Celebration...

Just wanted to share with you guys how successful the envelopes system has been for us. We have started using the little leather wallet that has different envelopes for different expenses and (surprise) it works! For the past 3 weeks we have budgeted every single dollar from each of my paycheks and Jess's income and then we fund our envelopes based on our allocated budget. We have pretty much not strayed from this system with the exception of taking from one envelope and giving to another. We have also been able to feed ourselves (all six of us) on about $100 to $120 worth of groceries a week (we do set aside $50 for eating out and entertainment on the weekends). We had one set back this week, but I don't really consider it a set back. We had saved about $300 for our emergency fund when our vacuum burned out. It literally started smoking. For those of you who don't know, Jess does janitorial work on the side, so a good vacuum is a necessity for this business. We had to go out and purchase a $230 vacuum and dig into our emergency fund. While some might consider this a loss, I was excited that we had the CASH to pay for this unexpected expense. NO CREDIT NECESSARY! I will also be able to fully fund our emergency fund on the 16th of next month (we should get a bonus at the company I work for around then).

I am actually pretty excited in how we have made some life changes through all this so far. We have stopped eating out during the week (which both saves us money and saves my arteries), and we have been able to agree on our budget and stick to it. The Nerd (Jess) is excited because she gets to budget out our dollars and it is actually working this time, while the Free Spirit (Yours Truly) is excited because we get to put aside money for eating out and entertainment and we don't have to feel guilty about using it the way we want. We have not missed a bill payment or bounced a check through all of this and the envelope system has also given us a peace because we know the money is going to be there. There really are no surprises - at least in terms of whether the money will be there or not, because we know what we have left to spend for each category of expense.

I have a couple other things I'd like to share with you, but they will have to wait until this weekend. God bless and talk to you soon.

Chris

Jess's perspective

For those of you who know us I am sure you were surprised to hear I am the money nerd in our family. I think a lot of that is because I grew up in a home where we didn't always know where our next meal was coming from, much less have any kind of financial peace. I began working at 12 years old in the family window cleaning business in order to help out my parents. By 14 I had my first "real job" at a skating rink 20 plus hours a week. I've had control issues with money and a strong need make sure everyone is taken care of for as long as I can remember.

Chris is much more relaxed with money than I am. I get all tied up in knots about it. I have to have MY plan and know what's going on and know where all the money is going at all times! Chris wants the bottom line and doesn't care as much about the whys and how's that got us where we are. We both tend to impulse shop and we have never planned for the unexpected. For those of you who don't know us... we are famous for the unexpected. So now it seems ridiculous to both Chris and I that we've never had an emergency fund. Jordan and I are responsible for draining us financially when it comes to unexpected medical expenses. In the past 2 years I've had a tonsillectomy, broken arm and a brown recluse bite. Where as Jordan has had a concussion, knocked two teeth loose and chipped 2 others.

I think what makes Chris and I so different is how we look at our spending, because in all honesty we have both fallen into the trap of impulse shopping. For example if I find the kids shampoo on sale "buy one get one free" at HEB, I will stock up with enough for about 4 months even though I hadn't planned on that expense. Then I will go through my grocery list and try and cut it down to make up for the extra money I spent on shampoo. If I can't cut enough money I rationalize my spending by the saying that I am saving us money in the long run and the next three months I won't have to spend any money on kids shampoo. If we eat out on a day we didn't plan to or buy something not on our budget I immediately think of where that money is going to come from and how to make up for that new expense. I'm always looking for ways to save a buck. I turn the AC off during the day in the summer, no lights are EVER left on in an unused room, and there is no need for a heater in Corpus Christi unless the temperature drops below 40. Chris is the free spirit because he doesn't care if it costs us and extra $10 bucks. He wants a warm/cool (comfortable) house. He says "I've already had Whataburger 3 times this week and it won't hurt to pay for one meal at full price. :) He is a bottom line guy when it comes to the budget. Are the bills up to date? Do we have money the bank? Then it's not a big deal. He lives more in the moment. Where I spend 2 days looking for car insurance so that we get the best deal out there. He sees comfort and time as a higher priority than saving $10 a month. He wants to bless his family and give us whatever we need. If I've had a long day he offers to get take out as soon as he comes in from work. If a new Disney movie comes out that the kids really want to see he buys it for them. If there is someone in need he will write a check right there on the spot... while I'm still trying to figure out if we "can afford it"! When we are in financially hard times he is able to relax and know God will provide.... while I'm in the corner FREAKING OUT! :)

There are great blessings to both the Free Spirited Chris and the Nerd Jess. FPU is really teaching us to embrace who we are and work together to budget realistically. Budget for eating out while I'm delivering a baby and then the following night once I get home and I've missed a night of sleep. Now we are both trying to learn how to plan for the unexpected (Jordan and Jess injuries) by having an emergency fund. I love how detailed the Gazelle budget software is. It's helped me plan for things I wouldn't have remembered or even thought of and hopefully begin to strictly stick to our budget! If you haven't already checked it out yet I highly recommend it. If you aren't going through the financial peace university you can buy the same software at Dave Ramsey's website www.mytotalmoneymakeover.com

Jess

Nugget of wisdom...

Have to throw this out there as well before I forget. When we first started going to Oso Creek several years back our very first life group leader dropped a giant nugget of wisdom in our lap. We only had one child at the time and he was probably around 1. That leader said something like this, "Make sure you discipline your children because someone in this life is going to. Whether it is the world, the law, or you." Wow. That is the truth. If I don't discipline my kids, somebody else will do it for me at some point. That could be a teacher at school or Judge Vargas at the county court house.

I bring this up because I think this discipline spills over into the financial world as well. Right now, Jess and I are being disciplined by VISA and Pizza Hut.

I have to admit that until recently I hadn't given much thought to how to teach my kids what it means to be a responsible steward of the money that we have. Honestly I have thought more along the lines of being responsible with the things that we buy with the money God gives us after we buy them, not necessarily how we spend the money (as long as we get that tithe check in the offering plate, right?) I know Jess and I try to teach our kids many things by setting the example and I do believe that is one of the best and most effective ways to teach things, and yet I see us failing miserably in this department when it comes to $$$!!

I wonder if I am alone in this. Have you given much thought into how to teach your child how to be a good steward with the money that comes into his/her life? I would love to hear your thoughts on all this.

Nerd or Free Spirit?

So here we are, already into the 3rd week. We don't have $1000 put away yet, but we are working on it. As a matter of fact we put together a workable budget for this next month and included a big chunk of it to go to our emergency fund. I know we posted our quickie budget previously, but that left a lot of people confused. I had more people come up to give me a hard time about the money we spent on entertainment. That heading actually included a few other miscellaneous things, so we don't really go that hog wild each month. I'll leave that up there for now as a record of where we started in all this.

So the question came up this week - are you a Nerd or Free Spirit? I'll bet you think you have Jessica and I all figured out if you know us. Jessica is the wild and crazy one who rarely turns down a dare and longs for the day when we will finally buy a Harley (not until all the kids graduate in case you were wondering). I am the "accountant" who once worked in a church and now work for the finance & analysis department of one of Texas's largest quick serve restaurant chains.

I bet you're thinking that Jess is the free spirit and I am the nerd. In almost every other situation you would be correct - but for some reason when it comes to money we switch hats. She is the nerd who has to build the spreadsheet - which takes her hours by the way because she refuses to learn how to do it in excel. She does the whole thing manually in microsoft word. Our budget committee meeting took a really really long time.

I am the free spirit. Most of the time she will put together a budget and I will bash it because I don't think it's right and I have my shiny degree to back me up. I mean, I don't tell her how to deliver babies, right? My problem is that when it comes to money, I plan the best case scenario because under my superior leadership we should be able to achieve the best case. (At least I think it is my problem. You'll probably have to check the posted comments to see what Jess thinks- and yes, Jess, that is an invitation).

And then something goes wrong and we don't. Usually that something going wrong starts out with one of us saying, "I only left the room for a second and then Jordan _____". You can fill in the blank. I know I have used that joke a lot lately, but I really have been saying that phrase pretty often. By the way, Jordan is our 4-year-old going on 21. He is a giant for his age and for most of his life his bumps have had bumps.

My initial reaction is usually to blame her, but most of the time it is not her fault, it is just life that gets in the way. If we had our emergency fund fully funded, 9 times out of 10 we probably could have avoided all of this mess. But we are not there yet.

So we finally had our budget committee meeting and came up with a workable budget. The nerd prepared it, the free spirit modified it, and we both agreed on it. I am going to track what we budgeted in my next post and then at the end of the month I will show you what we actually spent.

If you haven't checked out the online materials that come with the course, now is a great time. There is a program called the "Gazelle Budget" that even my microsoft word loving spouse decided to try. And she loved it.

That's all for now.

Chris

This made me laugh...

If you have a chance - check out this link. You'll probably have to see a commercial, but there is a funny sketch after it that sums up most of Americas problem with money (or at least mine).

http://video.aol.com/partner/hulu/saturday-night-live-dont-buy-stuff/nJL3iSCZ9KOP1d3-9QnyRYw9R19ihanU

Don't be shocked explanation

So there is all of our dirty laundry. We have stacked up about $17k in different kinds of debt (not including student loans). The majority of it was as a result of a job change. I took about a $10- $15k pay cut when I moved from HB Turbo to Whataburger. Despite the pay cut, I knew that I had to move on for my family's sake and for the sake of my walk with Christ. I waited for a little over a year to get promoted at my new job and finally started to pay off debt instead of accumulate it. And that - in a nutshell - is how we got into this mess!

I will try and make our quickie budget fit the blog a little better when I have some more free time.

Thanks,

Chris

Don't Be Shocked!

The Basic Quickie Budget
		Monthly		Payoff		How Far		Type of
Item		Total		Total		Behind		Account
Giving		575.00
Saving
Housing
	First Mortgage	1,403.00		$163,000.00		current		5.50%
	Second Mortgage
	Repairs/Mn. Fee
Utilities
	Electricity	190.00
	Water	80.00
	Gas	-
	Phone	74.00
	Trash
	Cable	60.00
	*Food	600.00
Transportation
	Car Payment
	Car Payment
	*Gas & Oil	200.00
	*Repairs & Tires
	Car Insurance	22.00						Safeco
Clothing
Personal
	Disability Ins.
	Health Insurance
	Life Insurance
	Child Care
	*Entertainment	360.00						Mostly Eating Out
Other Misc.
	Visa	100.00		5,600.00		current		Credit Card
	Teachers CU	356.00		$9,900		current		Cons. Loan
	Care Credit	140.00		1,400.00		current		0% Dental CC
	HH Loans	105.00		7,500.00		current		Student Loan
	AES	152.00		33,000.00		current		Student Loan
Total Monthly Necessities		4,417.00

I found that poster

Man I have a great memory....

Start Here

I just wanted to say that I know my first post is extremely long, but I think it is important to understand where I am coming from. I promise that that will be my longest post. Over the next couple days I will be posting what is going on with us and Financial Peace University. Stay tuned and feel free to post your comments.

Thanks,

Chris

What if we’ve got it all wrong?

I remember sitting in my third grade class and staring at this poster on the wall. It wasn’t the typical poster you would see in a third graders class. It didn’t have a picture of Garfield or Charlie Brown, and it wasn’t an educational poster with some hidden math or grammar lesson mixed in. Maybe that is why I found myself staring at it so often. It was this poster of a cliff side mansion overlooking this vast view of the ocean. The house was partially built into the side of the hill and it had a long curving pathway coming down from the front of the house to an open five car garage/car port complete with a selection of cars that most people only dream of owning including a Porsche and a bright red Lamborghini thrown in just for fun. The poster read “Justification for Higher Education” in big red letters amidst the setting sun in the background. Third grade wasn’t the last time I saw that poster. It showed up again later on in elementary, middle school, and high school as well. I remember staring at those vehicles and thinking, someday I will figure out a way to earn enough money to own a place like that and life will be good. The person who owns that house has his act together.

Here I am now. 30 years old and I haven’t bought that house yet. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not for lack of trying. I just haven’t found that next big thing, or at least that is what I have told myself for years.

And yet, I have found myself living in a state of holy discontent for just as many years. I have had this feeling like something crucial was missing that was right in front of me. Something so simple and so key to my walk with Christ was right there with me, but I couldn’t see it.

Don’t get me wrong, I became a Christian many years ago and I have been doing my best to follow Christ and understand his perfect will for my life as best as I can ever since then. This piece that was missing wasn’t a salvation issue, wasn’t a spiritual gifts issue, and for the most part it wasn’t a sin issue. I have spent many days and nights asking God to reveal to me what that piece was because I longed to fill this empty part of me. Every time I would pray that or begin to question what that hole in my spiritual life was my mind was flooded with this single thought. “What if we’ve got it all wrong?”

Not the answer I was looking for. Isn’t it funny how God sometime answers a question with another question? What if we’ve got it all wrong? Over the years I have tried to figure out what that meant and why God would choose to answer me that way. Over the years that feeling of uneasiness has also grown. The best way I know how to describe it is unrest. Incomplete peace.

I found this question bothering me more frequently at our life group meetings. Often times we would find ourselves discussing how Jesus modeled life for us. We would discuss the way he put everything aside for those around him. We would discuss the disciples and apostles and the roads that they walked – the sacrifices they made – the way they laid down their lives for us--literally. We would talk about how Christ calls us to do the same thing. We would talk about how He was changing us from the inside out and forming us in His image. And then, after a snack, we would get in our nice cars and drive home to our new custom built house. Put our kids to bed in their Lightning McQueen and Disney princesses comforters, maybe have a couple chips ahoy cookies and a cool glass of milk before we hop in bed (or better yet bring the whole bag of cookies to bed) ready to watch Jay Leno go Jaywalking before we go to sleep.

There were times in my life when God would show me a glimpse of what he was talking about. There were these moments of, for lack of a better way to describe it, goodness. A point in time when you just knew that where you were at that moment was where you were supposed to be and that thing you were doing was right. That feeling that at that moment you were part of something much bigger than yourself and it was right, but not just right, whole. Looking back in my life, most of my experiences with those moments were when I was serving someone else or doing my best to meet a need for someone else. Just this last week, I had a friend who took up a collection to help out a family in need that had some important items stolen from them. This family had no way to replace what was stolen and needed them so that the husband could continue his education. It was awesome to hear how the family responded when he took what he had collected and dropped it off. Utter shock, surprise, and gratitude – straight from the heart. Likewise, he was blessed in that moment as well. He said that he believed he was blessed more than the family he was trying to help just because he got to play a part in helping to meet that need. What an awesome moment. To me, that is one of those whole moments. I think my friend would agree with me.

God really spelled it out for me recently and this is what has driven me to write this down and start this blog. Like I said before, I have always been looking for that next thing that will help me earn a ton of money, get out of debt, buy a new car, and, oh yeah, maybe help out a few people along the way. But for the most part, I have always looked at the money that comes in and out of my household as mine. With the exception of what I tithe and what I decide to give to others along the way, I have always seen what I earn as God’s provision solely for me and my family. The more I look at Jesus and the apostles, the more I see that is not exactly what God had in mind.

To fill you in completely you need a little background. My wife and I have owned a Ford minivan for almost 4 years now. We bought it used for about $8k, and thought that it would just be a temporary car until we could afford to buy a new one (one reason to not take care of it). We bought this before we had our third child and since then we have had both our third and fourth. Since purchasing the van it has had about every creature comfort break on it. From the electric windows that won’t go down, to the cabin lights that come on whenever they feel like it (another 2 reasons), it has slowly fallen apart. Add a rusting roof, chipping paint and worse gas mileage than a really old Suburban to the list as well. Only after buying this van did we discover that Consumer Reports rated it as one of the lowest rated mini-vans on the market for its year of manufacture (yet another reason to despise it). We have talked about buying a new car for all 4 of the years that we have owned this vehicle, but have not had a peace about it until recently. You see we are one of those families that lives from paycheck to paycheck. We are trying to dig ourselves out of a small mountain of debt that we have accumulated partially because of a job change and partially because we were living beyond our means. Just recently we were able to pay down a big chunk of that debt because we received a large tax refund. Jess and I had been praying (going on 4 years now) that God would help us to free up enough money to buy a new car, because, after all that Ford minivan could die at any minute. Only, it has been 4 years now and that darn thing won’t die. Hmm…maybe God was trying to tell us something.

So after 4 years of praying and finally paying down a chunk of debt I finally get this peace from God that it would not be wrong to buy a new car now. Jessica and I immediately went out to test drive vehicles. We drove expeditions, Honda pilots, we looked at the Jeep Commander, and finally settled on this Mazda CX-9. It was the perfect size. It fit all 6 of us and still left room for an ice chest in the back. It also didn’t drive like a brick. It was awesome. It was $26,500 for the 07 model. Only 2 left, so we had to make a decision fast. We went home to talk about it just a little more and that’s when God spoke to me clearly. We wrote down our budget on paper. What was coming in and what was going out. We didn’t include the quarterly bonus I got from my job and we tried to include some cash in our budget for unexpected things. What do you know -. it worked out on paper. But barely. Not much wiggle room. Not much room for the unexpected. Hmm…

So there we were sitting in our room staring at eachother. When God starts to pull on my heart strings. “You can go get this car,” he said, “and that would be okay. I just want to make sure…is that what you really want?” Arrrgghh! Another one of those “what if we’ve got it all wrong” moments! What do I really want? So as we sat there and stared at each other I grabbed our little pad that we had written our finances out on and asked Jessica, “What do you want to do over the next 5 years?” knowing that was how long we would have to pay for the car. And that was when the glimpse into what I think God was trying to teach me became a realization. We wrote down how we wanted to put our kids in private school. We wrote down that we wanted to adopt. We wrote down how we wanted to work on our backyard to make it a place where we can share our house and our lives and our faith with other young families around us. We wrote down that we wanted to be able to bless other people freely without having to make sure we had the money in the bank. We wrote down that we wanted to be able to give more.

And suddenly the new car didn’t matter anymore. There was the realization that these things that God has planned for us (if we are willing) are going to take planning and money and intentional living. If we bought the car, sure we could make the payments, but there would be no way that we could put our kids in private school. It would be very difficult to adopt when we are ready. We would still be living paycheck to paycheck. Did I mention that it would take much longer to pay off the debt that we had accumulated? There has to be a trade off (a sacrifice if you will). There has to be a decision as to what is important in this life and what that higher education was for. What it comes down to for me in really simple terms is this. Did God bless me and give me my unique set of gifts and talents just to see how much money I could make for me and my family?

Did God make me for me?

What if God didn’t just make me for me?

What if everything that this culture has been cramming down my throat since the third grade wasn’t part of God’s plan for me?

What if the justification for higher education wasn’t a Lamborghini? What if it was adopting a child who needed a family?

What if the money that I spent on my cable TV to watch Jay Leno (and gain 10 pounds in the process) should have been saved to pay for my childrens’ education?

What if all the creature comforts that I spend thousands of dollars on each year are replacing the chance to bless the widow at church who needs my help?

What if God created me to do something bigger than make car payments for the next 5 years?

What if we really do have it all wrong?

Once again, please don’t get me wrong. I am not swearing off cable TV or Whataburger or even buying a new car. I am just saying that our culture has led us to believe that what we have is not good enough. We are taught from birth that this life is about what you can make out of yourself and what we mean when we say that is how much wealth you can accumulate. We need more. We need comfort. We need constant entertainment. We need the latest and the greatest. It is normal.

We deserve it.

Truth be told, in this country, most people live like kings compared to the rest of the world and compared to pretty much the rest of history. We have it all and somehow we still want more. In all of that it is so easy to miss God’s provision.

My Ford minivan. God’s provision.

God’s perfect provision.

So here is what I want you to take from this. I used to believe that if God wanted us to do something he would provide the means (above and beyond what he has already provided) and I think a lot of people would agree with me on that. Now I believe that God is showing me that for most of the things he wants me to do, he has already provided the means. I just have to make the decision that that is what I am going to do with what he has given me. But he has left that decision up to me.

So as I start this blog, I have to be completely honest and say that I don’t have a clue what God wants me to do with my finances yet. I do know that he wants me to pay off debt as quickly as possible and be freed up so that they will be available for whatever comes next.

I am hoping that through Financial Peace University Jessica and I can get a jumpstart on catching up.

Over the next 13 weeks I am going to do my best to chronicle our financial situation as we go through this course, and I also want to share what God is doing in our lives as he gives us those small glimpses into his bigger picture and reveals to us that next step as it comes in His time.

So I ask you, what if we really do have it all wrong?