I'm Done!

     "I'm done!"  Those were the words of my darling cousin (who happens to be my best friend in this world) when she called me today.  My cousin and I often marvel at how much alike we are.  Our lives are similar, our values are the same, our thoughts are almost constantly identical.  Well, during our daily telephone chat yestersay, she told me that she was done with fast food. 
     Her and I are addicted to the convenience of fast food and yesterday, she decided to add up all she had spent in the last two weeks...needless to say she was appalled!  She proceeded to let me know that we are both stupid, because we need more money and less weight and our addiction to fast food is working against both of those things.  I of course completely agreed with her and decided to go home and check out my own "eating out" expenditures...YIKES!!!  Well, to say the least, I was ashamed of myself.  We made a deal, we have decided to stop our horrible habit, we are setting goals for the money we will save and will hold each other accountable.



     You see, Mike and I are working on the financial plan Dave Ramsey lays out in his book "Total Money Makeover".  I will discuss this plan in more detail later this week, but what you need to know for today is that we are in the debt snowball part of Dave's plan.  After adding up our eating out, I realized we could be debt free in 8 months if we used that money each month toward our debt. 
     Now, it is time to get personal, but I feel that in order to encourage you, I must be open and honest.  We make $35,000 per year and we have $11,000 in debt (not counting my school loans)...now imagine we can knock that off by Christmas on our small salary!  Wowie!!!  This has certainly given us a strong desire to do away with the fast food!  We have our debt repayment plan printed out in detail and have it hanging on the refrigerator.
     My cousin and I will be texting or calling each other every time we are tempted to "just spend $3 on a quick hamburger" and we will go over our week each Monday to talk about where we succeed and where we fail.  All of us let money leak out in little ways, what is yours?  My challenge for you today, look at that area of your spending and add it up for the month.  Is it worth it?  Can you think of something better to do with that money?  Talk to someone you trust and are comfortable being really open and honest with to help hold you accountable, it will make all the difference.  Leave me a comment and let me know what area of spending you will be working on. 

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down, one can help the other up."  Ecclesiastes 4:9-10