change your family tree...

I took a look at the last few blogs. I seem to be a little crabby. It's probably due to the wonderful holiday season. It's great to have a booming business, but I'm thankful it's only for a few months. What gets me the most, is people who seem to forget when Christmas is. Like, oh my gosh, you mean Christmas is on the 25th this year. I totally forgot. Seriously. Same day as last year. Remember last year when you didn't have your pictures done and you paniced and swore you would be on the ball next year. Guess what, you totally forgot that Christmas was coming, and once again, you realize you need pictures and cards now. Guess what there is some one working hard on those pictures. Remember that, they are taking time out of their holiday season to do that for you. So, if you forgot to get your pictures done, don't give them your order and then call 3 hours later asking for your card proof. There just might be a few others who forgot when Christmas was. Please be nice to your photographer (who should be me if you are reading this) it's a very stressful time for them.

On a much lighter note. I was trying not to be crabby, preachy or bitchy for this blog. Oh well, messed that up didn't I? I wanted to let each and everyone of you (okay the 2 of you that read this) what a great year Jeremy and I have had! I what I realized the most is that so much of it is because of a great decision we made early on. In February we took Financial Peace University at our church. Our friends were teaching it, and we wanted to have a good class to take on Wednedays, so we signed up. Little did I know what life changing decision that was.

Financial Peace University is a program put together by Dave Ramsey. He is a financial guru, who teaches you to act your wage. His advise is not hard to get. We started the 13 week class, not sure if we would buy into the thought process. It has been great. We are now debt free except our house, have an emergency fund and no longer have little disagreements about money. If you don't have the money in your envelope, then you don't get to buy it.

WAIT!!??! Did you say, if I don't have the money I don't buy it?
Yes, that right, if you don't have the money you don't buy it. If you only have $20 dollars for groceries for the rest of the week, then you learn to love rice. (Dave always says rice and beans, but I don't care for beans too much.) We have envelopes that are filled with a set amount of cash every 2 weeks. And if you don't have money in your envelope, then too bad you have to save your money. It's amazing how great this works. Not only do we feel like we suddenly have money, but we also have less stuff, because you have to justify every penny.

The best part, since we've had Olympia and I stopped working a normal job, each year at Christmas, it's a little tight to make ends meet, we never had to use a credit card or anything, but I was very nervous. But this year, we had the money put aside. We just paid cash for it all. No need to worry, we had been anticipating Christmas since February. Isn't that great!?! I am so excited I want to tell everyone we know, unfortunately, we live in a society that is afraid to talk about money. Or where it seems like bragging to tell this sort of thing. So, here is my bragging. We paid for Christmas with cash, I bought Jeremy a trip to Hawaii for our anniversary with cash. That's right the whole trip already paid for!

If you are interested in how to change your family tree, let me know, we are teaching the same class early next year. Come and join us! As Dave says, "We give you the same financial advice your grandmother would, except we keep our teeth in"

TWO thumbs up!