One snowball at a time...

Since there were no coupons in the Sunday papers this week due to Memorial Day, I will be writing this blog about something else going on in my life that started back in January.

All of my life my parents have struggled to make ends meet. And the sad thing is, we never had anything to show for it. We didn't have a nice house, we never had a car that wasn't at least 5 years old when we bought it, and we only got to go on a vacation that was within the Texas/Oklahoma borders. Yet they struggled to make ends meet. Hmm?

After I had left home for college and was working 40 hrs a week to make my own ends meet, struggling day to day just as they had always done, my parents joined First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls. First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls is one of the three metropolitan sized churchs not within a metropolitan area in the entire nation. It is BIG. And since it is so big, they have numerous programs and events for people to join and be a part of. It was there that my parents were able to harness one of the tools available to them which was Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. They completed the entire course and began to set about changing their financial identity. I got to stand back and watch these changes take place and transform my parents entire relationship not only toward money, but towards each other as well.

This past January found me once again struggling to make ends meet at the end of the month despite having a "real world job" now. This was the kick start I needed to finally be inclined enough to put in the effort to go through Financial Peace myself. And I did. I listened to the audio CDs in my car to and from school, no other time. It took me about 6 weeks to finish it all, but my perception toward my finances have been changed permanently for the better. And I am so thankful for it. It's amazing how much simpler and less stressful my life is now that I budget and save and pay off debt with bigger goals in mind.

Now onto my little success for the week. I finally got my Texas Tech ring ($1,120) paid off after 9 months of payments. I was putting $100 down each month on it as well as any extra I had at the end of the month. Now, I will be able to put that $100 a month that I was paying on the ring down toward my credit card debt on top of what I was already paying on them. This is part of Dave Ramsey's debt snowball plan, and it truly does work because after hitting this first milestone, I am more determined than ever to be debt free of all debts (other than my student loans) by next summer. One snowball at a time...