One Family's Journey to Debt-Free Living
The month of March always brings many celebrations for our family and therefore it is one that is the most difficult for us to save money. But, we are always up for a challenge and we tried our best.
Here are some of the ways we saved money last month:
1. We discontinued our fruit and veggie delivery again for this month. I am still missing those weekly deliveries but we are trying to remain gazelle intense on paying off the mortgage so this had to go.
As a HUGE thank you for blessing us with your visits, we are giving away your choice of one of the three financial books that I have done a review on for IG. Please know that these books were purchased used and then read again, so they are extra loved.
The winner’s book will be shipped via USPS media mail and we cannot guarantee that you will receive the book. Due to high shipping costs, we are so sorry, but this is only open to US residents. This giveaway is not associated with any author or Instagram.
All you need to do to be put into the drawing to win is:
Continue reading “Book Giveaway Time”
The FrugalSource would like to take a moment to thank our brave men and women in uniform for all they do for our country. I, Mrs.FrugalSource spent several years working at VA Hospital and it was the best job I ever had. I was deeply touched by the many sacrifices and stories that I was honored to witness during my time there and it has forever changed the way I view the world and those that work tirelessly to protect our part of it. We are extremely grateful.
Below are a few links to sites listing numerous discounts and freebies that our offered for these brave men and women. We hope all veterans will take advantage of as many as possible.
We have finally reached the very last baby step. And if you personally have or will soon arrive at this step, congratulations! It takes an incredible amount of work and dedication to get here, and you deserve to sit back and enjoy this part of the ride.
Even if you’ve been investing 15% or more, have set aside enough to help your kids get through college debt free (we think they should pitch in; it’s good to have “skin in the game”), you still may not be in a position to give much more financially than you have been throughout the process, and that’s okay. While we think you should certainly give whatever you can, and hope that your ability to give financially continues to increase over time, there are so many other ways you can give that may have an even bigger impact on the lives of others.
Here we are at baby step #5, saving for your children’s college. As you likely know, Mr. Ramsey’s guidance is to work on steps 4, 5, and 6 at the same time. He does keep this step more vague then the others due to the differences in family circumstances, from those who do not have children to those who have a boat load, creating a much bigger challenge in saving for college for the entire brood.
Most of what we’ve read, heard, and watched from Dave himself about this part of the journey implies it’s a non-negotiable step if you have children. This is concerning, as everyone’s situation is different. To be fair, Chris Hogan, one of the “Ramsey Personalities”, has shared on more than one occasion that one size does not fit all and, furthermore, making sure you can afford to retire should take priority. Amen to that!
Continue reading “Commentary on Step 5 – Saving for College”
This week we continue our commentary with baby step 3, which is to save 3-6 months of expenses in a fully funded emergency fund. We absolutely agree that you should have a fully funded emergency fund. However, if you are already dealing with extenuating circumstances, or you are a one income family, we believe six months is really the minimum you should consider having in reserve before moving on to the next step; depending on your circumstances, a year may be more appropriate. Just think about how fast this summer has flown by; Memorial Day seems like it just happened, and yet we’re only a couple of weeks away from Labor Day… that span is just over 90 days, or three months. I can’t imagine how fast it would seem if we were in the midst of a financial crisis and were eating through our emergency reserves.
To reiterate, we’re not in disagreement as to the point of this step, or its order in the process. We just think that those of us who have more going on would be well advised to take a bit more time to build a bigger cushion before moving on to ensure we are able to weather our brand of storm.
Recently, we shared our perspective on the first baby step. As you might have guessed, we aren’t in lockstep with Dave on Step 2 either. While we agree that, after having enough saved up for an emergency, tackling debt is the next logical step, we’re not rigid adherents to the debt snowball process. If you are reading this post, it’s probably safe to assume you have heard this term numerous times but, just to be sure, the process is to pay off your debts working from the smallest balance to the largest.
First things first. If you owe the government any money, you should strongly consider taking care of this first and as soon as possible. Owing the government is not something to be taken lightly as any government — be it federal, state or local — has the power to completely alter your life, and in some cases destroy it. Clearly, this is priority one. To be clear, it may not be necessary to get such liabilities paid in full immediately (i.e. you may be able to work out a payment plan), you definitely want to never miss a payment, especially if you’ve worked out a special plan.
Over the next seven weeks we are going to be delving into Dave Ramsey’s baby steps and how we tweaked them to work for us. I realize this may ruffle a few feathers as there are many strict adherents to his financial peace protocol, and with good reason. Mr. Ramsey has designed a plan that works for many people, and it was a great starting point for us as we were completely clueless when it came to financial matters.
That said, there are many of us who do not fit into the “average American” bell curve; in fact, our circumstances place us on the fringe of the curve. For our one-income family of six, with multiple chronic illnesses, $1,000 for a starter emergency fund is a complete joke. It is certainly better than nothing, but $1,000 barely covers anything, even if you do have health insurance.
Continue reading “Is Baby Step 1 Too Small?”
Everybody likes to save money, especially those of us into pinching pennies. If you’re like us, you’re always looking for new and interesting ways to stretch your dollars. We recently found a “new-to-us” way to save some grocery money when we learned of a couple of bakery outlets in our nearby city. This time around, we decided to stop at the Aunt Millie’s thrift store as it was the closest to another planned stop.
If I was to take a couple of hours and add up all of the money that we have made since we were married all those years ago, I would look at the total and throw up. Yep, I would literally puke and wonder where in the world did all of that money go?
We have always lived in a decent houses in safe-ish neighborhoods, had clean and mostly decent clothing, and have driven reliable vehicles. But when you look at the debt we have been in and how long it is taking us to get completely out of debt, I realize we do not have lots of great memories to show for our money woes.