By April Pearson

I am super excited about this deal! My husband and I paid off all of our credit card debt after we went to see Dave Ramsey Live. While we were at the seminar, we purchased our Financial Peace University Lifetime Membership for $99. This includes free attendance at any Financial Peace University Class for you and your spouse, The Complete Guide to Money, Financial Peace University Workbook, Audio CD Library, Envelope System, Helpful tidbits and extras (includes budgeting forms, CD-ROM and more)! 

Well, the reason I'm so excited is that today you can snag your own Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University Lifetime Membership bundle for only $69! WOW!  

I believe so strongly in his method for getting and staying out of debt. It truly works! 

Go HERE and register for Mamapedia to get this deal. Then purchase your deal available May 25-30 only!

I am so excited to share this deal with you today, as it is truly invaluable!  Today through Wednesday, you can buy tickets to Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover Live event for only $19 each! This event will be on October 8th from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Reliant Arena. You are allowed to buy 5 tickets for yourself and up to five as gifts. This would be a great gift for friends or family, newlyweds or newly engaged couples!

My husband and I attended this event last year, and I highly recommend everyone going - whether you are in debt to your eyeballs and considering filing for bankruptcy or you are well on your way to being debt free! It is inspiring, exciting, and will give you hope for a better financial future. 

Please make sure you use the link above to purchase your tickets, as this is 55% less than the box office price of $42!

Have you ever attended Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover Live? What did you think about it? Please share your thoughts so people know what they might learn from this event!
 

What do you do when an emergency expense comes up? Do you rely on your credit card or do you have a savings account that you can use?

When my husband and I decided we were going to cut up all of our credit cards, we knew this was something we had to take care of… an emergency fund. Since there would no longer be that plastic money tree to run to, we had to have a plan!

We immediately began saving for our emergency fund. To start, that fund needed to be $1,000. This is just about enough to take care of any foreseeable needs. When we are debt free (except the house), we will stock up this fund to be at least six months of our living expenses (not six months of salary, but expenses). This will be a great cushion if anything happens like job loss, illness, injury, etc. Ideally, I’d like to have at least one year’s worth of expenses saved up.

This is a recommendation we learned about through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace program. In his program, the emergency fund is Baby Step One and helps you not have to rely on credit when an emergency arises during your debt pay down.

I can vouch for this step, as we just had an emergency repair that was needed on our vehicle. The expense was right around $1,000 (ugh) but I am SO glad we had it! We did not have to run to a credit card to get us through! What a feeling of freedom it was to not have to add debt to our lives in order to take care of car repairs. Now, we will have to replenish the emergency fund before we pay additional payments towards any other debt (all we have left are student loans, yea!), but that’s okay. At least we can feel confident in the fact that we didn’t have to borrow any more money. Yippee!

Do you have an emergency fund? Does this sound like something that would benefit your family?

Check out this article from Dave Ramsey on How To Build An Emergency Fund Fast!

Budgeting Basics

I recently reevaluated our household budget. Things are changing for us, and we need to know exactly what that means for us financially.

The first of the month just passed. Do you know where your money went last month? Do you know where it’s going this month?

If you find yourself in a situation where you always (or most often) have a lot of month left at the end of your money, I would venture to guess that either you haven’t bothered making a budget, or you’re not sticking to the budget that you’ve created. I want to help walk you through a simple way to budget so that you can get started today.

How to make a budget:

1. Know your income. What is your GROSS (before taxes, 401K, etc) Income? What is your NET income (the amount that comes home)?
2. Give/Tithe. I am a strong believer in giving. God gave you every penny of the paycheck you bring home, and you should be giving back to Him. If you are not affiliated with a church, you should be giving to a charity that you believe in.
3. Write down all of your monthly expenses. Include everything! Mortgage/rent, utilities, groceries, gasoline, insurance, credit cards, student loans, dining out, entertainment, clothing, etc. Everything!  Tip: Go look at your bank account and credit card statements. Where does your money go? All of these things should be on your budget. Use an Excel worksheet, financial software or even a piece of paper and a pencil! Use what you have. Don’t make it more difficult than it has to be!
4. After you have written everything down, evaluate your expenditures. Do they ‘fit’ your income? Where do you need to cut back? What are your financial goals? What do you need to do in order to achieve those goals? You don’t have to answer all of these questions today. Having your budget written down is a big step for a lot of people.

Your goal is to spend (on paper) every penny that is coming in. This creates intentionality (spending with purpose, not by accident). You must be intentional in your spending or you will be left at the end of the month wondering where your check went.

I’m a huge fan of Dave Ramsey. His advice has been a major help in our family’s endeavor to get out of debt. Here are some pointers he gives on his website about budgeting:

• Give it three to four months to start working. It won't be perfect the first time you do it.
• Spend every dime on paper before the month begins.
• Over-fund your groceries category. Most people underfund that category.
• Husbands (if applicable) need to loosen up and quit using the budget as a whipping tool on their wives.
•  (I would add that wives, this goes for us, too! - April)
• If married, spouses need to do the budget together. The preacher said "... and you are ONE."

Do you make a budget every month? How do you stick with your budget? Do you have any helpful hints or tricks to share with our readers? I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below or email me.