New Year.. New Me?

Ahhhhh New Years Resolutions... I hate this "time of year" for just that reason. I don't really like calling them resolutions I suppose. It seems so.. cliche.. and so easy to forget - cause that's what everyone DOES with new years resolutions, right? Maybe I will call mine ambitions.. or simply GOALS for 2010. That works..

I talked to my husband about a Goal I wanted us to make for 2010 and 2011, a "two year resolution" if you will. Getting out of debt is really important to me. I know that we can do it and I want to prove it to myself but getting out of debt requires my husband to be 100% on board with it. I have been reading the Dave Ramsey book "The Total Money Makeover" and I'll say this: it is awesome. One thing he says in the beginning of the book is that everything he says in this book is stuff people have been saying for years, it's common sense and all that jazz.. and it's true! What makes the book unique and neat is that he has a plan for people to follow, a general outline of how to DO things, to get stuff done. I like it. I think what I like most about it is that it's going to require us to change our lives so drastically for a year or two so that we can live debt free and never have to live like poor people again. Hey, I could even handle being "poor and happy" as long as we are "poor and debt free" as well!

Soooo the basic plan - from what I've read so far - keeping in mind that I've not been through the whole book yet.. is to create a $1,000 "baby emergency fund" as QUICK as you can. He says to cut back in every area you can, even ones you don't think you can cut back in.. sell things, have a yard sale and get rid of some of your stuff.. whatever you have to do - just get that 1k as quick as possible. Then once you have it, you DON'T put it in the bank. You take it and stick it somewhere that it will be forgotten about until you need it for a "baby emergency". He says that one of the main reasons people get so discouraged with getting out of debt is when they run into an emergency and have to fork over a bunch of money that puts them RIGHT back where they started to begin with. Your 1k emergency fund will *help* to prevent that. Obviously it's not gonna take care of huge emergencies but like if your car breaks down or someone breaks an arm.. you know.

So then after that you just start making lifestyle changes. Some of the families in the book ate PB&J or rice and beans for a few years, they cut out all of the stuff they don't need.. Cable, TV, cell phones, going out to eat all the time, going OUT all the time.. etc. Hubby and I don't do a lot of that to begin with but we do have cable we can cut out.. Hubby begged me to let us "keep" the internet - he said he would give up smoking if we could keep the internet. I REALLY would like for us to cut out EVERYTHING we don't need just for those couple years, but his health is really important to me and if he will keep that promise then I suppose we'll keep the internet.

I'm doing a little research and trying to come up with more ways we can save.. I already have a little pile of "sell on ebay" things to get our little emergency fund going. I am really excited about this! I don't want to have a pile of debt to be worrying about on top of worrying about saving up for Baby's college and school books and all that..

Anyways.. he is sleeping now and I should be too.. Goodnight!