We just paid off around $17,000 in 10 months. Here is our story.
A long time ago our cousins Joe and Christi told us about a man on the radio named Dave Ramsey. Never heard of him. They were taking a class his company offered called "Financial Peace University". They gave us the general gist of the class and the philosophy to live debt free. We thought it sounded nice and we realized that we mostly lived by his rules but some of them sounded far fetched.
Dave Ramsey is a man who at a young age had it all, and then lost it all. He was a real estate investor and ended up going broke. He had a young family, and he and his wife decided to work their way out of debt and to STAY THAT WAY.
Long story short, he ended up writing a book about it and he has a nationally syndicated radio show called (what else?) THE DAVE RAMSEY SHOW. He created a get out of debt program that is offered around the country called Financial Peace University.
Joe and Christi even gave us their class materials so we could try to work it through on our own. Again we thought we could do it, but we never made it our priority. Enter our good friends Susan and Mike. Susan and Mike decided it was time that they do this. They encouraged us to join them at their church and take the class with them this past January. It would be 13 straight weeks of Friday nights. Yay. But we did it anyway... and for us it ended being 16 weeks between Holidays and other commitments. But we kept at it, and never missed a class.
It was hard to sit in that classroom and hear what we believed was pretty straight forward. Most of the time, we just nodded as we watched the videos. We knew this stuff. We just didn't practice it. But that was the sweet part of being in a class, we started to practice it. We went home, we did our homework. We looked at our expenses and had a massive wake up call as to where we were throwing our money away each week. For the first time ever we planned where our money should go, and agreed ahead of time how much we would spend on EVERYTHING. Every category had an allotment. And if that allotment wasn't enough, well, we just had to learn to go without. And if we had to go without essentials, we refined the allotment with the next budget. It is an ongoing learning experience.
FPU has seven 'baby steps':
1. $1000 in an emergency fund.
2. Pay off all debt (except the house) with the debt snowball.
3. 3-6 months of expenses in savings
4. Invest 15% of income for retirement
5. College funding
6. Pay off your home early
7. Build wealth and give!
You work through the baby steps one by one. We just finished baby step number 2. This means we are now debt free! We don't owe anything to any creditors other than our mortgage.
I bring all this up, because this has been a year of major change for us. We have changed how we do things and how we look at life. It is freeing to no longer have to worry if I have money in the bank to spend on these clothes, groceries, home goods, you name it. I have cash in hand and I figure out what I truly need and I do not get caught up in what I think I deserve.
This year has changed us in more ways than in the wallet. We've changed how we have used our time, and we have changed our bodies. I tie these two ideas together in one sentence as I think both items are interwoven in our experience. In the past we ate out at a restaurant because we were bored, or we 'didn't have enough time', or because we were lazy. This year we realized that the best way to cut out needless spending was to QUIT EATING OUT. Yep, cold turkey. And it was H-A-R-D!!! We no longer ordered a pizza out at the pool, or grabbed Wendys on the way to one of the kids soccer games. It took some getting used to, and some planning to have food on hand that we could take with us or eat in advance of going to a commitment. I got really good at planning my meals with swim meets in mind and packed delicious food to eat while we spent the night watching our kids compete this summer. And the unexpected benefit? Weight loss. My husband and I have each lost 30 pounds this year.
Who would have thought a journey to be debt free would result in us feeling better about ourselves in more ways than just one? I certainly didn't as we almost didn't even sign up for the class. I am grateful to my husband Don for stepping onto this path with me, and grateful to Joe, Christi, Mike and Susan for gently leading us there.
Want to know more? A lot can be learned by listening to Dave's show, or by picking up a copy of one of his books. I can almost guarantee there is a class starting near you soon. Check out Dave's website (www.daveramsey.com) there is a link to classes being offered.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Mom.
Mom. Mommy. Momma. Mother.
(that one has not yet been said in exasperation, though I am sure it is just around the corner. My eldest uses it to tease. She knows I don't prefer it, so she'll use it give a friendly jab. For now.)
That is a name that I have been honored to wear for 11+ years.
It wasn't always something I was sure I'd become. I didn't want to be strapped down. Then I met Alex.
Alex is my niece. She was born when I was 17 and about to enter my senior year in high school. She was so small. Tiny. Perfect. I was at times afraid of her, and at times in awe of her. Being the baby of my family I was rarely if ever around smaller kids. I didn't know what to do with them.
My sister's children were my first real practice with little ones. I think I can pinpoint my change in opinion. Alex wasn't very old, maybe six months and I was holding her. I was sitting on the couch in my mom's living room by myself while my sister was busy. That sweet child fell asleep on me. I was so excited I wanted to jump up and down, call my mom, call my sister to show them what had happened. Of course you don't do that with a sleeping baby on your shoulder so you sit back, try to calm your excitement and enjoy. It felt like forever until someone entered the room and I can't even recall who that might have been but I remember the rest of that moment. I remember thinking there was more to this than I thought and just maybe I might *someday* want that for myself.
I went on to college, and got married and 8 years after that moment with my niece Don and I welcomed our first child.
That was an experience. I dreaded delivery and quite honestly I don't look back on those pain filled hours with rosy colored glasses. But the truth is, she was worth it. I was overwhelmed by the sheer logistics of a new baby, but I was overjoyed by her presence in our life. I don't think I have ever felt closer to God than the moments I spent with a newborn on my shoulder. I have been lucky enough to experience that with 3 great children.
Mom is the longest time I have ever been at a job. A job I love, and a job I can't (and don't want to) escape. It is waiting for me when I get up in the morning, it can rouse me from the deepest slumber.
It sums up who I am, and who I want to be. It defines my every moment and has changed how I look at myself.
I am Katie, Wally, and Mira's Mom. Period.
(that one has not yet been said in exasperation, though I am sure it is just around the corner. My eldest uses it to tease. She knows I don't prefer it, so she'll use it give a friendly jab. For now.)
That is a name that I have been honored to wear for 11+ years.
It wasn't always something I was sure I'd become. I didn't want to be strapped down. Then I met Alex.
Alex is my niece. She was born when I was 17 and about to enter my senior year in high school. She was so small. Tiny. Perfect. I was at times afraid of her, and at times in awe of her. Being the baby of my family I was rarely if ever around smaller kids. I didn't know what to do with them.
My sister's children were my first real practice with little ones. I think I can pinpoint my change in opinion. Alex wasn't very old, maybe six months and I was holding her. I was sitting on the couch in my mom's living room by myself while my sister was busy. That sweet child fell asleep on me. I was so excited I wanted to jump up and down, call my mom, call my sister to show them what had happened. Of course you don't do that with a sleeping baby on your shoulder so you sit back, try to calm your excitement and enjoy. It felt like forever until someone entered the room and I can't even recall who that might have been but I remember the rest of that moment. I remember thinking there was more to this than I thought and just maybe I might *someday* want that for myself.
I went on to college, and got married and 8 years after that moment with my niece Don and I welcomed our first child.
That was an experience. I dreaded delivery and quite honestly I don't look back on those pain filled hours with rosy colored glasses. But the truth is, she was worth it. I was overwhelmed by the sheer logistics of a new baby, but I was overjoyed by her presence in our life. I don't think I have ever felt closer to God than the moments I spent with a newborn on my shoulder. I have been lucky enough to experience that with 3 great children.
Mom is the longest time I have ever been at a job. A job I love, and a job I can't (and don't want to) escape. It is waiting for me when I get up in the morning, it can rouse me from the deepest slumber.
It sums up who I am, and who I want to be. It defines my every moment and has changed how I look at myself.
I am Katie, Wally, and Mira's Mom. Period.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Coffee? Well, yeah.
Yes, I enjoy coffee. A lot.
For most who know me, this is not a shocking revelation. It takes a lot of strong will for me to turn down a coffee date.
But why do I call it out?
I guess for me the answer is less in the brown aromatic liquid than the experience it brings with it.
As a child, I remember both of my parents drinking pot after pot of coffee. I remember that more than I remember them drinking anything else. I don't even really remember them drinking water. I do recall that they both enjoyed an ice cold beer in the summer. But even that wasn't in our fridge all that often.
You might think that I am pointing my finger in their direction. I grew up around it. That really has nothing to do with it.
When I was a teenager, the current coffee boom was just getting started. In fact, I recall my first trip to a coffee bar in 1993 with my best friend Katie and her dad. It was this little bitty counter in a hallway behind Main street shops in Plymouth, Michigan where I grew up. We started out innocently enough. We had Italian Sodas. Not a drop of coffee in it. We did this a few times and moved onto some yummy coffee shop hot chocolate. So much better than the instant powder stuff! Katie and I looked forward to hanging out in that coffee hallway. The smells, the laid back 'hanging out' that was what kept us coming back.
My senior year of high school saw the opening of the next coffee business to hit small town Plymouth: the Plymouth Coffee Bean Co (and yes, they are still open, albeit under many changes of ownership). A quaint coffee shop in an old house on one of the side streets of downtown. I can still picture the three original rooms. There was overstuffed furniture, bookshelves of books, a corner fireplace, a tiny little alcove with a table by the window and the back room with the soft green walls and clouds painted on the ceiling. You could not sit there for just five minutes. It was impossible. Katie and I started to hang out there. A lot. We started with Ghiradelli hot chocolate. Yummy. Next we experimented with a shot of espresso in that hot chocolate. This was a new, better experience. We spent the better part of that school year studying and hanging out at PCBC. When they decided to hire someone at the end of my senior year. I applied and was hired.
Turns out working in a coffee shop was a great fit for someone like me. I have said before that I have a great work ethic, which I do. I found joy in getting the job done. I also am quite a social person. Not in the let's go to party way, but in the way that I can easily converse with people I just met. Kind of in a bartender way. And that's exactly what people want in addition to their hot caffeine. I met so many people working there and made quite a lot of good connections. I got to know my town in a more intimate way. People appreciated that I could start their beverage before they even ordered, and being a morning person - I was able to be alert and ready to serve them.
I continued to hang out there in my off time and the people of the Bean (as we called it) became my social circle. I have very fond memories of those days (and consequently of those people).
Time came for me to leave for Michigan State University, and I had a connection with a coffee shop up there. I applied for a job at Espresso Royale Caffe and had the job I wanted. I was able to open the place up before I went to class and get working out of the way. Again I got to know that community and made great connections. A great side benefit of working in a coffee shop was the tips. We made regular wages and had pocket money on a daily basis from the tip jar.
Katie came to MSU with me, and we found ourselves hanging out at coffee shops to study and hang out. Back then I couldn't imagine going into a coffee shop to get coffee and leave. Part of what I was paying for was the experience, the environment.
As I grew older, graduated and in general had less free time, coffee became my relaxation event. It was the memory of a feeling distilled into a cup. I crave the caffeine, yes. But I also crave the moment that comes with holding a hot mug of coffee in my hand. Its a slow jump start to my day, or a moment to make a connection with a person as others might do over a cold beer or a with a wine glass in hand.
A beer drinker, or wine aficionado I am not. A coffee drinker I am.
For most who know me, this is not a shocking revelation. It takes a lot of strong will for me to turn down a coffee date.
But why do I call it out?
I guess for me the answer is less in the brown aromatic liquid than the experience it brings with it.
As a child, I remember both of my parents drinking pot after pot of coffee. I remember that more than I remember them drinking anything else. I don't even really remember them drinking water. I do recall that they both enjoyed an ice cold beer in the summer. But even that wasn't in our fridge all that often.
You might think that I am pointing my finger in their direction. I grew up around it. That really has nothing to do with it.
When I was a teenager, the current coffee boom was just getting started. In fact, I recall my first trip to a coffee bar in 1993 with my best friend Katie and her dad. It was this little bitty counter in a hallway behind Main street shops in Plymouth, Michigan where I grew up. We started out innocently enough. We had Italian Sodas. Not a drop of coffee in it. We did this a few times and moved onto some yummy coffee shop hot chocolate. So much better than the instant powder stuff! Katie and I looked forward to hanging out in that coffee hallway. The smells, the laid back 'hanging out' that was what kept us coming back.
My senior year of high school saw the opening of the next coffee business to hit small town Plymouth: the Plymouth Coffee Bean Co (and yes, they are still open, albeit under many changes of ownership). A quaint coffee shop in an old house on one of the side streets of downtown. I can still picture the three original rooms. There was overstuffed furniture, bookshelves of books, a corner fireplace, a tiny little alcove with a table by the window and the back room with the soft green walls and clouds painted on the ceiling. You could not sit there for just five minutes. It was impossible. Katie and I started to hang out there. A lot. We started with Ghiradelli hot chocolate. Yummy. Next we experimented with a shot of espresso in that hot chocolate. This was a new, better experience. We spent the better part of that school year studying and hanging out at PCBC. When they decided to hire someone at the end of my senior year. I applied and was hired.
Turns out working in a coffee shop was a great fit for someone like me. I have said before that I have a great work ethic, which I do. I found joy in getting the job done. I also am quite a social person. Not in the let's go to party way, but in the way that I can easily converse with people I just met. Kind of in a bartender way. And that's exactly what people want in addition to their hot caffeine. I met so many people working there and made quite a lot of good connections. I got to know my town in a more intimate way. People appreciated that I could start their beverage before they even ordered, and being a morning person - I was able to be alert and ready to serve them.
I continued to hang out there in my off time and the people of the Bean (as we called it) became my social circle. I have very fond memories of those days (and consequently of those people).
Time came for me to leave for Michigan State University, and I had a connection with a coffee shop up there. I applied for a job at Espresso Royale Caffe and had the job I wanted. I was able to open the place up before I went to class and get working out of the way. Again I got to know that community and made great connections. A great side benefit of working in a coffee shop was the tips. We made regular wages and had pocket money on a daily basis from the tip jar.
Katie came to MSU with me, and we found ourselves hanging out at coffee shops to study and hang out. Back then I couldn't imagine going into a coffee shop to get coffee and leave. Part of what I was paying for was the experience, the environment.
As I grew older, graduated and in general had less free time, coffee became my relaxation event. It was the memory of a feeling distilled into a cup. I crave the caffeine, yes. But I also crave the moment that comes with holding a hot mug of coffee in my hand. Its a slow jump start to my day, or a moment to make a connection with a person as others might do over a cold beer or a with a wine glass in hand.
A beer drinker, or wine aficionado I am not. A coffee drinker I am.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Why running?
I have always tended to the well... lazy side. If it was too much work, maybe it wasn't worth doing. (Ask my mom). Funny thing is, I have a great work ethic. Go figure.
As far as taking care of myself, I would get to it eventually. I could see where I wanted to be and I pictured it happening someday.
I was a mom with a 9 year old, 7 year old and 3 year old. I wasn't getting any trimmer on my own. I had done softball leagues in the past but let's all admit this right now. Softball leagues on their own are not a tremendous weight loss plan. I love the sport, but it wasn't helping me to improve my physicality.
A little background: never having been physical I was in awe of people who could run. I thought it was the most challenging sport out there. To go and sustain a run for over a minute? And there are people crazy enough to do it for 3.1 miles, 6.2 miles, 13.1 miles and even 26.2 miles! Do you know how long those distances take? Well, depending on your fitness, the shortest can take anywhere from 15 minutes (really fit) to an hour (just getting started!). But I digress.
So here I was, unfit and not doing a thing to change that. Enter my friend Beth. Beth mentions casually that she is taking a running class. To which my husband, Don, and I met with a snicker. "Wait, you're paying someone to teach you how to run?!? Couldn't you just go outside and well, RUN?" Time passes and eventually I ask "so, what do you do?" She told me about the class that our local running store (Up and Running in Dayton) and I started to think about it. Every other time I tried running on my own I gave up. It was too hard, I couldn't breathe. Who wants to run anyway? After a little consideration, I decided to enroll in the class during the next session.
That was June of 2010. I am cheap. The kind of cheap that once I lay down my $50 to learn how to run you better believe that I am there in class every time putting forth a good effort. It was humbling. You think "I am going to run" and you learn that maybe when you start running you have to go REALLY slow to maintain it even for a minute. And you picture yourself flying down the road, the envy of all those around you because you are just that talented. But that is just a picture in your mind. And you learn. You learn how to stretch 1 minute to 2. Eventually you make it 4 whole minutes with just 2 minute walk breaks between.
The last class the coaches told us we were free to try running the whole time, the whole distance of the path we took on our Tuesday night class. I attempted to run the entire thing and do you know what? I did it. I was so happy I could have cried. I was so overwhelmed with what I had accomplished that I wanted to sing it to everyone I passed. 'Hey did you know that I ran the WHOLE distance?' And we had yet to run our graduation 5K. I was worried going in whether I should do the race in intervals or try to run the whole distance. With the support of some of my classmates, I decided to try to run the whole thing. I was slow as molasses, but I did it. We had a motto in our class "We are doing it" and we did. I was lucky to meet my best runner girls in that class. We are still running together today.
Lastly, I owe a great big Thank You to Beth. You lit the fire that changed my life.
As far as taking care of myself, I would get to it eventually. I could see where I wanted to be and I pictured it happening someday.
I was a mom with a 9 year old, 7 year old and 3 year old. I wasn't getting any trimmer on my own. I had done softball leagues in the past but let's all admit this right now. Softball leagues on their own are not a tremendous weight loss plan. I love the sport, but it wasn't helping me to improve my physicality.
A little background: never having been physical I was in awe of people who could run. I thought it was the most challenging sport out there. To go and sustain a run for over a minute? And there are people crazy enough to do it for 3.1 miles, 6.2 miles, 13.1 miles and even 26.2 miles! Do you know how long those distances take? Well, depending on your fitness, the shortest can take anywhere from 15 minutes (really fit) to an hour (just getting started!). But I digress.
So here I was, unfit and not doing a thing to change that. Enter my friend Beth. Beth mentions casually that she is taking a running class. To which my husband, Don, and I met with a snicker. "Wait, you're paying someone to teach you how to run?!? Couldn't you just go outside and well, RUN?" Time passes and eventually I ask "so, what do you do?" She told me about the class that our local running store (Up and Running in Dayton) and I started to think about it. Every other time I tried running on my own I gave up. It was too hard, I couldn't breathe. Who wants to run anyway? After a little consideration, I decided to enroll in the class during the next session.
That was June of 2010. I am cheap. The kind of cheap that once I lay down my $50 to learn how to run you better believe that I am there in class every time putting forth a good effort. It was humbling. You think "I am going to run" and you learn that maybe when you start running you have to go REALLY slow to maintain it even for a minute. And you picture yourself flying down the road, the envy of all those around you because you are just that talented. But that is just a picture in your mind. And you learn. You learn how to stretch 1 minute to 2. Eventually you make it 4 whole minutes with just 2 minute walk breaks between.
The last class the coaches told us we were free to try running the whole time, the whole distance of the path we took on our Tuesday night class. I attempted to run the entire thing and do you know what? I did it. I was so happy I could have cried. I was so overwhelmed with what I had accomplished that I wanted to sing it to everyone I passed. 'Hey did you know that I ran the WHOLE distance?' And we had yet to run our graduation 5K. I was worried going in whether I should do the race in intervals or try to run the whole distance. With the support of some of my classmates, I decided to try to run the whole thing. I was slow as molasses, but I did it. We had a motto in our class "We are doing it" and we did. I was lucky to meet my best runner girls in that class. We are still running together today.
Lastly, I owe a great big Thank You to Beth. You lit the fire that changed my life.
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