“Over 100,000 accidents a year involve drivers who are texting”
Let me type that again.
“Over 100,000 accidents a year involve drivers who are texting”
I know, I know, you only do it at red lights. Or when you are sure no one is in front of you or you are really good at multi-tasking so its no big deal….or…….
Exception after exception as you play Russian roulette with your life. Don’t let this be you or your story.
Do not text and drive.
Dear Readers, do not underestimate the importance of your presence.
I was reminded recently of how wonderful my friends are and how much I love to help them. I am friends with doctors, lawyers, and teachers to name just a few. Many of them, if not all of them do not need help doing anything much to my chagrin, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to, but yesterday, I had an “aha moment” and I realized:
Being there is enough.
When a close friend battled and won her fight against cancer, I had no words of advice to give but I was there. When a friend moved to New York, I had ideas and high hopes for her, but nothing solid to offer. When another friend had a baby, I wasn’t able to give any counsel but was there to love and be there for her. It’s easy to say you have nothing to give and we are so quick to discount what we can give which is ourselves. I invite you to be there for someone, take them for coffee, pick up a phone or send an email. You are far more important than you give yourself credit for.
I first heard of Dave Ramsey from my “work mom”. She has listened to him on the radio for years! When I would worry about money issues, she always said “you should listen to this guy Dave” I actually Googled Dave Ramsey and discovered Financial Peace University. I also discovered it cost almost $100 to take the course! As a single mom, I had no idea where I would find the money, so I brushed it off. Whenever she mentioned him again, I would say “Yeah, but who can afford to spend money to learn how to deal with money?”
Fast forward to 2012, I was married and we were really struggling to organize combined income and combined debt. . The debt was overwhelming me, and we were fighting all the time. Often times, we were going on outings we shouldn’t, and spending money we didn’t have because the financial communication was non-existent. It went like this… Everyone was having fun and enjoying themselves, then there was me: with a scowl on my face because I was so worried about how I was going to shift the money around to cover the “fun” we were having. I felt like the kill-joy of the bunch…
I prayed that God would show us the way! At church the very next Sunday, it was announced that Financial Peace University would be held at our church for the first time in 3 years! I was like whoa! Get this, there was financial aid available! And God said “I got your back Tami!” I tell JR “Hey honey! I want to take this get out of debt course on Sunday mornings, and you have to come with me or we won’t get the scholarship” Of course he came along and our journey began! I ran some basic calculations and got him excited about how fast we could get out of debt.
Before class started, I read a few chapters of the book and became proactive to make sure we could get the $1,000 BEF saved. I cancelled my contributions to the deferred comp plan, reduced my Federal withholdings to zero for the rest of the year, and we managed to save the $1,000 two months early! We were so excited to be in BS2 before the end of class! We cancelled our cable a few months before we heard of the class, but I shopped around our insurances and we cut our food budget to cut back on expenses. Christmas that year was an all cash experience which hadn’t happened in many, many moons… Credit cards were cut up and accounts closed. We were well on our way, and even shaved a few months off our Debt Free Date!
Since then, I decided I wanted to take the class again (it IS a lifetime membership after all) However, there were none available in my area… that’s how I became a facilitator! I now co-facilitate FPU at our church, and our next session will begin this October. I am very excited and I love sharing the program with others who are struggling. Their excitement feeds me, which in turn feeds my husband. Of course there are times though when he says “honey there are other things in life besides Dave Ramsey and you need to talk about them too!”
Our most drastic change to date has been cancelling our iPhones… That is a whole experience in and of itself! Our Total Money Makeover journey is continuously changing as our attitudes and self-discoveries evolve. Our DFD has changed again, but the opposite direction. Some past issues came up that need dealt with, but we are dealing with them together. My husband and I are both eternally thankful for the knowledge we gained through Financial Peace University. We are both certain that without taking FPU, our marriage would be in crisis. We will get through this mountain of debt, and we will do it together!
Like this post? Read more from Tami about getting out of debt and her sacrifices for financial freedom here
at http://iquitmyiphone.blogspot.com/
All about how you can make stress work for you instead of fighting it! It seems to be in the air, so I thought I would post about it on my blog and let my readers pass it on as they see fit!
A year later and six months with paleo, I lost 60 pounds. I know its not June anymore but this is the most recent photo I took of me that you can see my whole body. A friend recently asked me if I was documenting the transformation and I realized I have fallen down on that lately so here goes.. The next photo you see will be from September of this year. While the weight loss is great, the increased energy and commitment to my health has been the greatest feeling. My husband put us on this journey in January and it just keeps getting better and better. I never thought of myself as someone who had a special diet or a vegan not that there is anything wrong with it, just wasn’t on my landscape. But now, I am happy and grateful every day for this diet and the changes that we have seen with it. I have done a 5K and been comfortable in a bathing suit for the first time ever…. (and that was just this month) after a life-time of thinking of myself a certain way, I see a different picture in the mirror and I like what I see….
If you are struggling with weight or just feeling run-down, I invite you to take a look at your diet and see if you are eating healthy foods and try it for a week and see how you feel. You might really enjoy it!
This website is our go to place –
http://www.thepaleomom.com/
It was a great day, my best friend got married to a wonderful woman, my husband twirled me on the floor and we had a great time visiting New York. I have been to the city twice before, but this time I got to see it through his eyes and you know what, it was even better than I remembered. It’s probably one of my favourite things about being married is seeing things through his eyes.
Hello dear readers. This morning I got up at 5:15 a.m and worked out in my living room. Two things I DETEST! I did have a brief flirtation with liking “working out” after a dance class a few months ago but it was just that, brief.
I remember when I was younger, I dreamed about being an adult and able to eat cookies any time I wanted to and going to bed super late and looking very forward to all of it. I dreamed about a certain kind of job I would have and winning an Oscar (still plan to by the way 🙂
My life, thus far, has not turned out like I imagined.
It’s better. Lots better.
“Let me explain, no wait, there is no time. Let me sum up”
I have a husband who is wonderful. So wonderful, in fact that it was his suggestion that we get up early today and work out and you know what, I had fun and you know why, because he was there and we were working on our goals together and that makes a big difference.
Knowing you have a partner, whether its a friend or a spouse or an accountability partner makes a huge difference in the pursuit of your happiness.
Who is your partner and why do they rock? Tell me about it!
So yesterday I was venting about an exchange that really annoyed me and after painting an epic narrative about how “wronged” and “scorned” and “maligned” (did she just say maligned? She did) My friend very calmly smiled and said, So what actually happened? I had to laugh and then go back through the events and realize how absolutely ridiculous and over the top my reaction to something so casual turned out to be.
There are real insults to be sure, but the ones we dream up are 10 times worse than anyone could ever deliver. So I say again, step out of your own personal soap opera and look at what is REALLY going on.
Do you live in the real world most of the time or do you also invent epic scenarios?
Or is it just me? 🙂
When you draw a line in the sand, prepare to be tested.
After almost a month of no working out, I said to myself, I am going to work out Friday, no matter what. In fact, I even told my husband, do not let me back in the house until I have gone to the gym. He laughingly agreed.
I absolutely did not feel like going to the gym but remembered my promise to myself to work out. Well, I went to the gym and as I walked in and swiped my card, (indicating that I was going to work out, and not just pay for a membership this month!) the fresh-faced guy behind the counter says, oh sorry, we are closing in 10 minutes. Mildly annoyed, but politely I say, Oh, well is there a 24 hour gym I can go to? He says yes, just down the road in fact, I ask, “Are you sure?” He says, “Yes”
So you can probably tell where this is going but hang on my story gets better-
I go to the gym further up the road where I see a man standing by a closed and obviously locked door. Infuriated, I look at the sign to the right that says Monday-Friday 24 hours, Saturday-Sunday 8am-8pm. I see an employee inside who I flag down and I inquire as to the discrepancy. (not really a discrepancy, but an error on my part, but more on that later.
He explains that the 24 hours applies to Monday through Friday till midnight, then the gym closes and reopens again at 8am on Saturday morning (way too late to do me any good right now!) Frustrated, but seeing his logic, I head off to my car and drive home.
So I failed to workout, despite my best efforts, and while I think a lot of people would have been deterred by the first gym closing, I did persevere to the next gym but I did give up before actually working out so while the effort was expended, I didn’t keep my promise to myself. No big deal, right? I can always work out another day. Well the truth is, your word to yourself is the first promise you make, and its a good indication of whether your word to others is worth. Think about it, if you can’t keep a promise to yourself, how good will a promise to others be? I take a great deal of pride in the fact that if I say I will do something or I will be there, it gets done or I show up.
How about you? How much integrity do you have when it comes to work, friendships and relationships? Are you able to be counted on for keeping your word or is it shaky?
“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
― John Wooden
Think about it!
Today’s Guest Poster is Sunny!
She blogs about living on a budget and getting out of debt with the help of Dave Ramsey* at http://www.debteliminationexperiment.blogspot.com/.
My husband and I have been on the Dave Ramsey plan since the summer of 2012, we got married in April of 2012 and were doing well budgeting but wanted some insight into paying off our loans quickly. If we had not taken student loans we wouldn’t have any debt because otherwise we live very frugally. On the flip side, if we hadn’t taken out student loans we would probably be working minimum wage jobs for the rest of our lives. We are from a small mining town in Missouri where there are more people than jobs.
He moved to Chicago to study Computer Programming and Design, I moved to Tennessee to study Sign Language and Theatre. We now reside in Knoxville, TN.
We bought into the notion that “student loan is good debt, it’s an investment in your future.” Which I guess is partly true but we “did stupid” in that we chose to go to private (very expensive) colleges. We both worked a few hours a week while in college but not nearly enough to offset our student loans.
We are now living like no one else, in a tiny ugly apartment, driving 2 cars that are old enough to be in high school, and throwing 45% of our monthly income towards our debt. That is unless Murphy comes knocking!
Sometimes we don’t follow the program exactly, we did go on vacation this year. It’s going to take us 3 years to get these loans paid off so we budgeted one of our snowballs to go to the beach. Since we have such a long time to go we don’t want to get burnt out and just give up entirely.
Overall on the program we’ve learned a lot and still have a lot of learning to do I suppose! Our families think we are weird, I bring my lunch to work in my Doctor Who lunchbox almost every day. I’d say we’re moving in the right direction!
Like this post? Sunny blogs at: http://www.debteliminationexperiment.blogspot.com/
*Dave Ramsey is the national talk show host who talks about “Common Sense for your Dollars and Cents-
Want to know more about him or getting out of debt?
Haston Helping Hands 