Just real quick…
I want to point out that this blog is purely for releasing all of the hot air that builds up in my head while making the very extreme effort to not spend money. Because, apparently, I spend money REALLY well.
I’m not offering financial advice, I (very obviously since I’m in the predicament I’m in) don’t know much about money beyond spending it. I’m a 29 year-old girl (I’d say woman but most of the decisions I’ve made in my past are not those of a mature, responsible woman. I’m trying to change that, but still….) with oddly strong opinions and a whole lot to say, who is struggling to keep the deal she made with her husband and herself to change her habits.
So.. that’s my disclaimer.
That whole ‘values’ thing…
One of the things that I appreciate about Dave Ramsey – ok, wait, probably the biggest reason I appreciate Dave Ramsey’s message – is that the bottom line is not a materialistic one. He emphasizes the role that your values play in how you handle your finances, speaking of things like integrity and responsibility.
When I’m at work, in the mailroom, I listen to CNN Headline news quite a bit on XM. And inevitably, I’ll hear an advertisement for some debt relief agency of some sort or another that claims it will help you repair your credit, pay off your debt, consolidate your debt, make MORE money, pay off your bills in record time, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah. Those 30 seconds of commercials do little but make me annoyed at XM for selling them ad space. The exact opposite reaction that I experience when I see a cheesy Dave Ramsey billboard that shouts, ‘ACT YOUR WAGE’. I love that motto. Mostly because it hits at the heart of a prevalent and assumingly normal way for Americans to live. As if they have it all. Before they actually have it all. That, my friends, is called greed.
I keep going over and over in my head, ‘what if….what if…’ What if the CEO’s of the major corporations and banks in trouble right now had been more conscious of their company and the people they employed rather than just, ‘more’? What if the attitude today was more about supporting each other and less about being adversarial? What if Tom Daschle had actually paid his taxes?
I was listening to the radio one day in the car on the way to work and they were talking about a woman who had lost her home to foreclosure and then went to the auction to watch it auctioned off. While there, she began talking to the lady sitting next to her about the house, she’d lived there for twenty years, she knew its worth. The house came up, the lady nexy to her bought it, and gave it back to the woman. What IF the banks and businesses in trouble right now had been run by people more like that?
I just proofed this post and realized I sounded a little crazy, angry at THE MAN. Let me adjust that a bit. We are all guilty of this. I’m guilty of it, hell, it’s taken me 29 years to get tired of my irresponsibility, to realize we need to change some things, and fast. It’s easy to blame the guys holding the fishing pole, without acknowledging the fact that we’re all down at the bottom, nibbling on the hook.
More than anything else, what’s sticks out like a sore thumb to me, is that if we can’t, as a society, learn to manage our businesses, our money, our families, our fiscal decisions, without some standards, this economic crisis will never end. It might go away for a bit. The latest stimulus plan might help, but it will be a band-aid on a festering wound.
Coupon Game
Derek was watching Good Morning America this morning and told me about this, so I looked it up… it’s kind of intriguing…..The Coupon Game
Their website has a bunch of coupon info, although I wish it had some sort of link to the whole ‘coupon party’ bit. It’s not what I expected and the article on ABC News actually gives a whole lot more info than their website does.
I like the idea of expanding on not only the coupons you can get out of newspapers and circulars, but also the huge world of ‘couponing’ on the internet. I remember going to the grocery store when I was pregnant. I got it in my head that I wanted to start using coupons, and so I cut ‘em out, used ‘em and ended up saving $68 dollars. That was so awesome. That’s also the only time I’ve ever done that.
Once, while visiting my grandmother, we went grocery shopping – or her version of it anyway. First, we sat down and pulled out every single circular we could find, and then we went through them one by one, looking at who had what on special, and how that compared to the grocery list. Albertson’s had ground beef for 2.00/lb, Kroger had oranges buy one bag, get one free, etc, etc. You get the idea. Jack was just a baby, I was all of 23 – and a stupid 23 at that. And I was simultaneously awed and exhausted. It took us all day, I think we went to 4 or 5 different stores getting everything we needed, it was daunting. What a difference there is in generations over the last 60 some-odd years. She comes from a whole different mindset, one that at the time I couldn’t possibly relate to. Now, I’m doing my best to learn my lesson in effort, time, and values.
So..umm…yeah. Happy Couponing.
FREE BOOKS!!
It has been more years than I can count since I’ve been inside a library. At least since high school. No, wait, I went once in college. Maybe if I’d spent more time there I wouldn’t have dropped out. And yet, the whole idea of it is pretty remarkable. You walk in, give them your address and phone number, and then they let you borrow books. Wow.
Derek told me a few weeks ago that he and Jack were going to go to the library and get library cards and I kind of brushed him off – I heard him, but I didn’t hear him – you know what I mean? And then, one day last week, I was looking at books in my Shelfari account and thinking, ‘I’d really like to read those again…’ I went over how much buying them would cost, how much of my personal money I wanted to spend, looked at Amazon, wondered faintly about Half-Price Books and what they might charge for one, looked for coupons to Borders, etc, etc. Then, slowly, out of the furthest reaches of my mind, came a very loud “DING DING DING” as I remembered we had a library.
Yes, I feel stupid. A library is not a new concept, I should have gone with Derek and Jack to get a card to begin with, and I don’t really know why I didn’t. Of course, I called up Derek and said, “BABE!! Let’s go to the library tonight!!!” He laughed at me, asked yet again why I don’t listen to him, and that night we went.
I found the book I wanted, and a week later I’m still excited that I can order the books I want online, swing by the library and pick them up, and read them. For free.
It’s no wonder I have a hard time saving money, when things like libraries don’t even occur to me.
Interesting Suze Orman article
I hear a lot from a lot of people about how great Suze Orman is. I don’t know much about her, so I’d like to say that I take this article with a grain of salt. I tend to gravitate toward the people who question rather than follow blindly along, though, which is why this article caught my attention in the first place, to read it, click here.
And here I come… lagging sadly behind the rest of the blogging world….
When my husband Derek and I were taking the Dave Ramsey FPU classes last summer, we talked about doing a joint blog. It was a relatively exciting idea until it became readily apparent that our ideas of said joint blog were not the same. Thus, the idea fizzled. I still notice a somewhat repressed need to share with no one in particular our daily struggles and/or successes in attempting to thrive in this rapidly changing world of economic crisis. About the only thing I’m sure of at this point is that I refuse to lay down and let the world of credit cards and borrowing steamroll over me and my family. I have this sinking feeling that it’s only going to get worse. If we don’t do something now, we’re going to end up like everyone else in debt up to their eyeballs and sinking further by the minute.
