I’m feeling very empowered tonight!

Last evening was the 3rd of 9 classes at church of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. It has been a true blessing to me and my mom.  I understood the need for the dreaded ‘B’ word – BUDGET.  I just didn’t quite know how to go about it.  Oh sure, I had a spread sheet, put my expenses on it and bills, pay amount then minus those and damn I am flat broke and no savings.  It wasn’t working, and Peter was getting ticked if I robbed him to pay Paul.  This class is way more than how to budget, and tonight I not only paid my bills, put money in savings, a substantial amount, but I also had ME money.  First out of the gate was my tithe/I’m In campaign at church.  I’ve been doing that since the end of December and somehow, despite the large amount, I am able to pay my bills.  It was a total act of faith when I prayed and the number came to me, yet here I am, by God’s grace, able to do it and still pay everything.  This class is teaching me how to not just pay bills, have savings and an emergency fund, but how to GET OUT OF DEBT. And do it quickly.  I’m beyond excited!!

Part of the way FPU works is using envelopes for things you can pay cash rather than using a credit/debit card.  This means being able to leave my card at home and that eliminates the chance of spending outside of the lines.  So I made an envelope for gas, and one for that ME money, stashed the card in a safe place at home and now I will only carry cash, and only as needed.  Already I’m finding it very hard to part with my money when it is actually there in my hands and I see physically what will be left in that envelope.  I’m becoming very miserly and I like it!

One night, I believe last season, Shark Tank featured the Squatty Potty.  It was hilarious but then the medical side in this den of Divas kicked in and we started to wonder if it was all it was cracked up to be.  Now and then we’d joke about it though we didn’t part with the money to own one.  Fast forward to this month:  Diva Boo recently received her income tax check and ordered 2 of them, and I’m here to tell you, without it being TOO much information, that they really are pretty amazing.  I think every bathroom in the land should have one in fact.  We’ll just leave it at that, shall we?