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Bad times aren’t in Financial Peace

bad-times-arent-in-financial-peace

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Living very close to DC, we get some pretty incredible news, and it’s all the worst from 3 areas.  I can’t say tri-state, because DC isn’t a state, but you get my drift.  We don’t just get news of murders in Virginia, but also in Maryland and DC.  It may be imagination, but the number of entire families dieing in homicide/suicides seems to be increasing.  If I had to give an uneducated, bias guess, I’d wager it is directly related to the economy.  In yesterday’s news was the story of a father who killed his wife and three young children before committing suicide.  The report included their substantial credit card and mortgage debt.  There’s another case of an entire family found dead in a Maryland hotel.  The parents had driven down from NY to visit their daughter in college.  Speculation immediately runs to financial problems.  To be fair, I don’t know what happened.  This is why I can’t wait to attend Dave Ramsey’s Townhall tomorrow night.  I hope you’ll consider going.

When I do manage to read the newspaper- most times I just don’t make it passed the doom and gloom.  Some times I come across a story that I think I might share here.  One such I read in my local newspaper.  It’s called Stimulus Logic. It detailed the difference between Bush’s and Obama’s tax credit.  If you’ll remember when Bush was in office we got a check in the mail.  The story said it was $500, but I remembered it being $600.  Regardless, the millions of dollars sent back into the economy did little to boost it.  Why? Because people paid debt that had already falsely boosted the economy.  With Obama in office, it won’t be a single check, but more in weekly checks by reducing withholdings. As a result, you get more in each check, which, if all goes as planned- hopefully you’ll spend instead of saving or paying down already incurred debt.  Those participating in Financial Peace will make educated decisions on where to spend this “found” money.  Since you cash flow, you’ll spend each and every dollar on paper.  You’ll be aware of that extra $20. You might stick it in a blow envelope, or you may use it on your debt snowball.  Whatever you decide, you’ll know it’s there. It won’t seem like free money.  Of course, this plan does nothing to help those on unemployment, but I suppose since we currently have no income, that we’ll have less taxes.  I can see how Obama’s plan helps to stimulate the economy.  My first reaction is to be upset because I want my $500 up front to spend as I would (which would go to pay the last $600 we owe on a medical bill).   But, I get it.  I’m still not convinced that it will be the governments scramble to try to save the “credit industry” will be what saves the economy.  I still believe it’ll be you and me.  We’ll realize that driving $400 a month cars is just silly.  We’ll be more excited about having $5000 in savings instead of $5000 in credit card debt.  We’ll teach our children to be more mature and patient than our parents raised most of us to be.  We’ll teach them to save and pay for things with cash (and get it cheaper!).  Affording things means we have the cash right then and there to pay “for it”- instead of hoping to have the income to pay “on it”.  

In the end, I think the current economy will be better for the environment (Happy Earth Day by the way). We’re being less wasteful, turning off lights, buying cars that don’t eat gas.  Once upon a time the idea of eating leftovers was just something I couldn’t stomach.  I didn’t even bother to take it home from restaurants.  Now I plan weekly menus around it.  I think of what went down my garbage disposale and I’m embarrassed.  

We also learn how important public institutions- such as the public library system дивани are.  In all fairness, I do have a Masters in library science.  But I love that I have to wait in line at the local library because more people are using it. More people are taking their kids to the library to check out books instead of buying books.  Families who once afford monthly gymnastics programs are opting instead to take their children to storytime- which is free.  Since Jason became unemployed, we’ve gone down to bare bones.  Right now we’re keeping our internet access- reasoning that we need it for job searches, and email, and filing for unemployment.  So far, it’s turned out to be accurate.  I’m online all the time- my husband rarely.  I know he’s used the internet more in the last few weeks than he ever does.  His internet usage in the past has been around Fantasy Football.  Now it’s searching for jobs, researching companies, making contacts, setting up interviews.  But I know- for the moment- we’re fortunate that we keep it.  If it comes to the choice of paying for health insurance or our ISP, our ISP will be the first to go- hands down.  So, off to the library we’ll go.  It’ll be inconvenient.  We’ll have to sign up, use our allotted hour, and repeat.  I know there are familes who only get internet access at the library.  I suspect the number doing so has risen with the rate of foreclosures- which has been exceptionally high in our area.  

One last story I’d like to share with you is concerning church attendance during the recession.  Some studies suggest that church attendance is higher, and that people are switching from denomination to evangelical churches.  I attend the latter, and while my return to “religion” was more centered around the death of my daughter, I have noticed a climb in membership, and our church definitely reports that- while the economy is down- the weekly offerning has gone up, sometimes almost doubling the projected operating need for that week.   Our church teaches Financial Peace, and I’m sure that has a barring on the trend, more so than people who have just recently started attending services.   Since J was laid off, I have learned much about total trust in God.  We pray to God to give us our daily bread, but do we mean it?  We want to know about next weeks, next years bread too.  How about my bread when I’m 65 God?  I’ve resigned to the fact that there can’t be certainty in this life.  In relying less on ourselves, and more of God brings more people to him (as the article suggests), then that’s one other plus coming from these tough times.  I’m with Dave, I don’t think things are as bad as the media makes them out to be.  -This comeing from someone whose family is drawaing unemployment.  Things will get better.  They’ll be fine for again.  They’ll get worse again if we don’t make some radical changes, but for those striving for Financial Peace, the bad times won’t be that bad.

April 22, 2009 | Filed Under Just Whatever | 1 Comment 

Cutting corners and making ends meet during the tough times

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We’re at the beginning of week 2 on unemployment. Our emergency fund is still in the bank, but we’re scrutinizing each penny that goes out the way Dave teaches in the first few weeks of Financial Peace. I’d wager that we’d be in even better shape had we done it “religiously” since beginning Financial Peace. One thing that we’ve learned to love is Angel Food Ministries.  We’ve got the boxes sporadically over the past year, and even when we don’t I can’t bring myself to pay for meat in grocery stores unless I can get it very cheaply.  

When I do get a great deal on meat, I plan our entire week around it.  For example, I got a ham on sale this weekend.  I cooked it tonight.  We’ll snack on it during lunch the next few days and I’ll make a ham and potato casserole later this week.  I’ll freeze the scraps to be used in butter beans at a later and give the hambone to my dogs.  I’m just as frugal with chicken.  I get two whole chickens insteaf of the pre-cut pieces. I roast them at the beginning of the week and make a casserole or maybe two later in the week.  Whatever isn’t used is put in the freezer for use at a later date.  I onlt buy ground beef on sale- cook it all at the same time- usually we have tacos- and freeze the rest.  Last week I got pork roast for .88 a lb. What an incredible deal! I got two.  $17 roasts for $5.  I made BBQ with one and I froze the other.  I’m going to use it Memorial Day weekend and make another roast. We took advantage of Angel Food ministries again this week and will be picking up our food this weekend.  I’m looking forward to having a variety of meat in the freezer.  

It’s amazing the money you can save if you just look at sale papers.  If you don’t get your local paper, try looking up your grocery store on-line, or just pay attention to your store as you passby.  One of my favorite grocery stores has a digital sign that scrolls that weeks deals.  Menu4Moms has a free on-line source of grocery deals.  Just enter in your zip code and get your areas best deals. It’s a pretty comprehsive list, but you can limit it by product- I most often use it to see what meat is on sale.

The Grocery Game is a service that you pay for.  The ladies that run the site have extensive lists on what is on sale each week and will cross reference it with coupons to let you know where you should buy what with what coupon and when.  They’ve figured out the rotation for sales. Have you ever noticed that paper towels were on sale one week- and then again 8 or 9 weeks later.  Use this list faithfully, and they tell you when to stock up.  Although, as a Green Consumer is is penny pinching, I encourage you to give up paper towels all together and get a good pack of cloth towels and use them instead.  They pay for themselves in just one month- and each month for years to come.  Technically, you could save money using this service- so it might be worth the subscription.  I did a $1 4 week trial and found that I didn’t use the service so I cancelled it.  I might be better motivated to save money these days.

If you have other ideas to share on how to feed a family cheaply, but healthily- please feel free to post your comment.

April 13, 2009 | Filed Under Just Whatever | 1 Comment 

Town Hall For Hope

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Dave Ramsey is doing a town hall event. Click on the banner to go to the site and look up your nearest venue . Plan to go.  Be prepared to talk about the truth of the economy.  Dave will explain he we got there, and real life, proven to work, God given financial advice on how to get out of it.

 There are also other great resources to be found there. There is a townhallforhope blog which is far more inspirational than anything I can ever write.   If you are a Facebook user, you can friend the event, and even follow on Twitter. Submit a question through Youtube and just maybe Dave will answer it.

Dave is the only media person I’ve seen who is encouraging the American people to stay resolute, and that is predicting an end to our economic woes.  Plan to attend so that you can get a healthy dose of his optimism.  As a Christian, I know that much of his positive outlook comes from his trust in God.  This event may be just the breath of fresh air that you need.  I’ve just sent my RSVP to a local church.  I can’t wait to hear it.  We’ve turned off our cable so I can’t watch his TV show any longer on Fox business.  Even if I could, I expect that this will be an event worth carving out some time for.

April 11, 2009 | Filed Under Just Whatever | Leave a Comment 

Tough times are easier in Financial Peace

tough-times-are-easier-in-financial-peace

My husband and I have been working on acheiving Financial Peace for nearly a year.  When we started out- we were close to forclosure.  A week after we started we got a notice that our van was to be repoed.  To say that we were highly motivated to start applying the financial truths we learned just in the first week of Financial Peace University to our lives- is nothing short of an understatement.  Most of our journey has been recorded here over the past few months.  As time passed I had less and less to write about.  We were still working towards Financial Peace, still hitting road bumps, and celebrating successes.  Mona pays me for my entries here, so unless I feel it is something worth getting paid for, I haven’t written.  Last month I didn’t make a single entry.

This month might be a bit different.  I’ve heard it said that in order to part the Red Sea so that the Isrealites could walk across on dry land, God had to dam up the water source 20 miles downstream.  We have tunnel vision- God has all vision.  What we take for suffering could just be seen as growing pains for God.  One such example in my life is the death of my daughter.  I hope to be fortunate enough to go the rest of my life withouth feeling such a seering pain.  Her death created a hole in my broken heart- a hole that can only be filled by the light of Christ and mended from the love of God.  While I never celebrate her death, I am thankful that the suffering I have endured has brought me closer to God- and in the end- closer to my daughter.  When we started Financial Peace, God knew that 20 mies downstream we would be coming against some financial problems.  He offered to us- through Dave Ramsey- to be prepared.  

J was laid off from his job as a government contractor on Friday.  He’s at the home office filling out paperwork, enruring that our medical insurance doesn’t lapse, filing for unemployment, and all other not-so-fun things he’d rather not be doing.  But, over the past several months we’ve not only become more financially stable, but we’ve also become closer to God.  We’re faithfull- which- if you don’ t know is a Fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindess, goodness, faithfullness, gentleness, and self control).  We began titheing (10%) in February.  We’ve always put aside a portion each week, but had never taken the plunge and trusted God to care for us by giving him 10%.  We have- and did yesterday.  As I was writing our weekly check I asked J what to make it for- and he said “the usual”. He’s still got one more paycheck coming- and 10% of that paycheck still belongs to God.  J’s a new Christian, and as a more seasoned Christian I felt shamed that I probably wouldn’t have done the same had it been solely my decision.  But I also felt pride and respect for J that he’s able to remain faithful.  I thanked God for the work he’s been doing in our lives.

We trust that through God’s vision there’s something out there for us.  We trust and hope that God can use our lives as a testimony to our loving and Faithful God to bring those that we love- and those that we may never know closer to His love.  We’ve still got our home. We’ve got a wonderful church family, parents that love us, friends that care about us. We’ve got a funded emergency fund.  We’ve only a small portion left on a loan we took to pay for a medical bill.  I won’t mention the pesky student loans- which will- of course- be deferred for now.  We’ve got our emergency fund, the knowledge to not only sit down and create a cash flow plan, but the motivation and self control to actually live by it. 

One problem we’ve struggled with is using cash.  On the first order of business is to let go of all non-essentials.  The first victim will be the cable.  I went on Friday to cancel our YMCA membership only to find out that they have subsidized programs for this suffering financial difficulties.  We’ve been comped the next month and once our unemployment comes in- we’ll then find out how much- if anything- we’ll be paying.  We’re going to have to start using cash again to make up for the cut we’re going to be taking.  But most importantly- we’ll be turning to prayer.  We’re so thankful that God answered our prayers when we were drowning in debt by leading us to our Church- which is where we learned and participated in Finacial Peace University.

April 6, 2009 | Filed Under Just Whatever | Leave a Comment 

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