I also have not finished my Christmas shopping and this makes me sad. I hate the mall around this time. It gives me anxiety.
On another note, I recently spent this past weekend with my long lost friend Sabrina. She lives in San Antonio so me and Natasha met her in Dallas. It was so great to catch up. It's weird how it never seems like time had passed when we get together. We got on the subject of jobs, careers, money, etc. We started talking about Dave Ramsey and other budgeting things and I told them how me and Kory do our money. Which is actually like how Dave Ramsey does it but we just don't use ALL cash. Which Dave does. So I tell them that me and Kory put all our money together and we pay our mortgage, bills, gas, and all that. And we both get paid twice a month, (sometimes three) basically every two weeks. And every paycheck we each take out 150 dollars for entertainment. That's it. So for a month he gets 300 and I get 300. Which does seem like a lot, EXCEPT...that is to cover all fast food, eating out, basically anything besides groceries, drinking, clothes, etc! Basically everything you buy that isn't a bill, medicine, shampoo, all that stuff is entertainment. Need a bottle of wine? Comes out of entertainment. Starbucks run? Entertainment. New jacket? you get the gist... So needless to say, it is pretty hard. But the flipside of that is you save a TON of money. If you limit your spending it's amazing what you can save or pay debt off with.I would say me and Kory make good money. I mean, we do. But we were constantly never having anything to show for it. We would spend until we were out. In just ONE month we saved enough for a 54'' inch flat screen and a brand new Xbox. In just one month! We also take whatever is left from our checking when we get paid and automatically put it into savings. If I have 200 and I get paid the next day that 200 is going into savings. Now, Kory has to keep me in check with all this stuff. I haven't always been the best with money. But it works. And I want you all to know that you don't have to make a lot to be able to save money! You just have to limit yourself. And definitely pay off debt. All the extra money you put away could be one less loan you have to pay every month. Or one less car payment. Give it a whirl and try it out! If you think 150 every two weeks is too low than try 250. Try whatever sounds good. I promise it will help you be more aware of the 7 dollar drink you just bought at starbucks.
Now I am not in any way saying we are money experts. Because we aren't. But we did take the Dave Ramsey financial peace class and it really did help. I recommend it to anyone!
Happy holidays! :) get that Christmas shopping done! (not on credit cards!) hehe
