Dave Ramsey- Financial Peace Discussion

[esavvymom]

I know there is a "group" for this "Total Money Makeover", but the problem with groups is you don't get notifications (that I am aware of) when someone posts, so we never post. HA.Anyway....I just made a very startling realization. For those of you who have ever listened to Dave Ramsey or taken any of his courses/read his books, you'll know what this means.I'M THE NERD!!! YIKES! That hurts. For those who aren't familiar with it, he talks about the Nerds and the Free-spirit. The nerd likes the numbers, the details, the plans. The free-spirit just spends the money, has approximate account of what he spends/has in the bank, etc., but not really concerned about the details.I just finished updating my Budget Spreadsheet. I have it in Excel with calculations, links to pages, and it does all sorts of fancy stuff for me. I just have to update the income amounts, and the category budget amounts. It calculates how much I have left over after all that so I can adjust. And I made the comment to myself that "I really like using Excel for this!". Then it hit me. POW! I'm the nerd. I'm going to go sulk in a Cranberry-Ginger Ale and have some chocolate now. But to start a discussion....how are YOU doing with your budgeting or Ramsey FPU (those who went through it)?
We are trying to get back on the wagon. I'm a bit concerned about the economy and should things get tough for us. We've been very blessed to have a great paying job (DH) and all that goes with it. But the world isn't what it used to be - prices keep going up. I really want to get rid of the debt we got last year (took on a vehicle loan after other was totaled). Lots of bigger expenses this year than was first expected. Our Emergency fund took a big hit this year, but still at least a 3-4 month amount available, if we had to use it for that sort of thing.

 

[monicag]

Love the FPU program....my husband and I went through it 4 years ago at another church and now we are teaching it at our church. We've not gone through all the steps, but we have the emergency fund funded and are using only cash....haven't used credit cards in 7 years.....didn't think it could be done, but it can. My husband and I will be married 25 years on Tuesday and were able to go on a cruise a few weeks ago and only used cash....it's paid for and I don't have to worry about paying for it after I get back. And we didn't have to have a credit card to rent a hotel room for the night before or for the car rental.....we were kind of worried about that. And on the cruise, we were able to put cash in the account rather than giving a credit card #.My only wish is that we would have been taught these principles 25 years ago so we wouldn't have had to go through some of the dumb things we did. We're teaching these to our kids so they will hopefully start off strong!

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

I'm the free spirit. (Gee, there's a shock!) In the ant and the grasshopper, I'm the grasshopper.Maybe a rich ant will die and leave me a fortune? (Or at least, a rich uncle?)

 

[chefjeanine]

We're both a little nerdy but of the two of us, I am THE nerd. I wish more people knew about this program -- especially young people.

 

[nikked]

Our church is offering the program starting the middle of Sept.... Can't wait to start. We really need it. With the drastic change in income last year (to the negative, sadly), we are beyond upside down... ::sigh::

 

[carlajanes]

Love Dave Ramsey!!! We stopped using credit cards too execpt for the one we keep hidden away for baaaaad emergencies. Haven't had one yet....
We are on a very fixed income. My PC pays for an extras we need/want.

 

[NooraK]

DH and I did FPU in early 2009. We have paid off about $30K in debt since then, and that time frame also includes a second baby and a drastic cut in income, especially in the last year. We still have a ways to go, though.It's funny you mention the group vs. the thread, since the group was started to avoid having to constantly bump a previous thread (It's the one started by DebbieJ in the Similar Threads at the bottom of the page). I have fallen back into some bad spending habits in the last few months, but DH and I have made a renewed commitment to being gazelle intense in September. We had a fairly good month in August because of how the weeks fell, he got paid five times, I got paid three times, plus we received an unexpected gift. It brings ups back up to treading water instead of sinking. I actually have a group on Facebook for friends who are graduates of FPU or just otherwise want to get financially free: https://www.facebook.com/groups/195152177198595/ . You're welcome to join the discussion if you'd like, though it isn't too frequent.