Let's start from the beginning. Clay and I were urged by close friends, Julie and Josh, to take Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University (FPU) class long ago. I had a significant student loan to pay off and Clay had a student loan, car loan, and one credit card. Although Clay and I had similar conservative ideas about money, soon after marriage we found out that we were on different pages. I finally convinced Clay to take FPU and he was hooked after the first class. I thought it was Clay that needed it more, but I soon found out that I should have taken the class long, long ago and benefited from it immensely.
Dave Ramsey's motto is "If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else." He means if you save and live under your means now, you can live comfortably later once you have financial peace. Dave teaches: The borrower is slave to the lender Proverbs 22:7. He has 7 steps that you follow to reach financial peace, step 2 being getting out of debt. I urge you to check out his website: http://www.daveramsey.com/home/. His plan is so simple and logical, I wonder why we didn't think of it before!!!
So, Clay and I set a budget...that was the most painful part. We still allowed ourselves money for eating out, traveling, clothes etc. but limited it to a reasonable amount. Any extra money we had went towards paying off our debt. We started off with apx. $38,800 between the two of us! NEARLY FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS! We still have a long way to go before we reach financial peace, but we are one step closer. I will say that not only has it improved our financial situation (obviously) but it has improved our relationship. Once we agreed upon the budget (which Dave recognizes as the hard part and explains how to go about it strategically), the money situation was on auto pilot. I don't complain about what Clay buys, because we both have allotted spending money each month, and he doesn't complain about my Hobby Lobby addiction. I don't have to feel guilty about eating out or going to the movies because the money has already been set aside for that.
What does a couple do once they pay off their debt? They celebrate! THANK YOU to Roger and Belinda who graciously treated us to dinner in honor of our debt free-ness! We decided to try a new place, Good Food on Montford in downtown Charlotte. It is a tapas-style restaurant that is dated on the outside, but delightfully modern and cozy on the inside. The food and service were great. Enjoy a few pictures of our lovely night.
Anchorsteam Beer
We ate dessert as well: a malted cheesecake but I forgot to take a pic until there was only one bite left and the picture came out super blurry. None of the pics came out so well because it was dark and I didn't want to be rude and use the flash ever 5 minutes :) As you can see, we tried a little bit of a lot and it was yummy!
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