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Not Cheap, Intentional

A penny saved is a penny earned, a fool and his money are easily parted, laugh all the way to the bank, money doesn't grow on trees.   I'm sure you see where I am going.  I am kinda nerdy when it comes to money.  I love budgets, saving money, doing without to save, and being debt free.  Let me just say this up front, I am not CHEAP! I am intentional about my spending.

Dave Ramsey is kinda my cheerleader.  Although we don't follow his baby steps we are somewhere in the step 6/7.  7 is the last step ~pay off the house.  I haven't even read his book, yet.  I know enough by listening to him and reading articles about money to know we are doing okay.  The stats that Dave Ramsey's staff post on FB are mind boggling.   I am amazed at the debt of this country and saddened all at the same time.  Let me share some statistics....

27% of Americans have no personal savings and 34% have nothing saved for retirement. – Harris Poll (27% is about 83 million people! Yes, I did the math. I told you I was nerdy.)

54 million families carry a collective total of $800 billion in credit card debt. – Equifax

27% of homeowners with mortgages owe more than their homes are worth. – CNN Money

9 out of 10 people in their 30s are in debt, the highest proportion of any age decade. -Federal Reserve

MasterCard posts 41% leap in 4th quarter profits, reflecting higher credit card use.

There is presently $850 billion in outstanding student-loan debt in the United States according to World Net Daily.


I am very thankful for the Larry Burkett series that Mark and I watched 12 years ago.  It was at a perfect time in our life.  Newly married with the world at our finger tips.  Mark took the challenge of budgeting our money very serious.  I think we have had a yearly budget for at least 10 years.  Don't get me wrong we look back and know there are things we did that cost us more money, but we have always been pretty intentional about spending.  

Mark and I are debt free except the house.  This didn't happen overnight and we have had our share of debt.  At some point we decided enough is enough.  We have never had credit card debt, we do use a credit card and have paid it off every month for 13 years. I know this is WIERD!  Which is one of the areas in the Dave Ramsey method we obviously don't follow.   We don't spend more than we have.  

We have bought our share of new cars.  I don't even want to list them.  For the past 4.5 years we have owned free and clear the cars we drive.  

Two years ago when Mark lost his work with the pool company  I never would have imaged it would be months before we had another paying job.  This is when debt free was great.  We had enough on our plate with three kids and no income.  We had enough saved to pay for what we needed.  We went into a no spend zone.  It is amazing how little you need.  I remember saying to Mark along the lines of I am so thankful we have no debt.  I could not imagine going through that time in our life with debt too.  

I have much to say about all this topic and think I will leave it here for today.  Tomorrow I will reflect on how we save money.  

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