CASH

I suppose this post has been four-five years in the making. Maybe longer. I believe it begins in our Colorado days if I'm not mistaken.  B-man first started listening to Dave Ramsey on the radio when we were stationed at Ft Carson. Dave Ramsey is an author and talk show host and his expertise is money. Specifically, he advises his listeners on a no nonsense approach to getting out of debt, saving for retirement, and building wealth to that end. He is also a Christian and applies his Christian values to his lessons on finance.  This was huge for me.   We both really enjoyed listening to his show, but B-man was really the one who listened the most. I can only stomach so much talk radio. But, anyway, we started taking inventory of our debts and assets, etc and made a plan to start paying off our debt, which I'd say was about 90% in car payments. Ugh! So, although we had some debt, we felt pretty good about it b/c it was mostly just car debt. Dave, on the other hand, would not feel good about car debt...at all. And I'd say that we're coming around to that position as well. We will probably never buy a car outright, but we will definitely be making wiser decisions on car buying in the future. Anyway, we eventually paid off our debt and I'm happy to say that we are DEBT FREE and have been for quite a while now! Right, honey? Am I missing something? Lord knows I've not been thinking straight lately. Lol!

When we lived in Arkansas, good ole Dave was offering a free online version of his Financial Peace University to members of the military. So, together, B-man and I watched all of the lessons online. Afterwards, we were all about taking the steps he outlined in his plan. We set up our retirement accounts appropriately and starting saving for Boo's college. The one thing I dreaded doing was making a monthly budget. I didn't want to do this at all. Ever. I don't know why. It just felt like it would be a total drag, I guess.   Alas, I did it and talked it over with B-man. We agreed on our budget and put it in play. As the months wore on, I could NEVER make budget. I admit, I was overspending. Not beyond our means...just beyond what we said we were going to spend at the beginning of the month. There was always something big...birthdays, Christmas, road trips, etc that I wasn't accounting for each month. I just hated being restrained by this budget.  And I wasn't really tracking my spending until the end of the month when I'd have a pile of receipts to enter into our worksheet. I'd type away and hope to have made budget when I hit the bottom of the pile. So, you can imagine, that did not work.  As part of his plan, Dave also recommends a cash envelope system  for maintaining your budget. I admit, I HATED this idea too! When your envelopes of money ran out, that was it, you were out of money in that budgeted category...for the rest of the month. Gasp! I felt like it was a slap on the wrist for some reason.  But, I did try the envelope method once. And I really don't even know what happened to it. Did we move and I never got back on track? Was a child born? I really don't know. I just know that I was always entering in our, (okay, mostly my) purchases into our budget worksheet and I was never making budget and I wasn't using cash for purchases. Just the debit card.   Again, let me say...I wasn't spending beyond our means, just not the way we had planned. I also think our saving goals were pretty lofty. We wanted to save, save, save. And we still do, but in a more realistic fashion.

Fast forward to now. Since B-man is deployed, he will be earning a few entitlements to his paycheck. We want to make sure we use that extra money wisely. SO, I revamped the budget with our new monthly income and what I hope to be realistic monetary limits on our budgeted categories. AND, I'm doing the cash envelop system again. I ordered some Laminated Cash Envelopes to put in my wallet. Somehow cute laminated envelopes makes it better, right?  And I'm so happy to report that we stayed within our budget for the month of February!!! Woohoo!!  I LOVED the cash system (I'm telling you...cute laminated envelopes...). It really made a difference in my attitude as I went through the stores. I felt like it was a competition...how much can I get and how little can I spend to get it!!  I only went to Target ONCE in February. Usually you can find me there once/week and with more in my buggy than what was on my list. Way more.  Using cash also decreased my trips through the drive through! That's a win win...for our wallet and my waist! The main thing that using cash does is makes you aware of what you are spending when you're spending it...not at the end of the month when it's too late! I loved paying in cash too. There's something empowering about it.

So, I encourage you to take a look at Dave's website and consider going green! Cash, that is.

I should also mention that I tweaked his plan to really fit my life and personality. For example...I don't use cash for gas. I'm not getting out of the car with two kids in tow to go in and pay for gas with cash, when paying in cash makes no difference to me in this situation. I'm buying the gas. Period. And, I'm enjoying the convenience of paying at the pump. That being said, I do use the fuel perks reward at the grocery store and I saved $6.80 on gas in one trip to the pump last month! Woohoo!

Also, I do still shop online. for some things But, I immediately take that cash out of my budgeted envelope for that category so that I don't overspend. Those online purchases sneak up you.

I'm not sure how we'll integrate this into our lives when we're both in the US and both spending, but this is a start. Now, where should we put the money we save? We're still trying to figure that one out!