…he doesn’t bend much. You do what he says, when he says it, and life will be grand…well, I just don’t see it that way. I take what he says and make it my own which probably why I am not living debt free just yet.

The first to being super cool like Dave Ramsey is to save up $1,000 in an emergency fund. Easier said than done… I have the attention span of a 4 year old. I get bored easy. I get excited about tackling something and then get over it PRETTY darn quick. SO… I knew this was a step I was going to have to do and FAST! Otherwise I would lose interest in the whole thing and give up and go shop with whatever money I had saved. My point is…this has to be done fast!!!

EVERYONE says “Its easy to save money if you actually HAVE money.” I said it too. Here’s the deal though…you DO have it. I began writing down every single dime I spent in a month. WOW, I must be rich b/c I SURE did spend a lot of money on random stuff. I gave that up for 3 months. I didn’t stop and get a coke, (unless of course I found change in the trunk of my car or in a seat cushion somewhere), didn’t rent a movie unless I had a free coupon code, didn’t get grab lunch anywhere, didn’t go “looking” at the mall (we ALL know how that ends up)… I basically didn’t do anything. Sounds rather boring right? NOPE! WRONG! I had some free coupon codes to rent movies off of Dish, I brought out my SATC collection and started over at Season 1. We went to the park, went shootin’ guns, cleaned and organized my house, blogged, cooked more meals at home…honestly I didn’t even miss those things I just KNEW I couldn’t give up. And in 3 months I have EXACTLY $1,000 in my savings account. Didn’t even take long. I went to Walmart with a LIST and bought ONLY those things. I had a yard sale and put the money in savings, paid my bills and didn’t keep any fun money out. But MY OH MY how it paid off.

$1000 isn’t a lot of money to most people….but to me it seemed like the IMPOSSIBLE task. And I have completed it…

But with every prize comes a punishment… I need a part for my car. Something about a “wheel bearing” or “Ball bearing”… I dunno. All I heard was “thats gonna run you $261.47.” Well, Dave Ramsey would say “Duh Cara. thats why you saved $1,000. Its for emergencies and this qualifies.” BUT… I asked the car fixer guy just how long before it HAD to be repaired. He told me I had a month or so on it. So… now that my money is saved in my emergency fund I am NOW saving for my car repair and I am only 1 paycheck away from having the money to pay CASH for this part that I need. I’m not excited to see that cash in my envelope stash and know that I will have NOTHING awesome to show for it. I’d MUCH rather finish Christmas shopping, or plan a weekend get away with Jere and Ava. Its funny because the DAY before I found out about my car needing repaired I had been looking up weekend prices in Eureka Springs. For 2 nights at a bed and breakfast in Eureka would have been $281. Grrr… talk about dissapointing. However, my emergency fund will not be used on that weekend get away.

Its life. Everythings expensive. I am always a day later and a dollar short…but I am trying. Thats all I can do.

So…moral of today’s lesson would be…??? Start saving. honestly, I am so pumped to see that money in my savings account. Like, I DID that. I worked hard, was patient and used restraint by not going to the mall. Now THATS a reason to smile.