So how was it watching the DVDs again?  Not bad!  Dave is a great teacher and he is passionate about helping people get out of debt and having financial peace.  "You live like no-one else so you can live like no-one else."  It helped to keep our motivation and further cement what we are doing.  Since last year I try to listed to Dave on the radio and/or pick up his podcast.  Hearing stories (both good and bad) really get you excited about what the Lord has started.  I do praise Him for casting this vision for our family.  We are going to change our family legacy. 

My friend Richey gave us the idea of putting up a debt poster as a daily reminder of how much you owe.  He had his children make scary debt monsters and then made $1,000 chain links.  Each time they paid $1,000, they would cut the links....so month by month the family could 'see' the debt getting smaller.

We are still praying for the sale of our car.  It has been up for sale for 2 months now.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Well the Cadillac ElDorado ETC (the car her dad gave us) had some issues.  First we discovered that the Cadillac is expensive to maintain - or so it seems to be more than the typical GM/Ford product.  Shannon accidently hit the sunroof switch coming home with Erin...and low and behold the sunroof was stuck open.  It would not close.  Getting some preliminary cost estimates kind of scared us.  So we parked it.

In addition the Lord has spoken to us regarding our children and driving.  Why do our children need to drive at age 15 1/2...or 16...or even 17?  Would I allow them to drive alone - to be unprotected - and for what purpose....to help run errands for mommy and daddy?  I believe it could foster independence and develop more of an appetite for what the world has to offer.  Plus in our County we would have to partake in the driver education offered by the government school (no private schooling available).  I have already heard stories about what goes on in that class - and my answer is it is not worth it.  I will teach them some driving skills on the farm, and we will patiently wait until they are 18 and do not have to take the driver's ed class.

Why all the hurry?

Anyhow we have the Cadillac and the trash truck.  The trash truck only sits 2 people....the Cadillac can sit 5.  The trash truck (Lord willing) will be less expensive to maintain.  We took the Cadillac to the dealership - and they managed to close the sunroof by cleaning the switch.  They could not guarentee how long this fix would last.  The recommended a new switch - and the bill would be $800.  So we decided that we could live with the Dave Ramsey beater - and we are going to try to sell the Cadillac again.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Well we are doing the Financial Peace class again!  Some families in our homeschool support group heard that we went through it and mentioned that they wished they had the opportunity.  Being blessed by the experience the first time, we decided to host the FPU class again.  It gave us an opportunity to meet other families and have some fellowhip in Christ.

So far 2 other families have signed up and I hope it will be a blessing for all.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

My father-n-law blessed our family by donating his old car to our family....along with the trash truck.  We only had our family vehicle -2001 Yukon XL.  I had cleanup and advertised his car earlier this year and tried to sell it.  In fact we had a buyer who came but he was 6'4" tall - and his head touched the roof...so he couldn't buy it. 

At the time we needed another vehicle for me to get to work from time to time - or at least to the vanpool pick-up location.  Plus we were thinking that a reliable car in good condition would serve us as our older children became of 'driving' age.  Her dad decided to give us his car if we took responsibility for the farm trash truck (a real Dave Ramsey beater).  Yes the insurance and taxes for 2 vehicles put a damper on our budget, but what a blessing.

So now we own 3 vehicles.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

In February 2007 we started the 13 week FPU course with 2 other families.  It took more than 13 weeks due to travel/sickness etc. - but we finished up in June/July.  What a blessing!!  The teaching and enouragement we received from Dave himself and the sharing/accountability with our friends is something we will never forget.  Shannon and I came to an understanding of finances, the Baby Steps and what we had to do to achieve our vision of being debt free and helping others.

The first hard piece was developing a written budget (and sticking to it) and going on a cash basis.  After weeping about what could have been - and realizing that it is not too late - we started to tackle our debt (Baby Step 2) after establishing our $1,000 emergency fund (Baby Step 1).  We paid off the credit card (no longer have any) and decided to hit our home equity line of credit, which was very large and could have been considered as part of "the house".  We had no wiggle room for anything - we were in bondage.

Dave says to sell what you can, work extra jobs, anything to get ride of debt.  One can not make any headway if you are a slave to the lender (Proverbs 22:7).  Let's just say we made a very difficult decision and are walking by faith. 

We are now methodically paying $500/month on the equity line, we finally have some traction.  We can't wait for the day to put that $500 into our fully funded emergency fund (3-6 months expenses, Baby Step 3).

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link