Baby Steps to Your Financial Freedom--Guest Post by Amy

Hi again! Two weeks ago I shared with you a story about how my sister and I saved money to buy our own swing set and how that taught me how work and money go hand in hand. Then last week my sister, Mindy, shared with us how important it is to be SMART with your goals. I’ll continue to build on both of those posts as well as previous posts from my mom…

Here are some ways I’ve learned to save money and keep a “Wise Spender, Smart Saver Mentality”…

The first important lesson I learned about having a Wise Spender, Smart Saver Mentality: Focus on your goals and know the difference between needs and wants.

In 2003 I got my first real job working at a local grocery story making $7.50 per hour. It wasn’t my favorite job, but it helped me to save money for my first year at BYU. I remember as I received my paychecks that I would sometimes have moments of temptation to take my payday money and go have fun or buy a few new outfits… BUT, I would remember that my goal was to pay for as much of my first year at BYU as I could. So into the bank that money would go to save for my goal of going to BYU. Yes it is very tempting to go party and spend the majority of your paycheck, but I knew that I wanted to be able to pay for as much of my time at BYU as I could. Make sure to take time to think about your future (remember those questions I had you ask yourself in my last post? “Where do you see yourself next year? And in 5 years?…”). Knowing your needs vs your wants will help you to keep focus on those important future goals. It is okay to give yourself a little bit of money to have some fun with, but it should be a modest amount.

The second important lesson I learned about how to have a Wise Spender, Smart Saver Mentality is: Follow those who have already figured out ways to save and become debt free. 

When I was almost 22 years old and in my final year of my degree in Elementary Education at BYU, I got married. We were given a gift at our wedding that really changed our lives. My great-uncle Dave gave us a book by Dave Ramsey titled The Total Money Makeover. As we opened gifts, we thought that it was kind of him to give us a book about finance, but we were so busy with schooling we didn’t take time to read it… Looking back we wish we had read it as soon as we received it. We were thinking of our now and not so much about our financial future.

A few years down the road, we were finally finished with our degrees and reality hit. We had student loans to pay back that totaled over $45,000 together…Ick! Looking at that amount made us sick (thank heaven it wasn’t more than that!). We were doing our best to live like our parents taught us and not spend money we didn’t have, but at the end of every month we were feeling very tight. We had student loans, a modest car loan, and medical bills from our girls being born 3 months early. So at that time I picked up Dave Ramsey’s book off the shelf. And what he said made so much sense! I strongly advise that if you are seeking financial freedom and wanting to pay off debt that you read his book as well as continue to read this blog. My husband and I are on baby step 2 - which is paying off debt - and we are so excited that we will be finishing baby step 2 in just a few short months! We’ll have paid off our Student loans 2-3 years early, a private loan for our solar panels 4.5 years early, credit cards completely paid off, and our van paid off 3 years early!

The third important lesson that I learned about how to have a Wise Spender, Smart Saver Mentality is: To learn to be frugal, be wise in what you buy and when you buy it, and use the money leftover to pay off debt and then save.

At a young age, I learned from my parents as well as from living on my own some tips and tricks to being frugal…(as well as a few things not to do as well).

Tips for paying off debt early:

1. Budget and plan ahead…don’t let the month happen to you and think where did my money go?!?! Before the month starts make a list of everything that you will be needing to pay for the month. And I mean EVERYTHING! (Even put things in your budget like date night and paying for your kids school lunches!)
2. As well as Budget for future needs. An example of this is a home repair fund. This will cover money spent on little things like filters and light bulbs, and it’s also a good idea to save for bigger things that may happen. (Dave Ramsey calls these “Sink Funds”. “Sink Funds” are funds for your home, car, Christmas, birthdays, etc.) I find it so much easier putting $60 away every month than in November/December realizing I need to come up with $700+ to pay for Christmas. This also allows for me to do something my family calls “Amy’s deals” where I find awesome deals on toys I know my kids will love during the year for their Christmas presents. I can buy it then and put it in my Christmas present storage box. I usually get their toys at 50-90% off the normal price this way. Make a budget and don’t spend more than you have coming in. If you need to make changes to it as the month goes, that is ok, but the money needs to come from somewhere in that budget.
3. Buy off season! I always buy my kids clothes after the season is over. I usually only spend $100 on each of my kids clothes and shoes during the year when I make sure to buy winter clothes in the spring and summer clothes in the fall.
4. Meal plan, meal plan, meal plan…think of how much money you’ll save if you eat 95% of your meals at home. Homemade freezer meals and planning around sales help you to avoid eating out. Our family only eats out at a “sit down” restaurant once every other month, and I take my kids to a fast food restaurant to play and have fries & chicken nuggets once or twice a month. *Also wanted to add that if you make sure to use coupons for those few times that you do eat out it will help a ton as well!*
5. Avoid using credit cards, and if you do use a credit card, pay it off right after making a purchase.
6. Brown Bag It! My husband and I both make sure to to take a homemade lunch to work so we don’t spend that money on eating out. If on the rare occasion Brian needs to go out to eat because he forgot his lunch, he has a small amount budgeted each month to make sure it’s available. (The amount budgeted is only enough for him to eat out for 2 meals.) We also had him take a box of canned soup and other longer shelf life foods to store under his desk in case he forgets to bring a lunch.
7. Do your homework! I don’t actually mean the kind a teacher gives to you even though that is important…what I mean is take some time to look at the stores around you and how prices compare. Build your shopping list for groceries around sales and look at what foods you already have in your home and what you’d need to make meals for the week. This is also the case if you’re needing to buy something like a car, furniture, or even a house. Look at what you can afford and take the time to do your homework so you get the best bang for your buck! 
8. Stock up! There are times when the grocery store does a case lot sale or Target does a Baby Sale (they give you a gift card for buying 2 boxes of diapers). Just make sure to budget for these purchases but I totally advise to do it if you have the space in your home! An example of the diapers…I would buy 12 boxes of diapers at Target during their Baby Sale, but I purchased them in two separate orders. In the past Target would give you $20 in gift cards with the purchase of $125 in baby items as well as $10 in gift cards with the purchase of 2 giant diaper boxes. So in the first transaction I got the $20 gift card as well as $30 in gift cards for the 6 boxes - repeat again for the 2nd transaction, but I used the first set of $50 gift cards to help pay for the next 6 boxes of diapersI I would also use coupons to help save even more money. I ended up saving close to 50% off the normal cost of the diapers. (I also made sure to use my 15% baby registry to help get those savings.)

So this week I encourage all you readers to try and do some or all of these tips that I’ve shared. We’d love to hear the success you’ve had at saving money and learning to have a Wise Spender, Smart Saver Mentality! Good luck! I know you can do it!

Be SMART About Your Goals--Guest Post by Mindy Davis

Hi everyone! This is Robyn's other daughter Mindy AKA the favorite! (Ha! Just kidding Amy). Last week, my sister Amy challenged all of us to work on our financial journey by considering our own goals. I would like to tell you about one of my financial goals and the progress I have made in the last year.

All of us know the importance of saving money, but why does it sometimes seem hard to do? Something I have realized as I have been putting money towards savings is small amounts really add up fast. If we are consistently putting aside small amounts of money, we will be surprised at how quickly our money will grow.

Last year I decided I wanted to make more progress at putting money towards savings. In order to accomplish my goal, I wanted to make it a SMART goal. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. If you make your goal SMART, you are more likely to achieve that goal. I found this to be true last year with my goal of saving money.

Specific- what are the who, what, when, where, why's of my goal? How can I make my goal specific? Rather than having a goal to simply "increase my savings", I wanted to determine a specific dollar amount that I would save. I first started by making a chart of how much money I could save in a year if I saved different dollar amounts every paycheck. Here is one of the charts I made:

I decided that I wanted to save $5000 for the year. Since I get paid every other week, $200 per paycheck was a good starting goal and would give me $200 of wiggle room in case I missed saving one time. If I did save $200 every paycheck, I would save $5200 by the end of the year.

Measurable- how can I measure or track my progress? Since my goal was specific, I could track my progress based on if I saved the $200 every paycheck. I knew that my goal would be more likely to happen if I created a tracking or metric sheet and could mark off each time I met my goal for the pay period. (See end of post for tracking ideas.)

Attainable- is this a goal I can realistically meet? As I determined how much money I wanted to save, I needed to make sure it was a goal that I would be able to accomplish. In order to do this, I needed to determine if I would have enough of the rest of my paycheck to cover my expenses. While saving $500 every paycheck would have been awesome, I decided that $200 was more realistic with my current income. This amount will be different for everyone. You have to determine how much of your paycheck you need for your expenses and how much you can realistically put aside for savings.

Relevant- is it something that is important in my life? Saving money is beneficial for my future, so it felt pretty relevant to me. Here are a few reasons why my goal felt relevant:

• Having a savings account would help if unexpected costs came up such as car problems or medical expenses. Also, it would help in case of any loss of income.
• I started seriously thinking about buying a house and needed to build more savings in order to accomplish that.
• Building my savings could also be used for fun things such as travel, going to concerts, etc. I love to travel! (Doesn't thinking about what you could use your saved money for make you excited to save?!)

Timely- when do I want to accomplish my goal? If your goal has a timeframe, you are more likely to accomplish the goal. My time frame was one year with smaller goals of 26 pay periods in the year. To help me make my goal even more time bound, I decided to save on my actual pay day. That way it became a habit for me to transfer funds to my savings on a specific day.

In addition to making my goal SMART, I also wanted to make my goal fun. For me, this meant coming up with fun ways to track my progress (making my goal Measurable). I started a bullet journal and designated a page to tracking my savings. I brainstormed fun things I could do to track my savings. I thought of the phrase Rainy Day Fund and decided to make an umbrella with money hanging from the umbrella. Each box represented $200, so I could color in that box every pay day when I had moved $200 into my savings.

If you know me well, you know that I LOVE Mamma Mia (in fact I am writing this as I watch Mamma Mia 2 ha ha). Another idea for tracking my progress came from the song "Money, Money, Money". There's a line from the song that says "Money, money, money always sunny in a rich man's world." I made a picture with a sun and a thermometer so that I could fill in each line when I put $200 into my savings. (You can see that my artistic skills are not the greatest. Ha ha! Since my tracker was mainly for me, it didn't matter that it wasn't perfect.) It was so fun coloring in the box each paycheck. I just wanted to fill in more boxes! I loved seeing my savings grow! It was exciting.

This year I reevaluated my savings goal to determine if my goal was still SMART. I have a goal to pay off my 5 year car loan in half the time, so I decided to make two car payments a month this year. In order to accomplish this goal, I realized I needed to lower the amount I was putting into savings each paycheck. Dave Ramsey recommends saving $1000 and then working to pay off your debt as quickly as you can. I felt pretty good about the $5200 I had saved from the previous year, so I started focusing more on my goal of becoming debt free. My new goal became to save $100 every paycheck, so I will save $2600 by the end of the year.

Here are a few other ideas I came up with for Savings Trackers:

It can be as simple as keeping a log with date and amount saved. (You'll notice that there were a few weeks that I fell off the savings wagon. I was heading to England and Scotland in May 2018 and decided to put more money towards the trip at that point. Because I still wanted to reach my goal of saving $5200 by the end of the year, I had to double up and pay $400 to savings some weeks).

Rainy Day Fund- Here's a tracker I made for you to use if you would like. Fill in the raindrops with each amount saved.

Sunny Savings Tracker- Here's another tracker I made for you to use if you would like. Fill in the thermometer with each amount saved.

If you are saving for a specific thing (like a car, house, or trip), you could draw a picture of that thing and fill in boxes to create the picture. You could also use this when making a car payment/mortgage payment to track how many more payments you have left.

If you would like to join me in working on savings this year, feel free to use any of these trackers. I recommend putting the tracker where you will see it often such as on the fridge or by your computer. Hope you have as much fun as I did building your savings!

"A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes"--Guest Post by Amy

Hi everyone! I’m Robyn’s daughter Amy. I’m a mother of 4 and have been married for 10 years. I’m really excited to share our financial journey on my mom’s blog. I hope that as you read this you’ll feel inspired as you have been when reading my mom’s posts.

Let me start by asking you this: “Where do you see yourself (and your family) next year? In 5 years? In 10 years? Are you making steps in your financial decisions to see yourself gaining financial freedom?”

My parents taught me from a young age the importance of being careful in how I spent my money. I was taught to avoid debt whenever possible. They taught us that there were certain times you may need to go into debt such as for school, mortgage, and maybe a sensible car. My parents taught me that money did not grow on trees. I would like to share a story to illustrate this point.

When my sister Mindy and I were young, we so badly wanted a swing set. My parents told us that we would need to save our money for it. For almost 2 years we saved our money - yes you heard that right - and it felt like ETERNITY! Believe me - as a girl of only 6 or 7 years old (and my sister was 4 or 5) that was HARD! We saved almost any penny that came our way - birthday money, Christmas money, money from doing “chores” for our parents…We even asked neighbors if we could do some yard work or wash their windows. Anything to get our desired swing set. And we did it! We had a goal in mind, and we wanted it badly enough that we kept our focus and got that swing set. We had a jar full of the coins and cash we had saved totaling $123. Our Grandma Davis said we worked hard earning the money and should count out our change at the store to pay for it rather than having our parents write a check. Looking back, I now feel horrible for the checker, but it truly was neat for us to see our hard earned money paying for our desired swing set. It was a great learning experience for us that if you want something you need to save and work for it.

Fast forward twenty plus years. My husband and I decided a few years ago to take out a book that we had received as a wedding present, Dave Ramsey’s “The Total Money Makeover”. We realized that we wanted to have more control over our financial future. We decided to ask ourselves, “Where do we see ourselves next year? In 5 years? In 10 years? Are we making steps in our financial decisions to see ourselves gaining financial freedom?” At the time, we were not taking steps to really improve our financial situation—just plugging along on minimum payments.  We realized that things would not get better unless we took action. So we made a plan and decided on our financial goals…which are:

1. become debt free by August 2019. We are using the snowball method suggested by Dave Ramsey (though in a future post I’ll tell you how we made a slight alteration to the snowball method that shaved a few months off of our expected date of being debt free). Original payoff date for all debt making only minimum payments would have been 2022.
2. Have a Fully Funded Emergency Fund by March 2020. We wanted to be covered in the event of job loss or other financial stressor. Dave Ramsey suggests saving 3-6 months worth of expenses (more if only one spouse is working). We wanted to start with 3 months of expenses.
3. Have money set aside for home and car maintenance and for Christmas.
4. Fund our 401K with at least 15% of our income so that when we do reach retirement we will be able to live comfortably and hopefully be able to help others (like our children and their families).
5. Save up to be able to help pay for our children’s schooling.
6. Enjoy more time together traveling by going somewhere with our family every year. We will put money aside each month to do that and pay for it with cash.

We have decided that if we can get our debt paid off before the end of fall, we are going to save up money and go to Disneyland next year. Even though our kids have been asking to go - and they know we really want to go as well - they understand that we have made a commitment to pay off our loans early so we can be in a better state financially for our family. It will also be fun because we are going to do some surprises for our kids as well as have them help us reach our Disneyland Fund Goal. (More on that in a future post.) We knew that if we gave ourselves something fun to look forward to it would help us as we trudge along the process of putting every extra cent toward paying off our debt early.

I’m really excited to share with you more about how my husband and I have tackled our debt in future posts and what you can do to put more money towards paying off your own debt so that you can live your best life! My next blog post will be in 2 weeks and I’ll be sharing my tips for paying off debt early as well as 8 ways I’ve learned to save money.

In the mean time, please work on your financial journey by considering your own goals. Where do you see yourself and your family next year? In 5 years? In 10 years? Are you making steps in your financial decisions to see yourself gaining financial freedom? It's never too late to begin, so let's start today! Your dream, whether for a swing set or financial freedom, can come true!

The Truth is in the Numbers. . .Let Freedom Ring. . .Exit to Financial Freedom

STOP right now. Where are your finances taking you? What is the road ahead for you? Will you have to work for the rest of your life? Will you be prepared for Retirement? Do you see yourself getting ahead financially? Financial Freedom is just ahead. Are you willing to take the exit?? 

Get your pencils and notebooks out! For one month I challenged you to write down every expense. The truth is in the numbers! It’s time to make a BUDGET!! I know it is such a scary word. I remember it well. I did not want to BUDGE on what I was spending when we began our financial journey to becoming debt free, but what I did not realize is the FREEDOM that comes when you control your money versus your money controlling you!

Here is the way we began our budget. First what is the actual income for your household. If we do not learn to live on what we actually have right now, we will never have enough. Do not live on the next raise or what ifs. Add up the total of your expenses for the month and compare it to your income. If you are overspending—don’t worry now is the time to turn that around. If you spend every penny and break even, let’s work on savings.

When we first began our budget, we had to cut out quite a few of our expenses. Here are a few examples:

• Taking Bob’s shirts to the dry cleaner for 28 dollars—I ironed them myself until we were able to purchase No Iron Dress Shirts.
• Renting Blockbuster videos. Now is that aging us or what? That saved us a whopping 18 dollars a week.
• Less eating out and more shopping sale items at the store. That saved us 250 dollars a month.
• Buying greeting cards at the grocery store. I figured out I was spending 22 dollars on greetings cards at the grocery store every month. It was just so much easier to grab birthday cards or Mother’s day cards when I was at Smith’s. NEVER AGAIN. I will only buy greeting cards at The Dollar Store—50 cents each. I go monthly and buy all the cards I need for that month. For instance, May—Mother’s Day cards, Graduation cards, birthday cards, etc. So for my 4 to 5 cards I send out a month it is 2 dollars instead of 22 dollars. An immediate 20 dollar savings per month and over 200 dollars per year. And, the cards are just as nice and exactly the same as you get at the grocery store.

Just the few changes I mentioned (plus other changes I will tell about in future posts) saved us over 500 dollars a month. We put the 500 dollars every month towards our debt. Do you get the picture??? Our debt was getting smaller and smaller every month. We all tend to do things so quickly for convenience that small and simple changes will make a huge difference over time for all of us. Start looking at the little changes you can make that will make a huge difference as time moves on. Pennies do turn in to dollars!! Be creative!  Put what you save from your budget directly to debt and watch your debt get smaller and smaller. Get going!! It’s easier than you think!!!

Next and this is HUGE! Housing should NEVER go higher than 30 percent of your monthly gross income. Bob and I tend to be super conservative so we never went over 20 percent. Here is the percentage Budget we used when making our Family Budget. 

20 percent Housing

12 percent Bills and Debt

10 percent Tithing

10 percent Food

10 percent Insurance

5 percent Cars—we always paid cash for our cars or very small car payments (this also includes oil changes and maintenance).
5 percent Utilities

5 percent Giving to others—birthday, Christmas, etc. 

5 percent Personal Spending

5 percent Savings

5 percent Miscellaneous

4 percent Clothing

4 percent Recreation

After we figured out our budget for the month, we went to the bank and got cash. YES WE WERE A CASH ONLY FAMILY!!! We labeled all of our envelopes and put the cash inside each envelope. We went week to week because it was easier for us to track that way. At the beginning Bob and I met every Sunday to see how we were doing. I have to hand it to Bob—for decades he has read something about finances every single day—and now I do too. We wanted to not only be debt free but have savings and prepare for retirement. Now we only have one credit card that we pay off in FULL EVERY SINGLE MONTH! Yes, it took us awhile to get to that point but we did. It takes a lot of discipline but the more and more debt you pay off, the easier it is. And, you will be so excited as you see the debt diminish and your savings increase that you will do whatever it takes. You will be so excited and wish you had started earlier on this path!! 

Now that we are debt free, we save 20 percent of our income and put 15 percent into our Retirement fund monthly. It is such a peaceful feeling knowing that when things come up you can rely on your savings instead of going in to debt. I promise it will add up and you will see such a huge difference. As months and years roll by, you will be surprised at how far you have come. It might hurt a little now to change our routines or habits, but it will become easier. You will love the FREEDOM IT BRINGS………..

Ways to SAVE on your BUDGET NOW!!!

Search for FREE entertainment

Stop Collecting and Start Selling

Buy Used

Drink more water—no more soft drinks

Buy generic

Make shopping lists

Wait before you buy. Let the instant gratification pass.

Plan creative dates.

Make your own gifts.

Buy greetings cards at the Dollar Store or make your own.

Repair clothing instead of tossing it out.

Don’t spend big money entertaining your children. Children want your time not stuff. 

Clean out your closets.

Turn off the lights.

Give the gift of labor.

Do holiday shopping right after the holidays.

Stick to reliable, fuel-efficient cars.

Avoid the mall.

Cancel all magazine subscriptions.

Shop case lot sales and meat sales. 

Eat breakfast.

Use leftovers.

Picture yourself debt free in 5 years or less. 

Yummy Inexpensive Recipes

Chicken Pillows

Dice 4 cups cooked chicken

1 8 oz. cream cheese softened

4 Tbsp. butter softened

1 can sliced mushrooms

Mix above ingredients 

put spoonful into 16 unrolled crescent rolls and roll up and pinch together

Bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 18 minutes

Make a chicken broth to go over cooked pillows

Chicken broth:

1 cup water

1 chicken bouillon cube

boil together add flour stir until thickened

Chicken Casserole

2 cups cooked chicken

1 cup carrots cooked and drained

1 onion cooked with carrots and drained

1 cup sour cream

1 can cream of chicken soup

Mix above ingredients and pour into 9x13 inch pan. 

Make one box of Stove Top Stuffing and put over top of ingredients. 

Cover with aluminum foil and Bake at 350 degrees for 1/2 hour

Taco Soup

Brown 1 pound hamburger and drain. Cook with 1 chopped onion. 

Put in large pot with the following ingredients.

16 oz can diced tomatoes with liquid

16 oz can kidney beans drained

16 oz. can corn with liquid

2  (8 oz) cans tomato sauce

1 pkg. taco seasoning mix 

Simmer for 45 minutes. Serve with Fritos and sour cream. 

Chocolate Frosted Rice Krispies Bars

1 cup sugar 

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup peanut butter

6 cups Rice Krispies

1 (6oz.) pkg. milk chocolate chip

1 (6oz.) pkg. butterscotch chips

Put sugar and syrup in pan and cook over moderate heat until it begins to bubble. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter. Add mixture to cereal and stir until blended. Put in 9x13 greased pan. In microwave melt chips together and stir. Spread over Rice Krispie mixture.

Somebody's Watching Me!!

Make sure you watch the video below. I know it's 80's and funny, but it puts across my point for my blog this week. Warning: there is one small swear word...I wish I could take it out.

Do you always feel like someone is watching you??? YES, SOMEONE IS WATCHING YOU!!! Our children and our grandchildren are watching every move we make. They are watching our spending habits, how we use our money, and the choices we make with our money!

Did you know that statistics show that when a person consistently overspends, goes into debt, and spends beyond their means that if they do not claim bankruptcy than either their children will or their grandchildren will. Again, it is because we take on the habits of those we live with and watch everyday of our lives. It is so ingrained in us that the habits will be hard to break! We can break those habits!!

We have always been totally up front with our children about our desire to stay out of debt. Not only did we have their full support, but now that they are adults, they are taking on these same debt free habits.

I know I have taken an extended vacation from my blog. I’m so sorry. We had so many amazing opportunities open up for our family and obligations that it was taking away my focus from the blog. But, I am back and ready to help!

I’m hoping that if you have not read every step of my blog that you will take the opportunity to do it right now. I promise more is coming. Recipes, helps, tips, and money saving ideas to help you get out of debt and stay out of debt. 

When we left a couple months ago the assignment was to write down every expenditure for one month. This is vital to see where your money is going. Take the opportunity right now to write down every expense so you can see where every penny is going. Next, we will figure out how to cut our expenses and make our money stretch.

Welcome back!!! It’s time to get busy! Remember SOMEBODY IS WATCHING YOU!!!!!