PLASTECTOMY??

Well some of you know about the Xmas gift my folks gave us. Well not just us, but my brothers & sister got one as well. We got the book titled THE TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER by Dave Ramsey. No idea what was behind the gift, if my folks thought we were having problems or if they just wanted us to get on board & better our financial picture.

Well dad had said that Phil would probably be the only one to read the book. Well I proved him wrong, I read it too!! Phil read it in like 2 or 3 days. I finished it up last week. Phil said it was the BEST Xmas present he's ever gotten. I only wish I could of had this information 15 years ago!! If we would of started out our marriage with following the baby steps, we wouldn't have a mortgage right now!! Yes, you CAN pay cash for a house!! Who would of thought that!?

Basically there are 7 Baby Steps (BS) to the program. We are almost done with BS 2 & ready to move to #3! In order to complete that step faster, we decided to put our lake home up for sale. This is obviously a hard decision for us, but we are gonna try to sell it. Who knows, it may be hard to sell so we may end up keeping it! But this weekend as we go to Iowa, we thought it would be a good idea to leave some fliers along the way as a lot of the people at the resort are from Iowa. So we figure, why not try some free advertising!

The other thing we did was cut up our credit cards. Which can also be referred to as a PLASTECTOMY!! I did this yesterday with mine. I have so many in my wallet & I only use the one Visa, but I'm always applying for cards to get that *extra* discount they offer when you sign up for their cards. I had Herberger's, Old Navy, Kohl's, Discover, Bed, Bath, & Beyond & who knows what else. So I just cut them up, not a big deal since I never use them anyhow! It was funny though, the kids came home from school & saw them on the counter & then put them back together for me and said they finished the puzzle!

Well today Nick comes home from school & said that he told his teacher that I cut up my credit cards. She asked him "how come?" He told her "cause we are having a financial makeover" So now I bet she thinks I have a credit card problem!!!

The other big thing I did was get myself a DEBIT card. I never had one cause I thought they weren't safe & I worried about it getting lost or stolen & someone wiping out my account. Well after discovering they are as safe as a credit card, I'm now the proud owner of a debit card! So it's that & CASH that I'll be using.

So now I'm on a budget. I've already used up 1/2 of it with my trips to Walgreens so this could be a difficult rest of the month for me!!!! Hopefully, they won't have any more good deals this month!!! The hard thing for me is buying stuff cause it's such a good deal or very cheap. I've always been this way, whether we need it or not. Like the 8 bags of Kissables, Phil said we don't need them. But then he's not complaining at all about the 15 bars of Dove Candy bars. (He said they are the best chocolate he's ever had!)

Financially, we've always thought we've both done pretty good. Especially after we cut our income by more than 50% when I quit working full time. We cut back where we needed to & made the income work for us. But after reading this book, we realize that there is so much more that we CAN do. Not only to have an enjoyable retirement but to live in Financial Peace and most importantly to GIVE back.

So I'm hoping that we can stick with this program & who knows, maybe it will give me the willpower I need to get back on the right mindset with eating & exercising & get rid of those nagging 20 pounds I have left to lose!!