Act Your Wage

It has been quite a while since I last blogged. To catch up - the big thing that David & I have been doing since the middle of September is taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. It has made such an incredible impact of us. WOW! It has been absolutely amazing.

Dave teaches 7 baby steps to financial freedom.
Here are the first 3 I'll include the last 4 at a later date.

1. Establish a $1000 emergency fund.
2. Debt snow ball - get really serious about paying off all debt a fast as you can! (except your house that comes later)
3. Save 3-6 months worth of your income.

There will be great rejoicing when we get these first 3 steps completed.

We are now in month #2 of working our budget. It really has been quite easy.

Mini Victories along the way!
(Actually these were huge for us and have energized us to keep at it.)

1. Within the first week we were able to complete step one due to a great job that David got.
2. Within the first month we paid off two small credit cards.
3. First months budget came in UNDER budget. $60.00 - we are putting it towards a new camera.

This may sound strange but simply having a plan and being disciplined enough to stick with it has been fun. We may be living like no one else for right now, but later we will be able to live like no one else!

Practical application:
Menu planning for the week on November 2-8

Monday: Leftovers - we have a lot of stuff from last week and the weekend that needs to be cleaned up!
Tuesday: Chicken Parmesan. w/ snow peas
Wednesday: Cheese & veggie Quesadillas
Thursday: Pork medallions sauted onions w/ brown rice and salad
Friday: Tuna Melts
Saturday: Chili and hotdogs
Sunday: Stuffed Baked potatoes w/ broccoli

Grocery list for this week is simple because we have most of this in the cupboard or freezer.

5lb bag of coffee beans - IBIS Roasting Co. (this is a once a month purchase) $24.95
Some things are non negotiables!
1 doz eggs $1.00
2 quart of 1/2 & 1/2 $2.72
1 gallon of milk $1.89
brown rice $1.99
(seriously this is all I need to buy this week. How cool is that?)
Total $32.55

That leave us with $22.45 that we could still use for gorceries this week, but I don't think we need to, so into savings it goes!

GOD IS GOOD! I want to make sure that He gets all the credit for this victory in our lives. We will no longer be slaves to the lender!