I recently read Dave Ramsey’s book Total Money Makeover and determined in my heart that this time I would get out and STAY out of debt. He didn’t say anything new that I hadn’t already heard. What he did was confirm the direction that I’d purposed to take. He showed me “Baby Steps” to getting out and staying out of debt.
You have to GUARD your budget and stay focused on your vision of becoming debt free. Because things will happen to try to throw you off. I had an amount to add to a baby shower gift card that we were giving to one of our teammates and I also had an amount that I budgeted for myself. Got to the venue and the other ladies were putting in the card the amount of money that I had budgeted for the gift PLUS the amount I had for myself. What to do? Do I give the money I had for myself too so that I can put in as much as some of the others? Which means I'll probably end up going into my emergency fund so that I can have money in my pocket. Or do I just go without?
Taking a moment to walk and think the situation through in my head, I walked down the hall talking to myself saying "I'm no longer giving my last and going without especially when I've already budgeted an amount to give in the first place. And having to get money from my emergency fund for a baby shower gift is NOT an emergency". So I went to the person who was receiving the money and gave her the amount that I originally budgeted to give for the gift AND I still had my money in my pocket. I am determined to be Debt Free for Life!
This situation forced me to look at the way I made decisions and analyze why I would change directions even though a decision (in this case budget) was already made. Whether I was going along with everyone else trying to fit in even if my participation was a hardship on me or whether it was something that I really wanted to do. I ultimately had to decide if I wanted to stay focused on my commitment I’d just made to make and stick with a budget. And in this case, my desire to be debt free won out over giving an amount over my budgeted amount just because everyone else was doing it.
