2. Follow Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps

I found Dave Ramsey years ago and it really helped me get my shit together but honestly I fell off the bandwagon a time or two. This year my goal is to really follow his baby steps toward a better future for us. His baby steps are made up of the following.

1. Create a budget, cut up all the credit cards, and save your baby emergency fund of $1,000.
2. Pay off all debt using the debt snowball. The debt snowball means listing your debts from small to big. Pay only the minimums each month except for your smallest debt. Whatever money is not used in your budget is your snowball. You use this to start paying towards your smallest debt.
3. Save 3-6 months expenses for your emergency fund.
4. Save 15% of your household income to retirement.
5. Save for college
6. Pay off your house
7. Be wealthy and give generously.

Your can find more about the baby steps here.

We’re on baby step two and likely will be for the entire year. Our debts are made up of credit cards, a car loan, a camper, and student loans. Our debts total well over $100k. This means we will be here for quite awhile but once we pay off a lot of this stuff our snowball will be really good. Right now our snowball is about $800 per month with a household income of $6840 a month takehome. This amount is after insurance. We have three kids. Our budget looks like this...


BILLS $3155

DEBT $1963

MONTHLY SPENDING $605

SINKING FUNDS $300

SNOWBALL $817

I heard about Dave Ramsey on baby center's We Are Debt Free group years and years ago. The ladies these are so inspiring and helpful! They definitely serve as motivation to be better at finances and to help set and meet my goals. Dave Ramsey also has a podcast that I have been listening to. It is so interesting and helpful. You can find it on iTunes or the podcast app on your phone!

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions! You are welcome to comment here for follow me on Instagram and message me there! I'd love some accountability partners. I also plan to update everyone on our debt free journey as we go. I will paste the budget template I use below. It is more detailed than the above as I wanted to just give y'all a high level look at our finances.

BILLS

mortgage/rent

garbage

cable/Netflix

phone

internet

cell phone

electric

gas

water

alarm

life insurance

car insurance

home insurance

daycare/preschool

DEBT

(list smallest to largest by total due, include monthly minimum)

car

student loan

medical bills

(add anything else you have here - credit cards, rent to own, whatever)

MONTHLY SPENDING

auto: fuel

charity

groceries/toiletries

eating out

blow money

entertainment

college savings

retirement savings

newspaper/magazine/online subscription

SINKING FUNDS

(Take the amount you expect to spend in a year, divide by 12 and set aside this amount each month in savings.)

clothing & shoes

haircuts

pet care

gifts, parties

school expenses

household/garden

Christmas/birthdays

home maintenance (1% of house value per year)

car maintenance/tags ($75/car recommended)

medical (rx, copays, contacts, dental)

kids classes/activities

adult classes/activities

tuition

property taxes (if not included in mortgage)

adult classes

travel

AAA, etc.

new car fund