Wow!!! We are back up and running at DFF&F. We just recovered our password to begin writing again. Boy so much has happened and we will fill you in over the next few weeks.
Christmas was great. The boys received many toys and I got an Ipod Touch which I may use to post blogs occasionally.
I will write more when I am not so busy at work, but we are very close to doing live news, so I will get back to writing later.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Wow How Long It Has Been.
I have not submitted a blog in a while. I believe around Memorial Day 2007 was my last entry. I had forgotten my log in information and just came across it today.
Wow! I need to give an update as to what has happened in the last year. Well lets start with we are now over two years without using credit. We have said no to some purchases because we couldn't afford them, and we have saved up to make some other purchases because we felt that they were important.
One of our biggest goals in 2007 was to build a deck around our pool and find some way to pay cash for it. We were able with the Lord's help to do that and we enjoyed that deck all summer long.
A major goal for 2008 was to pay for a vacation to Tennessee in a cabin in Pigeon Forge for the entire family, extended and all. We were able to save up and pay for this vacation, again thanks to our wonderful Lord in heaven, and we will be taking this trip at the end of March.
My wife was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in January of 2008 and was treated for it at the end of February. So as I write this on March 1st, we are three weeks away from our trip to Dollywood and what a blessing it will be to do it all cash free. This is the first out of town vacation in our lives that will not have payments follow us home.
All glory to God in the highest. Through Him all things are possible.
We have really come to enjoy our new found financial freedom tahnks to budgeting and just living on purpose for over two years. It was hard to say no to ourselves at first, but we realized that we are not congress, we have to live on less than we make. The money doesn't belong to us anyway, which makes it easier to give away.
I have not submitted a blog in a while. I believe around Memorial Day 2007 was my last entry. I had forgotten my log in information and just came across it today.
Wow! I need to give an update as to what has happened in the last year. Well lets start with we are now over two years without using credit. We have said no to some purchases because we couldn't afford them, and we have saved up to make some other purchases because we felt that they were important.
One of our biggest goals in 2007 was to build a deck around our pool and find some way to pay cash for it. We were able with the Lord's help to do that and we enjoyed that deck all summer long.
A major goal for 2008 was to pay for a vacation to Tennessee in a cabin in Pigeon Forge for the entire family, extended and all. We were able to save up and pay for this vacation, again thanks to our wonderful Lord in heaven, and we will be taking this trip at the end of March.
My wife was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in January of 2008 and was treated for it at the end of February. So as I write this on March 1st, we are three weeks away from our trip to Dollywood and what a blessing it will be to do it all cash free. This is the first out of town vacation in our lives that will not have payments follow us home.
All glory to God in the highest. Through Him all things are possible.
We have really come to enjoy our new found financial freedom tahnks to budgeting and just living on purpose for over two years. It was hard to say no to ourselves at first, but we realized that we are not congress, we have to live on less than we make. The money doesn't belong to us anyway, which makes it easier to give away.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
THE PRICE OF TRAVEL
With the price of gas on the rise, many people are struggling to find ways to pay for the added increase. There are some reports that people are altering their vacation plans because of the elevated prices.
Some of my co-workers are wondering at what price gas will need to rise to before I stop coming to work. This is kind of a ludicrous question because I have to come to work somewhere, and I have a great job, perhaps one of the best jobs in the state.
I got to figuring out how much I spend a year in fuel traveling to work and back. I spend $3000 dollars a year for fuel. Two years ago, this was a panic situation for me, before I began learning to be a better steward of the Lord's money.
The other night, I went to Speedway to gas up, and I got $39 dollars worth of gas. When I put the pump handle back into the pump, one more cent clicked on the meter and it read 39.01. One cent is not that big a deal right. Until you realize that if they do this to 318 people, they get to keep a gallon of gas that was paid for. Lets say they do this to 3,180 people a month, which is only 106 people a day, they get to keep 31.8 gallons of gas while drivers pay for it. 31.8 gallons of gas will fill up my ride twice.
We are not altering our vacation plans this summer, but we have reworked the budget to pay for gas. I hope the gas pains are not too severe for any of you out there.
With the price of gas on the rise, many people are struggling to find ways to pay for the added increase. There are some reports that people are altering their vacation plans because of the elevated prices.
Some of my co-workers are wondering at what price gas will need to rise to before I stop coming to work. This is kind of a ludicrous question because I have to come to work somewhere, and I have a great job, perhaps one of the best jobs in the state.
I got to figuring out how much I spend a year in fuel traveling to work and back. I spend $3000 dollars a year for fuel. Two years ago, this was a panic situation for me, before I began learning to be a better steward of the Lord's money.
The other night, I went to Speedway to gas up, and I got $39 dollars worth of gas. When I put the pump handle back into the pump, one more cent clicked on the meter and it read 39.01. One cent is not that big a deal right. Until you realize that if they do this to 318 people, they get to keep a gallon of gas that was paid for. Lets say they do this to 3,180 people a month, which is only 106 people a day, they get to keep 31.8 gallons of gas while drivers pay for it. 31.8 gallons of gas will fill up my ride twice.
We are not altering our vacation plans this summer, but we have reworked the budget to pay for gas. I hope the gas pains are not too severe for any of you out there.
Monday, February 19, 2007
GOAL SETTING
One year ago this month I embarked on a life changing mission to get out of debt and to improve the economic health of my family. This took incredible focus and dedication and sacrifice. Sacrifice has been the hardest aspect of this because my habits were so bad. I feel confident that my family and I are headed in the right direction financially. We have a long way to go, but we have made definite improvements.
I am now undertaking a new goal that will coincide with my debt reduction. I am going to lose 40 pounds by Christmas Day. That is a full 44 weeks from today. That means that I have to lose 15 ounces a week. That breaks down to just over 2 ounces a day. The biggest obstacle for me in achieving this goal will be my undeniable, uncontrollable, seemingly insatiable appetite. I love food and always have. As a young boy and young man, I could eat as much as I wanted and have no repercussions of any kind. I have not controlled my appetite as I have aged and it has caught up with me.
I have always been mentally tough and able to achieve just about anything I set out to do. I am the most driven person I know, which intimidates some of the people closest to me. This same quality that some feel makes me tough to be around is the same quality that has helped me reach many goals in my life to this point.
To lose 40 pounds by Christmas Day is going to require some major behavioral adjustment. I am going to succeed at this with lots of prayer and lots of dedication. I just wanted to post this goal because a large part of goal achievement is to write the goal down thereby creating accountability which also lends to achievement.
I will put in weekly updates and keep everyone informed of my weight loss. I will begin to weigh myself every day beginning Tuesday February 20th and this will allow me to keep a daily number in mind and celebrate small victories.
One year ago this month I embarked on a life changing mission to get out of debt and to improve the economic health of my family. This took incredible focus and dedication and sacrifice. Sacrifice has been the hardest aspect of this because my habits were so bad. I feel confident that my family and I are headed in the right direction financially. We have a long way to go, but we have made definite improvements.
I am now undertaking a new goal that will coincide with my debt reduction. I am going to lose 40 pounds by Christmas Day. That is a full 44 weeks from today. That means that I have to lose 15 ounces a week. That breaks down to just over 2 ounces a day. The biggest obstacle for me in achieving this goal will be my undeniable, uncontrollable, seemingly insatiable appetite. I love food and always have. As a young boy and young man, I could eat as much as I wanted and have no repercussions of any kind. I have not controlled my appetite as I have aged and it has caught up with me.
I have always been mentally tough and able to achieve just about anything I set out to do. I am the most driven person I know, which intimidates some of the people closest to me. This same quality that some feel makes me tough to be around is the same quality that has helped me reach many goals in my life to this point.
To lose 40 pounds by Christmas Day is going to require some major behavioral adjustment. I am going to succeed at this with lots of prayer and lots of dedication. I just wanted to post this goal because a large part of goal achievement is to write the goal down thereby creating accountability which also lends to achievement.
I will put in weekly updates and keep everyone informed of my weight loss. I will begin to weigh myself every day beginning Tuesday February 20th and this will allow me to keep a daily number in mind and celebrate small victories.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
GENEROSITY
Generosity is a philosophy that I struggled with up until 15 months ago or so. I think that generosity is important. So important in fact that I don't believe one will achieve their goals without being extremely generous. I had set some goals to give of myself this year and I wasn't really sure how I was going to do it. I fell short of my giving goals last year and I want to get better at it in 2007.
I listened to Dave Ramsey interview the secret santa from Kansas City, Mo one day on his radio station and became inspired to give outside my comfort zone and create a new comfort zone for myself. I really got the opportunity to do that today.
I was at my favorite restaurant today and I was standing in line picking up food for some people at work, and I got a real conviction to give to someone in the restaurant. Behind me in line was a young father and his son, and I gave a ten dollar bill to the cashier and told him to let that take care of those two meals.
I felt really strange after doing that. I ran out of the restaurant with my food and got in my car and sped away. What a weird feeling. Later in the evening, I thought, what a good feeling helping someone anonymously is. I am going to try to do this once a month while on baby step 2 of my total money makeover. I think that giving is one of the best ways there is to bless the giver and receiver. What a great feeling I had for the rest of the evening at work. Well that is all for this post. Just thought I would put these feelings into words to better prepare me for baby step 7 which is build wealth and give a bunch of it away.
The proverb says the borrower is slave to the lender, and I am trying to become a generous slave on my way to freedom. Freedom from debt and stress and living paycheck to paycheck. Freedom to give as I want and become a better person.
Generosity is a philosophy that I struggled with up until 15 months ago or so. I think that generosity is important. So important in fact that I don't believe one will achieve their goals without being extremely generous. I had set some goals to give of myself this year and I wasn't really sure how I was going to do it. I fell short of my giving goals last year and I want to get better at it in 2007.
I listened to Dave Ramsey interview the secret santa from Kansas City, Mo one day on his radio station and became inspired to give outside my comfort zone and create a new comfort zone for myself. I really got the opportunity to do that today.
I was at my favorite restaurant today and I was standing in line picking up food for some people at work, and I got a real conviction to give to someone in the restaurant. Behind me in line was a young father and his son, and I gave a ten dollar bill to the cashier and told him to let that take care of those two meals.
I felt really strange after doing that. I ran out of the restaurant with my food and got in my car and sped away. What a weird feeling. Later in the evening, I thought, what a good feeling helping someone anonymously is. I am going to try to do this once a month while on baby step 2 of my total money makeover. I think that giving is one of the best ways there is to bless the giver and receiver. What a great feeling I had for the rest of the evening at work. Well that is all for this post. Just thought I would put these feelings into words to better prepare me for baby step 7 which is build wealth and give a bunch of it away.
The proverb says the borrower is slave to the lender, and I am trying to become a generous slave on my way to freedom. Freedom from debt and stress and living paycheck to paycheck. Freedom to give as I want and become a better person.
Monday, January 15, 2007
ONE YEAR LATER
Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This day honors a very important man in American history. Without the hard work of Dr. King, the America we know today would be a lot worse. His nonviolent approach to change is respected and is the way all change should be sought after.
This also marks an important anniversary here at DF&F. It was one year ago today that we last used credit. That's right! One year credit card free. We charged a hotel room in Chicago on MLK day in 2006 and we decided shortly after that to never borrow money again. As tough as that new mindset has been, we have struggled through. We heard many things about how one cannot live without debt and about how it is impossible to live without a budget. We persevered through the year on Dave Ramsey's plan and by tightening the budget. We had a garage sale and a flood and even had a $1200 repair on our van, but we made it through without credit. I pray that 2007 will be even better and we will never need to borrow money again.
We only have the Lord to thank for this. He has provided all of our needs and has taught us why it is important to manage His money better. We are on our way to becoming better stewards and hopefully we will be able give more and save more in the future.
Credit cards reek!!
Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This day honors a very important man in American history. Without the hard work of Dr. King, the America we know today would be a lot worse. His nonviolent approach to change is respected and is the way all change should be sought after.
This also marks an important anniversary here at DF&F. It was one year ago today that we last used credit. That's right! One year credit card free. We charged a hotel room in Chicago on MLK day in 2006 and we decided shortly after that to never borrow money again. As tough as that new mindset has been, we have struggled through. We heard many things about how one cannot live without debt and about how it is impossible to live without a budget. We persevered through the year on Dave Ramsey's plan and by tightening the budget. We had a garage sale and a flood and even had a $1200 repair on our van, but we made it through without credit. I pray that 2007 will be even better and we will never need to borrow money again.
We only have the Lord to thank for this. He has provided all of our needs and has taught us why it is important to manage His money better. We are on our way to becoming better stewards and hopefully we will be able give more and save more in the future.
Credit cards reek!!
Saturday, January 06, 2007
CHANGING MY FAMILY TREE
We started my oldest son Mickey on Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Jr. program for kids to learn how to handle money. Dave says to let kids operate with envelopes from the age of 4 to about 12 depending on how they are wired. Mickey is a bright boy who gets it early, so we started him in the system on his seventh birthday.
The envelopes he operates with are pretty simple. He has a giving enevlope, a saving envelope and a spending envelope. He is saving for a robot that he wants that costs $179. He is very enthusiastic to save for this robot and he will not spend any money on anything but giving. He puts everything else in the save envelope.
I am thinking about a 401Dad to match his savings for this robot. If he shows the character to save prodigiously, we may match him dollar for dollar. This kid is going to achieve great things in life and I am very supportive of him every day.
My younger son is three, but we plan to have him follow in his brothers' envelope toting footsteps. He is a few years from needing to understand this process, but with some experience under our belts, we will do it even better with the second child.
We opened up a mutual fund for them that will hopefully help them in the future either with college or a first home or emergency fund or something big.
We started my oldest son Mickey on Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Jr. program for kids to learn how to handle money. Dave says to let kids operate with envelopes from the age of 4 to about 12 depending on how they are wired. Mickey is a bright boy who gets it early, so we started him in the system on his seventh birthday.
The envelopes he operates with are pretty simple. He has a giving enevlope, a saving envelope and a spending envelope. He is saving for a robot that he wants that costs $179. He is very enthusiastic to save for this robot and he will not spend any money on anything but giving. He puts everything else in the save envelope.
I am thinking about a 401Dad to match his savings for this robot. If he shows the character to save prodigiously, we may match him dollar for dollar. This kid is going to achieve great things in life and I am very supportive of him every day.
My younger son is three, but we plan to have him follow in his brothers' envelope toting footsteps. He is a few years from needing to understand this process, but with some experience under our belts, we will do it even better with the second child.
We opened up a mutual fund for them that will hopefully help them in the future either with college or a first home or emergency fund or something big.
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