If you could have been a fly on the wall 4 or 5 months ago, you would have seen a very different me. I couldnt sleep at night worrying about where the money was going to come from to pay the bills, I jumped every time someone pulled into the driveway thinking they were coming to take the car away. I kept all phones on silent so that I wouldnt have to face the dozens of bill collectors calling every day trying to get money from us. We played a constant game, trying to see which bill we could put off the longest before services would be shut off. If you have never lived in fear of the phone ringing or the car being repoed and how you would explain that to your children, you are in a very good place. And I would never wish those feelings on anyone! Its amazing how money can affect so many other aspects of your life if you don't know what you are doing with it. In short, we were a mess. Something had to change, that much was obvious. We were seriously considering bankruptcy and I was actively seeking out a bankruptcy lawyer that wouldnt rrob us blind of money we didnt have (WHY would they even try??? We were filing bankruptcy not do to an overload of money!). After talking a couple times with my cousin, Emily, about our situation I finally took her advice and looked up Dave Ramsey. He seemed too good to be true, but what did we have to lose? I bought his book and prepared to nag Justin into reading it. To my very pleasant surprise, my husband read it cover to cover in about 2 days. We talked about it a lot over the next few days and decided that Dave Ramseys methods made sense and we wanted to give it a try. We sat the kids down and talked with them about what it would mean for them, what our ultimate goals were, and what we needed to do to get there. Then Justin and I (ok,ok, mostly Justin...numbers and I truly do not mix) hashed out a budget and rolled up our sleeves and made cuts where we could. The hardest cut we made was cutting out our season tickets to the Pirates. It was so upsetting to me! I couldn't even look at their webpage without crying, forget talking about the new organization etc. Over the next couple of months we learned how to make and stick to a budget. We started making a monthly menu for all meals, doing very planned shopping trips WITH a list, and every last penny was assigned to something...It was going great! But there were definitely moments where I felt like I was going to lose it. And I am pretty sure there was a time or 2 where I said some not so nice things about Mr. Ramsey and his budgets.
2 months after we started following Dave Ramseys methods, the bill collectors have stopped calling. All of our bills are paid on time, and some of them even early! It is an AMAZING feeling to not jump when a car pulls into the driveway. It is even better turning the ringer back on on the phone watching the girls run to answer it when it rings and not having to tell them to leave it alone.
3 months after we started following Dave Ramseys methods we purchased 1/2 season tickets to our beloved Portland Pirates with money that we actually have. And I was hit with the stunning realization that this really does work. Its going to take perserverance, focus, determination, cooperation, and a whole lot more, but we really ARE going to get there. I cannot tell you how much fun it was to sit the girls down and tell them we got our tickets back.
And now to Mr. Ramsey-
I appologize for all the mean things I said to you and about you under my breath. They were uncalled for and definitely misplaced. And I thank you so much for showing us not just the light at the end of the tunnel, but also the path we must take to get there. Thank you for teaching us that we have to "live like no one else, so later we can live like no one else."
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