Happy Belated Frug Year! Money Makeover Time!

Wow, has it really been over a month since I posted?  Have I really let a January go by?  Sorry!  Much has happened, actually, from DS#1’s holiday visit (likely the last for a few years), to pounding out a new budget, to cleaning up around here….  You get the drift.

So, yes, belated greetings.  This is going to be a Frug Year at Chez CT. The belts are tightened.  We’ve got goals, after all.  And this year, by gum, we’re going to do something about meeting them and keeping to a plan.  In December, I picked up Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover at Goodwill for .99.  I could have checked it out of the library, I suppose, but then I wouldn’t have had all this time to read it on my schedule.

Anyway!  Chock full of inspiration and motivation, that book.  Most of the overriding concepts were not new to me.  In fact, at one point in my single years, I found myself in incredible debt even without a car note or mortgage, and I got out of it on my own, in just the same way ole Dave recommends.  So I know it works — it’s the motivation that’s the key.  The points in the book that I hadn’t considered seriously, or that I didn’t realize apply to me today, went on my to-do list.

Last year I paid off the furniture that was purchased when we had no non-mortgage debt, the washing machine purchased three days later out of sudden necessity, the air conditioner that was purchased a week later out of even more sudden and greater necessity, and a HUGE amount for physical therapy that ended in 2013 (don’t even get me started).  Debt = gone!  It avalanched in, and got snowballed out.

We’re now working together as a family to achieve success in steps toward greater financial stability.  This goes beyond coupons and meal planning.  It goes beyond buying frugally in the seasons.  In fact, it means not buying stuff we don’t need and saving instead, and being accountable for all the expenses, not just “adjusting” the cash balance.

This focus and the energy and effort we’ve put into the process, are getting us where we need to be, sooner than later without a huge change in lifestyle.  I’m all about that using-what-you-have thing right now, moreso than ever before. So no POS sale deals for this frugalista this year. No spring or fall clearance racks. And no whining!

Instead, we’ve got solutions.  This year I’ll share some of those solutions with you, and hopefully you’ll share some with me right here.  It’s all good.  It’s just a different approach to getting what we always said we wanted.  Stay tuned.

What has been your inspiration, financially speaking?  Have you applied Dave Ramsey’s techniques?  Have you achieved your financial goals?  How? — and don’t spare the details, please!