Don't get it if you don't get it!

In one of the Financial Peace University CD's Dave talks about buying things and the idea that you should never buy anything that you don't understand (i.e., electronics, gadgets, investments), but Army Guy and I decided to take that philosophy and start applying it to food. We've started trying to avoid buying anything with ingredients that we don't understand. If we don't know what it is and we don't understand how it works or what it does than we don't (usually) buy it. We've only just started switching our foods out in the last couple of weeks but I feel like I can already start to tell a difference. It's a little bit pricier and we're going to start making our own versions of a lot of things because the natural version is so pricey (spaghetti sauce, peanut butter, possibly yogurt, etc) but as my husband put's it "healthy eating might be kind of expensive, but so is diabetes, heart disease and cancer."

On that happy note... does anyone out there know how to make you're own yogurt? I'd love to hear your tips!

My Tantrum

Yesterday I threw a great big monstrous enormous ugly gargantuan tantrum. I'm ashamed to admit it, but that's what I did.

It started with a cancelled 5K race. Army Man was going to run the 10k and I was going to try the 5k (my first) with the stroller. Army Man left to do the 10K but called and said that both races were cancelled. I already had the kids packed up in the stroller so we decided to run the 3.1 miles anyway, but run them together. I am not a fan of running, I never really have been. Army Man, on the other hand, is a Marathon runner who loves running 10 miles for the heck of it.

Since I would have been pushing the stroller in the race I decided that I wanted to push it the whole way, so I was pushing 100 lbs of kids, strollers, pillows, blankies, water, snacks, rain cover and toys.

We started running - er, um, well, jogging really, and immediately I was tired. After just five minutes my feet were sticking to the pavement and I started getting a little grumpy. Within the next five minutes I was all out furious that I felt so tired, knowing that this same type of run, with the same stroller, would be nothing to Army Man. In the insanity that was going on in my fatigue I was certain that the worse thing in the world was for Army Man to have to run as slow as me, when he could be flying off, miles down the road. He never did anything to make me feel that way. He was nothing but supportive, but I convinced myself that it was better to suffer alone than with anyone's help. I started yelling at him to just go, run ahead, run at the pace he's used to. It didn't work, I married a stubborn man and he stayed with my pace.

After throwing a tantrum through half of the route I was finally exhausted enough to give up on trying to get Army Man to run ahead of me and became quiet. We reached the 3.1 mile mark (the 5k mark) when all of a sudden all of the anger and frustration melted away and I made the decision to start enjoying the run and we kept going. We started talking, and joking around. I was laughing so hard that between the laughter and inability to breath I ended up making strange grunting noises. Before I knew it we'd reached the 4 mile mark. We stopped jogging and I gladly passed the stroller off to Army Man and we enjoyed the rest of the walk home.

I thought about the whole ordeal later and realized that my giant tantrum really stemmed straight from fear. I was afraid of feeling embarrassed, afraid of not being able to reach my goal that day. I have to admit that there was even a part of me that was afraid of succeeding. (how messed up is that?!)

I wonder how many times we (people in general) struggle with our finances out of fear. How many times do we avoid looking at the check book because we're afraid of the amount? How often do we avoid setting a budget because we're afraid of feeling constrained? How many fights do we get in because we're actually just really afraid of losing everything?

Courage is the ability to face our fears. Sometimes it looks really ugly, sometimes we throw tantrums, but sometimes we push through all of that and reach our goals and nothing can replace the satisfaction and peace that brings. I hope this blog can be a place of comfort and support to you when you're feeling fearful about your finances. Take heart, we've all been there, we've all had the shock when we've looked at our account balance, we've all felt the fear and dread when there's to much month left at the end of the money. Keep working through that fear, don't let it stop you from reaching your goals. It is possible to achieve financial freedom.

We have a winner!

We have a winner! Woop Woop!

I wrote the names down on pieces of paper and then my poor kindergartner (who is home sick today) drew one name from our star basket.

The winner of her very own Financial Peace University kit is...

MONICA G!!

She found us through the LLNOE.com message board that's stocked full of Dave Ramsey fans (including myself). Congratulations Monica!

Listen to all of the great things that Monica would do with a million dollars:

If I had a million dollars, here is what I would do. We are just
now getting into BS5, but it is slow going for right now. So I would
probably park $200,000 per child in a mutual fund to be used for college
expenses. After that, I would pay off our mortgage. With the remaining $, I would make charitable gifts to our
church, my college alma mater, DH's college alma mater, a few other
charities and invest the rest. Then with our income, we could take our
girls to Disney World! :) ** this was edited slightly for privacy

For those of you who are not familiar with Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps, being at Step five is a HUGE accomplishment! This means that Monica's family has:
Step 1. Completed their Baby Emergency Fund of $1000 in the bank
Step 2. Payed off all of their debt
Step 3. Saved up a Fully Funded Emergency Fund of 3-6 months worth of expenses
Step 4. Funded their retirement (ongoing)
Step 5. Save for their kids college education

They only have two steps left to go!
Step 6: Pay off their mortgage
Step 7: Build wealth and give a lot of it away!

Way to go to Monica and your family - what an inspiration you are! Even though you are already so far in the baby steps there is a wealth of information that you will find in the Financial Peace University class - enjoy!

Of course, our son needed a turn at the drawing so we have a second winner!

Brian A!!

Here is the email that Brian sent me listing what he would do with a million dollars:

first, this is a very cool idea - giving an FPU kit away. i saw your post on LLNOE and linked out to your website.

second - we're in BS6 now, so if i won i would likely give the kit to our church, which offers FPU once or twice / year.

on to the big question what to do with [Dr Evil voice] ONE MILLION DOLLARS [/Dr Evil Voice]

first - and most important, make sure i put enough aside to cover the tax bill. no use going to jail! (and yes, i know you're not really giving $1M away in cash. just answering as if you were). assume $300K for this (will follow some good tax/fin planning advice to reduce the bill down to this level. i hope). $700K remaining

second - finish paying off the house. it will be a very "peaceful" time after we finish BS6 (currently about 10 yrs away), but WOW - to move that up to now! this will take appr $250K $450K remaining

third - put some aside for our 3 kids. maybe as a future home downpayment, or a college fund for (eventual) grand kids: $50K x 3 kids = $150K. $300K remaining

fourth: give some away, likely to church and a few other charities that we currently support. this would help getting the tax bill down as well. $100K, $200K remaining

fifth: big time "blow $ envelope." this would likely include a "trip of a lifetime," maybe to Australia or somewhere we'd likely never be able to afford (or justify). $50K, $150K remaining

sixth, and finally, the $150K would end up boringly be set aside for retirement. we're 15 years away, with plans on having a paid off house & $2M to retire one. not having a mtg would also give $$ to save for retirement over the next 10 yrs.

btw, my friends would encourage me to "buy some capital letters for my emails"

Congratulations Brian, especially on reaching step 6 - that's incredible! And thank you for passing along the FPU kit to someone who might need it!

We're going to make this giveaway a habit so even if you weren't a winner this time around you might be next time! In the meantime, make sure to check out Dave Ramsey's website for more information.

(I promise this drawing wasn't rigged to let LLNOE'ers win - it was purely coincidence)

You, Brick, are a JERK!

Since we're giving away one free Financial Peace University Kit tomorrow I thought I'd share one of the lessons from FPU that really struck a cord with me. Almost all of the lessons strike a cord with me, over and over and over again, but this one did a lot to change my perspective on wealth.

The lesson was about bricks. Okay, really it was about money but Ramsey used a brick as an example.

See, growing up, I was one of those people that bought into the lie of the "Evil Rich People." I thought that every single rich person was evil and therefore I needed to avoid becoming rich at all costs. In fact, being in debt to gazillions of furniture stores, student loan companies and car dealerships sat better in my spirit than the idea of being rich.

It was so bad that when our neighbor said "You need to listen to this guy" (referring to Dave Ramsey) after hearing me lament about our money troubles, I let the borrowed FPU kit sit unopened in our closet for months simply because it had the words "wealth building" plastered across the front.

What kind of ridiculous nonsense did she want me to be a part of? How dare she try to push me to become one of those evil old rich people?

After a while though, we finally got desperate enough to give it a shot and a year later we re-borrowed the kit for a couple of months before joining a Financial Peace Class sponsored by the Army and receiving our own kit for free (thank you taxpayers!!)

Then I heard the brick lesson and I realized how wrong I was about my "evil rich people" theory.

See, Dave says that money is like a brick. I can take a brick and do something evil with it like throwing it through a window. OR I can take that same brick and build a hospital, or a school, or a church.



The brick isn't a jerk, the brick is a-moral. I am not evil if I have bricks and I'm not good if I don't. It's what I DO with my bricks that displays my character, and the type of person I am. There are good rich people and good poor people, and there are evil rich people and there are evil poor people. It's not the money that makes the person evil or good.

You know the best part about the whole deal? Now that we're financial free and have a few more "bricks" we're finding out more and more how fun and exciting it is to give away our bricks. It's also fun to watch them grow into more "bricks" in our investments so that hopefully someday we really can build a hospital, or a school. One of our favorite things to do is to talk about what we will do with our money in retirement, the ways that we'll be able to help people. We would love to pay off mortgages, build homes, fund school programs (like Financial Peace school edition) and more. It's so much fun to dream together, and to know that now, with the track that we're on, there's a good chance that many of those dreams may come true.


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Don't forget that today is the last day to register for the Financial Peace University drawing tomorrow! Also, there is a good chance that we will do this once every other month or once a month since we've gotten so much interest in it! So even if you're not a winner this time you could be next month! Keep checking back and good luck tomorrow!

In Honor of Mom We're Giving Away ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!!

My Mom came to visit this weekend and it was SUCH a wonderful time! We sprayed silly string, rode around in the Jeep, planted lots of flowers and laughed until we couldn't breath and our eyes were filled with tears!

Growing up my mom taught me one of the most important financial lessons I've ever learned, one that stayed with me and prevented me from making thousands of useless impulse purchases.

The lesson was the 24 hour rule.

If I found a toy at the store that I wanted to buy then I had to wait 24 hours before buying it. If I still wanted the toy after that period then she was glad to take me back to the store to buy it. Most of the time I changed my mind and decided against the purchase.

So in honor of my Mom and the lesson she taught me we are giving away an extremely valuable gift. This gift is worth ONE MILLION DOLLARS OR MORE!

That is, if you use this prize...

Here's the scenario: you get out of debt in 2-3 years (or less!) then spend 34 years investing $500 a month at 8%. At that point you will have ONE MILLION DOLLARS! How incredible is that?! Think of all of the great things you could do with that kind of money - you could fund your grandkids' college education, travel, give generously to so many people and organizations, and retire with dignity!

That's where this prize comes in. Our giveaway this month is one FREE brand spankin new Financial Peace University Kit normally priced at $189!! We received our own Financial Peace kit for free from the Army and it has forever changed our lives, so we want to pass on this blessing to you, our beloved readers!

This is what you will receive



It all comes in this handy dandy carrying case. This makes it a breeze to transport the kit to Financial Peace class. Did I mention that you will now be able to attend the class for free for the rest of the life once you're a proud owner of your own FPU kit?



I keep the cd's in my minivan so that I can listen to it when I'm driving around - my five year old daughter has half of it memorized!



Our son wanted to model the kit for you







Even our kids are Financial Peace Fans.


"I don't think I want to listen to hours of financial talk - that sounds boring," might be the thought that's going through your head. Have no fear - you will laugh your tooshie off! (although I hold no responsibility for any problems that arise from your tooshie falling off from laughing hard)

"I already have a kit, so I can't participate." Wrong again! Even if you already have this kit, please feel free to participate! You can just pass it on to someone else, or you can opt to receive several other Dave Ramsey products, such as the Kid's Pack or a free ticket to his Total Money Makeover show.

In order to participate, just write an email to thislittlepiggyboughtahouse@yahoo.com or leave a comment below listing one thing you would do if you had a million dollars. Use your imagination! The winner will actually be drawn from a hat, so there's no pressure, I just think it would be fun for all of you future millionaires to get some ideas.

If you're wondering what all this highfalootin stuff is about, just click HERE for a preview of what you will experience during Financial Peace University.

You have until Friday, April 23 so tell you friends to make their way over here for the chance to discover true Financial Peace!