Dave Ramsey

So many of you know that Caleb and I are big advocates of Dave Ramsey's budgeting and financial plan. For those of you who don't know, he is a financial guru who bases his ideas on Biblical principals. He is big on NO DEBT! We seriously started our Dave Ramsey plan in July of last year; however, with the ridiculous amount of weddings (we love you Carr's, Baber's, Davis', Hohenberger's, Blyth's, VanDeman's, Beck's & Truesdell's) we had last year, most of our extra money went towards expenses for those & not to paying down debt. Now that wedding season (which apparently lasted from May 2009-December 2009) has passed, we have been able to put a significant amount of money towards paying off debt (when we started our debt was some furniture we purchased when we got married, a loan for my car, and my student loans). I am happy to say that as of Monday, February 8th the only debt we have left is my student loans. That means that since July when we started Dave Ramsey, we have paid off about $4500 in furniture & $10,000 on my car! I think that's quite a feet for two twenty-four year olds with a pretty limited income!

We have decided (now...we are going against Dave on this) to continue making more than the minimum payments on my loans but are going to put a lot of our extra money into savings for two reasons. The first, Cal's car is just about shot so we want to be able to buy him a reliable vehicle in CASH. Secondly, we would really really REALLY like to move out of this apartment when our lease is up into a house so we are saving for a down payment. As much as I would absolutely love for the loan payment to disappear, I think for the point we are at in our life we are doing pretty well.

As you can tell, I love me some Dave Ramsey :) But I want to share that the Lord has truly taught me that he is our ultimate provider through the last 6 months of this budget. There were some weeks when our envelopes were getting pretty empty and I was worried about if we had enough to fill-up our gas tanks until our next envelope "fill-up" or how I would feed my "hollow-legged" husband with the small cash that was left, but we always had food on the table (maybe not as much as Cal would like...after all he is about quantity not quality). I have seen myself depend on my Savior, clinging to his promises to provide for us, and seeking him through prayer more frequently in the last 6 months that the other 23 1/2 years of my life.

So I know many of you think we are absolutely crazy (sometimes I think we are too) and many days I am so ready to throw in the towel on this budget, but I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.