Striving for Financial Peace

For years, I've been hearing about Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and the Debt Snowball. But nothing ever seems to be offered in our area.

I'm a member of the Family Ministries Team at our church, so I recently got the green light to go ahead and coordinate the FPU class to be offered this summer! Yay!

In preparing to lead a class I've never attended, I've been studying and working out personal budgets. Thankfully, our debt is quite small, other than the $5000 I still owe in student loans and our mortgage. And the refrigerator, which we financed at 0% for 24 months because when we got home from Disney last July, ours had died. I drive a 2001 Chevy Suburban with 221,000 miles on it. Ole Bessie is mostly reliable, but hubby is going to need to do an overhaul soon. But she's paid for. So is hubby's truck. And the kids bought their own vehicles (cash).

In working out my budget, I went through the last 12 months of my checking account statements and came up with this list. I share it here because there are things we often overlook and they catch us by surprise. Or one month the phone bill is paid a week late because we didn't budget for church camp and it's time to send the kid.

Here's the list of where I'm "enveloping" funds:

Mortgage & HELOC
Groceries
Electric
Water/Sewer
Cell Phones
Car Insurance
Student Loan
Life Insurance
Medical/Dental (setting aside for co-pays)
Gasoline
School expenses (field trips, class fees, etc.)
Photography (senior pics, sports pics, family...)
Camps & Athletics (these are my budget busters!)
Property Taxes (paid once a year, but our county bills in December!)
DMV / license renewals
Vacation fund
Personal Care
Entertainment (includes dinners out, vineyard memberships, etc.)
Pool supplies & maintenance
Clothing
Home Maintenance & Decor
Gifts (Christmas, birthdays, secret sisters, graduations, etc.)
Tithes
Mad Money
Savings

I should point out that we don't have credit card debt, but we do use a credit card for day-to-days and pay it in full each month. We also don't have a cable/internet bill - my mother lives with us, and when I decided to trim expenses this was going to be cut and she now pays it because she wants to have it at the house.

This is still quite new to me, so if you notice I've left something off the list that you would budget for, please let me know!