Finding harmony in family, finance & military life

My husband and I have recently found ourselves being sought out for financial advice. Now we are not experts, have no formal training or special initials following our last name. Our qualification did not come from a school at all, really it came from life. Life and the book that completely changed our lives The Total Money Makeover . We will help out anyone who asks by meeting with them, giving them the book and helping them create a budget with a goal. It is our passion to see people win with money. People just like us who are ready to say no to debt and yes to living like no one else so that later they can live like no one else! Brent and I are financial opposites he is the free spirit spending money freely and I am the natural nerd trying to tell every dollar that comes in where to go hoping a few stick around. I loved making budgets, making sure the bills got paid and the groceries were bought. Brent loved shopping, buying what he wanted and justifying the purchase because it i...

Ok here we go!  The moment everyone has been waiting for! My first ever giveaway!!! Today I am giving away two  of Dave Ramsey's   best selling books The Total Money Makeover and More Than Enough If you have never read these books  then you are in for a real treat. If you have read these books but it has been awhile  then get ready to find something eye opening      that you missed the first time. If you already own these books, love these books and  read them all the time then now is your chance to share them with someone you love and change their lives forever! Now this is how it will work In order to sign up for the giveaway you must leave a comment with your first name and email address. The email address is of course so I can contact you once you have won!!  Then share my blog via www.facebook.com , Twitter, email any way you like! Once you have shared leave a second comment stating "I Shared!"  and of course your ema...

Oh my goodness!! Headline news on Yahoo is telling people to ditch their debit card and switch to a credit card!! You can read about it here . Are they all stupid? Don't answer that it is rhetorical. Do not switch to a credit card, ew gross debt! You hear me?!!!   Instead close your checking account with Bank Stupid and open up an account with Perkstreet ! Free checking and you can earn 1%, 2% (if your checking account has a starting balance of $5000 or more) or 5% (bonus money changes monthly but still awesome) cash back on all of your purchases. Oh and did I mention no fees!!   Hey or you can just go to using plain, old, wonderful cash. When Brent and I first started paying off our debt using the Dave Ramsey plan we used the cash envelope system. There is no chance you will ever go into debt using the cash envelope system and a well thought out written budget.  Please I am begging you do not open a credit card account!!! You have options Banks are just tr...

If you are getting tired of pancakes and waffles then try this fun and easy apple cobbler for your next family breakfast! What you will need 4 apples(4 cups) pealed, cored and chopped 1 cup sugar 1 tsp cinnamon maybe a little more we love cinnamon! 1/4 tsp nutmeg 2 TBSP Butter cut up 1 1/3 cup milk 2 cups Bisquick Preheat the oven to 350 Put your apples in the bottom of your baking pan I used an 8x12 and it worked great. Then mix the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl and sprinkle evenly over the apples. My daughter actually did this part for me so I could mix the milk and Bisquick together. Dot the butter over the apples then pour the Bisquick milk mixture over that spread it evenly. Bake for about 40 minutes until topping is golden brown and cooked through. Rotate your pan about half way through baking time to make sure it gets an even browning. Let it cool for a few minutes then serve. We got about 12 servings. It was delicious! Please do not forget to sign ...

UPDATE: The giveaway will be this coming Friday October 7th!! Please check back often for updates. Thank you and I am so excited!! Yes I am finally doing it, I am having a giveaway!! Here is the deal my follower base is very small so I am asking everyone to please share my blog with as many people as you possibly can. Once I have 100 followers I will get the giveaway under way! Here is the really cool part the winner of my give away will win a copy of Dave Ramsey's Best seller The Total Money Makeover along with a copy of his book (another best seller) More Than Enough ! So please start sharing my blog like crazy and thank you very much for taking the time to read my posts! I wanted to add real quick the best way to follow me is by clicking  the Follow By Email tab on the left of my page! Thanks!!

Yesterday we kissed nearly $1000 good bye getting our heat pump fixed, I spent $5 at the commissary getting fresh fruit and veggies after my WIC voucher was used up and at some point I will need to fill the gas tank this month. Today I sat down balanced the check book and redid the May budget. Some days it feels like my life revolves around the money it takes to run this family. It has to be controlled and told where to go or it all disappears without a trace. Having a budget is a family affair so even when Brent was gone I would send him a copy of our monthly budget and keep him informed of changes made and money spent. Our children know that is takes money to do karate, buy gas and groceries and keep a roof over their heads. If keeping a budget is a foreign concept or something that you are struggling with then this is going to be a must read post for you because I am going to go over each part of our budget in detail. You start a budget the same way you start any worthwhile projec...

Well will we or won't we? That seems to be the circulating question with about a hundred different answers! One source says we will get paid just not on the 15th of April it will be posted on May 1st as back pay. Another source says we will receive half of our pay on the 15th of April and the rest will come after the budget is hashed out. Yet another source states only those in a combat zone will get any kind of pay on the 15th of April and someone else believes there will be no change to our pay at all.Some are also saying nothing will be affected until May. I do not claim to know which answer is right, frankly I don't think anyone knows which answer it is going to be at the moment. Right now I am just so thankful that we are able to live off of the pay we received on April 1st. We wrote up our budget so that our mortgage and all of our utilities along with our food budget and blow money were covered by what we get paid on the first. The give portion of our budget is also c...