Trimming the Fat...

Let me just say, I am a huge Dave Ramsey fan. HUGE! About two years ago, I took my first "Financial Peace University" course, and did fairly well. OK, I think I did a pretty darn good job; outside of the money we received from our parents for part of the wedding, we paid for our wedding ourselves. And it was a fabulous wedding :)  Once we got married, my husband and I took the course again and have been doing our monthly budget, rolling our debt snowball, and taking each Baby Step "one step at a time". So why am I so stressed out each month about finances?

The start of this new school year has had me rethinking our budget and financial habits. While we are doing fairly well, I have felt like our money is tied up in so many things that there isn't much left over for saving, debt snowballs, and treating ourselves every once in awhile. My husband and I have renewed our desire to really stick to Dave's plan. While we know that once we have two incomes, we'll have more "breathing room", we're hoping that the credit card debt is gone by then and all our second income can go to paying off those pesky student loans. In order to get our debt paid off sooner, we started with taking a look at our monthly expenses and trimming off some of the things that aren't really necessities. 

One in our family that made a big sacrifice was our four-legged child. When I bought my dog as a puppy, I had money within my budget to pay for her "daycare" several times a week; it helped with her housetraining, socialization, and saved me the time of having to walk her and give her exercise. Plus, it was nice to come home to a tired dog! (Side note, let me just say, for those thinking this "doggie daycare" is a pampered place for pooches, it's a big yard like a dog park where they can just run and play all day). When we married, we dropped her down to two days a week, but now looking at our monthly expenses, we could save $60 a month by going to just one day a week. This means more trips to the dog park, even in the midst of work/school stress, but we've already found it's a good reason to get out of the house and not think about anything else but throwing the ball to our dog. Eventually, we'll probably get rid of this luxury altogether, but this is a process after all! Baby steps, baby steps...


Another big cut to the budget was the cable. If you had asked me 5 years ago if I would ever give up my DVR, I'd answer with a resounding NO!! With today's modern technology though, DVR and even cable is unneeded. Almost any show is available to watch online, and that was the biggest selling point for me. We looked through our expenses and decided that the nice little $13 basic cable package would be a stepping stone for us. I am also hoping for the added benefit of finding other things to do than watch TV (like reading the stack of books I've been meaning to, or... take the dog to the dog park!).


There are other things we've discussed too, my husband may put his gym membership on hold and use the gym at his college (which is free!) and I've been going to the library rather than the bookstore. Last year, we looked at our phone plans and reduced minutes and texting packages that were within what we actually used rather than "unlimited" plans. 

If there are other "trimming the fat" suggestions out there, feel free to share!