My friend, her book, your bank account

My friend
One of the great fringe benefits of blogging is getting to know other bloggers, mostly incredible women who I likely would not have met if it weren't for the blogosphere. Cherie Lowe, AKA, the Queen of Free is one of those women. So when Cherie asked if I would be interested in reading and reviewing her new e-book, "Inspiration to Pay Off Debt," I was all in.

I said yes in part because I wanted to help my friend. But I also said yes because we are one of those families whose bills outweigh the bank account. We've taken the Dave Ramsey course, but haven't quite gotten ourselves to the point of action. We have stopped using credit cards (though we still owe on a couple), but we have a long way to go in the area of financial management.

Her book
So, in mid-September, Cherie sent me a free pdf copy of "Inspiration to Pay Off Debt." Here it is, mid-October and I'm just now reading it and sharing my thoughts with you. No, I wasn't kidnapped by a band of ninjas. No, I wasn't trapped by mountains of laundry. I wasn't even delayed by something altruistic like walking miles for charity. The truth is that the e-book sat untouched in my e-mail because I was afraid.

Afraid to take an honest look at what our income vs. expenses is. Afraid to have to lead my family in making uncomfortable choices.

Then yesterday, Annie and I were in Chicago and because of some short-sighted planning on my part, we found ourselves with less than $20 to spend for the entire day. Our hotel and transportation home were already paid for, so our money needed to go for food and entertainment.

The entertainment part was pretty easy. We walked 2+ miles to Millennium Park (in very cute, but not very practical shoes). The walk was enjoyable -- except for the shoes and for the part where I turned my ankle and sprawled in front of the Hilton on Michigan Avenue. I was so stressed about the money that I fleetingly thought, "If I have to go to the emergency room, they would probably give us jello and crackers."

We survived the day, thanks to 55-cent, day-old Jimmy John's bread (Annie's brilliant idea), a crazy-big slice of pizza that we split, and a shared McDonald's value meal. But by the time we got home, I'd had enough. I was ready to make some changes on the financial front, but I needed some inspiration to do it.

Enter Cherie's book.

"Inspiration to Pay Off Debt" is written in a 30-day format. Kind of like "Power of a Praying Wife," it's not a book to read it once and put away. At least that's not how I plan to use it. I anticipate reading it in order. Then maybe I'll go to a specific page when I need specific inspiration. Then I'll probably go back to reading it in order.

Honestly, it was hard to read it through quickly so that I could write this post. I wanted to sit with each day and give it some specific thought.Plus, I kind of like being referred to as a "Royal Lady." Finally, someone recognizes me for the royalty that I (think that I) am.

I scanned the pages, making note of things Cherie said in the book that resonated with or inspired me.

"Paying off debt is not complex, it’s just not easy."

"You can do it.
It will be hard.
You will still have fun."

"Face it Lords and Ladies, no matter how much debt you have, no matter how much you think you’re sacrificing, compared to the rest of humanity, most of you are rich."

"A lot of little bills were sucking the life out of us. Every. Single. Month."

There were some instances where I just marked down entire entries:

Day 10
Day 17
Day 23

Day 27 (In which Cherie took a page from the priest's message at our wedding -- "Getting on the same page financially could take weeks, months, or even years. But it can’t begin at all if you don’t open the lines of communication.")

Your bank account
So how does your bank account figure into this post? Well, if you are seeing something of your own lives in the lines here, considering downloading a copy of "Inspiration to Pay Off Debt."

Ordinarily, the e-book is $4.99. However, Cherie recently submitted another book to the ReWrite Conference Writing Contest. She won! (Watch for her new book to be published by Tynedale Momentum sometime in the next year.) To celebrate, Cherie is offering FREE downloads of "Inspiration to Pay Off Debt" for the next two days -- October 20 & 21.

If you download it, I hope you'll let me know what you think.

Well, I haven't done this for about 16 years

I've thought about it off and on. Years ago, I was sure one day I'd be ready for it. As time went by, I wanted it more and more, but at the same time I was afraid to do it.

I wasn't sure my body could handle it. I worried that I wouldn't have the mental stamina for it.

I worried it wouldn't be fair to my kids. I wondered if Mike would be jealous and or feel insecure in any way.

But I did it and I like it (so far)...besides it would be pretty hard to turn back now.

I took a full-time job.

It's actually a great situation. I'm still working at the 30-hour/week job I've been at for almost 8 years -- the job where I love my co-workers and where I believe in the work we do. Now, I've added another 10 hours each week working for another department at the university. (For the record, neither of my bosses is in any way like Dabney Coleman or his alter ego, Frank Hart.)

I've been part of the my new department since early August. So far, all the people I've met have been welcoming and seem like they will be fun to work with. There have been tales of lively practical jokes and lots of offers to tell stories on the boss I've worked for since day one.

I did make one, non-fatal, we-can-laugh-about-it mistake on the first day, so I'm glad to have gotten that one out of the way: I updated the cover photo of the department's Facebook page with a picture of a student who recently left the program involuntarily. Luckily, it was caught quickly and the director had a good chuckle over it.

By the end of the first day, my head was aching and my mind was swimming with new facts, images of faces I could finally put with names, and ideas for how to get started on the task at hand. Today was just as busy, maybe more so because students arrive on campus tomorrow, but I had more of the hang of things. Tomorrow, I go back to the familiarity of my "old" job until next week, when I spend my one day down on campus.

Since I became a mom and had my own freelance writing business and then went back to work 20 hours a week, I've said working part-time is ideal. I still think it probably is. However, working full-time will obviously bring in some much needed money -- hello Dave Ramsey's debt snowball. Bonus: Working full-time at a university opens a whole world of free college tuition, perfect timing since Annie just started her junior year of high school.

I'm sure there will be some things to get used to, like working on Fridays. Wow. People really do that? And getting haircuts in the evening instead of mid-day when the salon is quiet. Oh, there are probably a zillion things I haven't even thought of yet. I'll just deal with them as they come.

If I won mega millions in the lottery, would I still work? Hmmm...maybe part-time. But until then (which will be quite a while, since I don't play the lottery), I'll happily take the full-time gig I've been lucky enough to get.

Talk money to me, baby

Mike and I attended our first Dave Ramsey "Financial Peace University" class last night. I read Total Money Makeover two or three years ago, but never got Mike to read it and never really made an attempt to go through the steps Dave outlines for 86-ing debt and building wealth. Every six months or so, I would log on to DaveRamsey.com, look at the list of classes near us, then move on to Facebook or some other site not nearly so depressing.

But a few weeks ago, I found that a class was being held at a Catholic church near us and I decided now was the time. I didn't really give Mike a choice to agree or disagree, though for the record, he didn't put up a fight.

We stopped on the way the class to grab some dinner, which of course made me feel guilty thinking about WWDD -- what would Dave do? When we arrived at the class, I was surprised at the number of older couples in attendance. At age 39 and 40, Mike and I were probably right in the middle of the age range. 

I saw that a DVD was set up and I worried that we were in for a long and boring two hours. Turns out that Dave is a pretty funny guy. (The professional writer in me wonders if he writes his own stuff.) Mike was laughing and seemed to be enjoying himself. We looked at each other with a been-there-done-that look when Dave said something about the transmission going out being an emergency. We had to introduce ourselves and give a brief statement about why we were there. Well, duh...

Anyway, as I was sitting there next to my husband who was clearly engaged in the subject, watching a DVD about finances of all horribly boring subjects, I felt a strange sensation. I was getting a little turned on! And though I do sometimes have a thing for bald men -- Patrick Stewart (of Star Trek: The Next Generation),  Sean Connery, Cuba Gooding, Jr. in "Jerry Maguire," Dave Ramsey's chrome dome doesn't really do it for me.

What had me going was the realization that Mike and I were on the same page, with the same goals, and the same desire to get a handle on a situation that was created over time by a bad economy, a layoff, destructive spending habits and a lack of vision. But here we were, ready to work together to achieve what will ultimately give us peace of mind and security. There was definitely something sexy about that.

After class, as we got into the car, I told him that the idea of paying off debt, building our savings, investing more and working on it together had me feeling a bit frisky.

"Really?," he said. "I just feel gassy," which he then demonstrated, as if to underscore his point.

Talk about a buzz kill. Maybe next week, I'll head to class with our budget and a bottle of Tums.

Currency crunch

Earlier this summer, we made the decision to sell our Honda Pilot. It was a perfectly good car that was newer and had fewer miles than our mini van. But we sold it to use the proceeds to pay off some bills that were coming due. At the time it seemed like a good idea and frankly, I'd make the same decision again.

In place of the Pilot, we bought a used Volvo wagon that has been a pretty good car. That is until I pulled too far forward at the bank and drove the front end up over the sidewalk, knocking off some big plastic valance and damaging the radiator. It's not a cheap fix, but we're opting to turn it in to our insurance so we only have to pay the deductible.

Then, on the way home from Holiday World last month, the air conditioning went out in the mini van. Mike drove it that way for a while, but when the check engine light came on, he took it in. A glitch in the transmission. The mechanics said we could do a $90 fix and see if that took care of the problem. Plus, we paid $300 to have the air conditioning fixed.

Ok. That bullet only grazed us. Until last night when the transmission on the van started doing some really weird stuff, leaving us no choice but to drive it back to the mechanic to see what's going on. We're waiting for the bad news and I'm pretty sure "bad" would be welcome compared to what's in store. The van isn't worth what it would cost to put in a new transmission.

I know I'm not alone, but I just feel so cash-strapped that I can't breathe. Mike's bouts of unemployment over the past two years, combined with the expense of living separately, some indulgent instant-gratification habits, and a desire to give the kids certain experiences, have left us with not a lot of reserve.

I'm not trying to whine about money. No one put us in the situation. Believe me, I'm the first person who will stand up and say that we have not been the best stewards of our finances. Plus, we've encountered some significant medical bills over the past several years (three surgeries in the past 9 months alone). And, as Mike is quick to point out, we are in better shape than a lot of people. Still, we're not in the shape I want to be in.

We've signed up for the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University, which will start later this month. We say that we're ready to tackle this head-on. But, when I think about what sacrifices we'll need to make, I think that we can't cut the cable because how will we watch the Colts games? And it's good for the kids to be involved in extra-curricular activities (only one per kid). Of course, it won't hurt to keep going to my pricey salon because I'm worth the pampering, right? And I'd rather cut off my arm than give up my iPhone.

I have a feeling we're going to be our own worst enemies in this effort. But we're going to do it -- or die trying.

Thanks for listening while I "poured my heart out." Click here to connect to other PYHO posts.

Roughing it

We sold my car today. It was my idea and it took Mike a little while to warm up to it, but we did it. It was a great car -- a black Honda Pilot with lots of bells and whistles. I'd imagined driving it until the wheels fell off or one of our children wrecked it in their early teenage driving years.

But truth is, it is serving us better by selling it because we're going to take part of our profit, buy an older car that will make do for a couple of years, and use the rest of the profit to pay off some bills that are hanging over our heads. Dave Ramsey would be so proud.

We sold it to CarMax, who gave us a decent offer, especially considering there were several smallish, but bothersome, things we would have had to fix ourselves before we could sell it to a private party. Once we had the tidy check from CarMax in hand, we drove right over to the bank to deposit it. That's where's things got a little inconvenient.

Because of the size of the check, they put a hold on it. Half will be available on Thursday. If they can get clearance from the CarMax bank, we could have access to all of the money yet this week. If not, it will be next week before we get access to it all. Which is ok. We only intend to spend 1/2 on a replacement car.

But that still means at least two days of being a 1-car, 5-person, 3-camp, 2-job, 2-residences family. And that feels like we're roughing it.

It took us about 20 minutes to figure out how to manage tennis camp, volleyball camp and Mike's business meeting tonight. Then, after he left, I realized I hadn't thawed out anything for dinner and I didn't have a car to go to the store. Technically, I could have walked to the grocery store. But I would have had to take the boys with me and I just wasn't up to the whining and complaining about the heat -- from me or them. Thank God for Donato's coupons!

I haven't even begun to think about how everyone will get where they are going tomorrow. Instead, I'm focusing on finding a car that Mike and I can both agree on. My standards are much lower than his, but I realize this is kind of an ego thing for him, even though I'm going to be the one driving it.

Even so, I'm giving us until Sunday to find and fall in love (or at least in like) with something. Because I can already tell we were not cut out to be a one-car family. Either that or maybe I'll give Mike a bus pass for Father's Day.