Buckle up.

I have laughed, joked, and even experienced a few growing pains with you all as I've strapped myself in to this Financial Peace class. Determination to not continue the vicious cycle of living paycheck to paycheck for the rest of what I hope will be my long life. But I had a long way to come friends. And though I have worked hard and come a long way in a short amount of time - I still have a long road ahead. My friends would have said all a long that 'compared to them' I'm good with money. For my age, I admit I'm a bit ahead of the game in that I've gotten myself out of debt and I'm really 'making it'. BUT I'm raising the bar to include being financially responsible. Not just living in 'survival mode'.

Here are a few notes from my recent experiences that I wanted to share with you all - that I hope will encourage you towards peace in your own financial life.


This will make many of you laugh - but I tried couponing for the first time this week. At first it was horribly overwelming so if an over-enthusiastic friend tells you it's easy: they're lying. It's mildly terrifying at first. My friend Jen and I (who are taking the class together) bought the paper for 2 weeks before we actually cut and used a coupon because we were overwelmed. We've been using a site called http://www.southernsavers.com/ although the class recommends 'the grocery game'. But I don't want to pay money for a membership, to save money. That seems mildly counter-productive.

The purpose of using a couponing site is that it does the leg work for you. I saved right around $100 my first week of couponing. Between CVS, Walgreens, and Publix (grocery). The drama and trouble of couponing may not be worth it for 5-10 bucks but for 100?...hand me the scissors!

I will confess that I was having a little bit of a pride issue with this whole couponing this so the first time I went, I went at 10 at night (to Walgreens). There was no one there so it wasn't as awkward or weird - and by the next day I could coupon in broad daylight! : ] Success.

I have a guest blogger that will be posting soon about her own site to help people save money - so be excited for that in the future!

Having been on the completely plastic plan for a few years now - I just reexperienced carrying cash. For the first couple days I had a hard time even remembering that I HAD cash with me. Sad? Perhaps. But a week into I know for a fact I've spent less money than I did in the weeks prior, simply by not swiping a card and disassociating my actions with 'spending money'. I feel a little lighter after confessing that.

I was confessing to the girls in my bible study that now that I finally stopped just praying that God would provide for me and start realizing he was providing for me - I was just doing a poor job of managing his provisions I feel relieved! And inspired. I keep revising and revising my budget to save more. The success really is a great feeling. I wish it for everyone.

I had to skip class this week to work a Tony Dungy appearance in Clearwater, FL (I blogged about that yesterday) - so I missed the lesson on dumping debt. But I will be doing the the reading this weekend so I will share with you about that soon.

Love,

B