Away but still commited!

So I was a little discouraged when I originally started this blog because I didn't get much traffic and no one left a comment. It just hit me. I am not doing this for anyone but myself and my family so I will continue to write here as  more of a journal on our journey to pay off our home!

The stats: we are down to $165,600.
That is $ 52,400 payed off so far.

Every pay period, my husband and I sit down and have a budget meeting.  We have combed through our expenses to the point where we literally have nowhere else we can cut.  It's time to take the income we have, pay our bills and sock the rest at our mortgage! We want this baby gone!  Stay tuned....

What is the point?

What is the point of doing the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover Program? It has been a long journey for us. We have paid off more than $107,000 dollars so far. $50,000 on our home and over $55,000 in consumer debt.  

Because we sacrificed early on and paid off that consumer debt, it is much easier for us to put back each month  for our baby's college so it won't be a burden on him or us later in life. We have 17 years before he is a freshman in college.  

We are able to put 15 % of our income back in 401ks and IRA's for retirement. This will make retiring a blessing and not a curse. 

With all of that being said, what is the point of reaching Dave Ramsey's Baby step 7? To give to others freely. What would that look like? How fun would it be to give in a big way? What did God put you on this Earth to do? Wouldn't it be much easier to chase after your purpose if you weren't saddled with debt? 

Baby Step 6- The Dilemna

How do you decide how much extra per month to put toward your mortgage if you are on baby step 6?  We are having a hard time being pulled in different directions.  We want to pay off the mortgage asap, but we also want to give some away, have some fun, go on a vacation or two, and do some upgrades on our home.  The sooner we pay the house off the sooner we can give in a big way and really help others.  How do you find the balance or do you? Are you putting every extra penny toward your mortgage with focused intensity? Or are you enjoying life a little and putting a certain amount per month and not a penny more?

Any Dave Ramsey baby steppers out there?

I have only met a few people in person who are doing the baby steps.  It  always feels like you are kindred spirits. This person has the same ideals about life and money. They want to be debt free so they can give like no one else. That really is the ultimate goal in this whole thing.  My husband and I play this little game every once in a while called if you won the $100 million dollar lottery how would you spend it. The funny thing is we've never bought a lottery ticket in our lives so the chance of this happening is zero.

I would pay our house off.
Pay all our family members debt off.
Set aside chunks of money to fully fund our son's college along with all of our nephews.
I would buy my husband a motorcycle and a boat and myself a jeep wrangler(used of course).
I would put 3 million aside for retirement.
Then I would give 5 million to our church.
I would give the rest away. By my estimations that would leave around $90 million dollars to give away. How fun would that be?

My hope for this blog is that fellow baby steppers could meet here.(virtually) That this could be a community for baby steppers.  I would love to hear back from you. What step you are on, what are some ways you save money in order to be debt free? How would you spend $100 million dollars if given the chance?

Our journey

I have been awake since 4:34 am. Why? There is a gazelle in my house. It's me. If you are not a Dave Ramsey person you are going to have no idea what I am talking about. If you don't know who Dave Ramsey is drop everything right now and go get his book Total Money Makeover. It will change your life! With that being said, it might possibly cause you to start a blog at 4:34 am and the second sentence is about gazelles.

Here's the gist of why I am starting this blog. We have been doing Dave Ramsey's TMM for a few years now. We are on Baby Step 6. We want to be on Baby Step 7. 

You can find information on the steps here:
http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-steps/


Lets start from the beginning. My Husband and I have been married for 9.5 years. He's my favorite person in the world to hang out with. We have a beautiful baby boy. We live in a nice cozy home that was built in the 50's. We live 1 mile from the cutest little downtown you have ever seen.  A few years ago my husbands boss gave us the Dave Ramsey audiobook Financial Peace. It sat in a drawer for a few months and one random morning I turned it on.  Bam!  It completely made sense to me.  I told my husband all about it and he was immediately on board. We sat down and did our first budget. Created our debt snowball.  We owed $53,269 in student loans and 2 cars. We went beans and rice crazy and paid it off as quickly as we possibly could. We called in and did our debt free scream and it was so much fun! Hallelujah, we were free from consumer debt and it felt great! Step 2 was complete.

We saved every penny after that and fattened up our emergency fund. Baby step 3 was in the books.

401ks and IRA's were next on the list. We hooked up with an ELP and got the ball rolling on Step 4.

At the time we didn't have any children so we skipped step 5. 

Aww. BS6. Duh duh duh. The big daddy. We've been on this step for a while. Life has happened. We've cash flowed having a baby, took a couple of vacations, had career changes, moved out of our home state, and for the most part gone down to one income. This is where we are now baby step 6.


$167,169.30 

This is the magic number. This is what lies between BS6 and BS7. That's a pretty big step. That seems ginormous to me. This blog will be a record of our journey over that hump. 

I listen to DR's podcast every day while I'm strolling our little guy around the block. Desperate for some new trick or tip for baby step 6.  Everyone is always calling in about step 2. I get it! We've been there.  Anytime Dave mentions BS7 he acts all nonchalant about it like its no big deal.  Hello! You've trained us to be gazelle intense and obsessed with being debt free, pinching every penny going to extreme lengths to get rid of this debt and then all of a sudden we are supposed to turn that intensity off and be like , "oh it's just $167,169.30 no big deal just get to it when you can. " I can't turn it off. My husband can't turn it off. The gazelle is here to stay.  We want to be on BS7. Plain and simple.

Last night my husband and I were dreaming together about BS7 and what that would look like. We want to buy a food truck and feed the homeless. How fun would that be?! We have several things we would like to do. What would your BS7 look like?