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Don’t Rely on a Windfall

If you look at your financial state and think, “It will all get better if I just win the lottery or get a bonus or an inheritance,” this may be a sign that you are headed for a financial disaster. Relying on a windfall to catch up or have a better life could be an indicator that you are rationalizing your debt instead of doing something positive about reducing it. Debt is hard to deal with. There is no doubt about that. How do you get out from under things when it all seems to keep piling back up again? … Continue reading →

The Importance of Working Together

You’ll double the chances of success when you work together as a team. Any lifestyle change, especially one related to getting out of debt needs mutual goals, accountability and support. Here is why working together will help you save money. Mutual Goals You have a mutual goal of getting out of debt, that is great! Believe it or not, just agreeing on this point means that you are already halfway there. Some couples or families say they want to get out of debt but may not make the commitment. Now, you just need to break this down to specifics. Decide … Continue reading →

How We Found $760 Last Week

Dismayed because our newly built and delicate basic emergency fund got hit again last month, my brilliant husband found us more than $760 that helped us get back on track. As you may know, we have started taking the Dave Ramsey Financial Freedom course. One of the first steps that he recommends is to fund the start of an emergency fund. This way, you don’t have to worry about getting into debt if an emergency should occur. The problem was, is that as soon as we funded this, it got hit for the whole amount, leaving us back to square … Continue reading →

Keeping House When Life is Busy

You know you are busy when you forget to eat. I come from a long line of Italians. Eating is ranked just below breathing. Someone is considered too skinny and near death if their pants size falls below two digits. So you can see that things have come to extremes in our household. My husband has a full time job with several important projects. He is also working on finishing our basement work as a freelancer and have taken on many extra hours in the last two month, partially from the needs of my clients and partially from our goal … Continue reading →

How to Save on Magazines, Books and Newspapers

While going through our monthly budget, my husband and I filled out responses to standard budget categories, such as food, clothing, etc. One of the entries was for magazine subscriptions. Anyone looking around our house would think that we pay a fortune for magazines (and books). I’m continually working on paring down the number of magazines that come and stay in our house. Most of us are great readers and will resort to reading toothpaste tubes if we must, so this isn’t easy (but that is a subject for the Home blog). We also tend to have at least one … Continue reading →

General Conference: “Lay Up in Store”

In his talk “Lay Up in Store” Bishop Keith B McMullin speaks of the importance of preparing for the future. He begins by sharing the story of when he was a freshman in college. He learned through his chemistry class and his time on the football team, that he had not prepared enough. It was on his mission that he began to realize the importance of hard work. Bishop McMullin goes on to speak about the importance of preparing for the Lord’s Second Coming. He points out that leading up to this there will be troubled times, but if we … Continue reading →

Five Ideas for Spiritual Goals

It is time for New Year’s resolutions once again. Have you thought specifically about what you would like to accomplish over the next year? Many people immediately jump to temporal concerns, such as getting out of debt, starting to collect your food storage or losing weight. Here are five spiritual areas in which you may consider setting goals. 1) Personal prayer and scripture study. If you do not already have a habit of personal prayer and scripture study now is a great time to start. If you already do this on a regular basis is there a way to make … Continue reading →