Have you ever seen the Hanes commercial where the dad is dipping his kid in the "special paste" to replace socks? You know, this one...?
Don't you just love this commercial!?
Well, we're not exactly inventing anything new during our health campaign but we were moved to begin the campaign because "we're sick of it." We're sick of living a lifestyle where I have migraines and stomach problems several times a week because of what we eat. We're sick of living a lifestyle where we buy groceries that do not add substance to our health. Moreover, we're sick of not fighting for a lifestyle where we can honestly better ourselves daily by encouraging one another in our actions and habits.
Well, we're not exactly inventing anything new during our health campaign but we were moved to begin the campaign because "we're sick of it." We're sick of living a lifestyle where I have migraines and stomach problems several times a week because of what we eat. We're sick of living a lifestyle where we buy groceries that do not add substance to our health. Moreover, we're sick of not fighting for a lifestyle where we can honestly better ourselves daily by encouraging one another in our actions and habits.
Prior to sharing our campaign goals and happenings with you, we'd like to share certain steps we have already taken towards a healthy family and lifestyle (because we all know that a healthy lifestyle isn't simply eating healthy; rather, it's striving toward healthy living habits in all areas of our lives).
We are certainly not experts on marriage, finances or healthy eating but we at least hope that some of our habits will encourage your family through our future blog posts.
STEP 1: FINANCES
It's a beautiful subject, right? Well, it is if you have similar beliefs about money and how it is handled. JD and I started seeking financial advice from Dave Ramsey. Whether your family is overflowing with what seems like endless debt or is at financial peace, we encourage all couples to seek out his wisdom on all things finances. The church we've been visiting here offers his Financial Peace University class. This is a fantastic class to take, especially when building the foundations of your marriage! However, I believe we could all learn a lot from it, even after 40 years of marriage.
Budget
During our engagement, we collectively decided to be financially sound and to never be in debt. We owe a lot of that to our parents. Both of our parents blessed us and also our marriage when they paid our ways through school. Because of them, we were able to lay a foundation of hope rather than struggling to pay off debt in our first years of marriage.
It hasn't been until we moved to Huntsville that we really needed to begin budgeting because of rent and all of the bills that normally come with becoming one. {And we owe that to our grandparents for blessing us with the opportunity to live in the bungalow for a year rent-free.} Oh, how the Lord continues to bless His children through others. We have such a gracious and merciful Savior, as well as family members!
Thus the time has come to figure out our budget. It truly has been quite tough to figure out. If you're in the beginning stages of allotting your budget, we highly recommend Dave Ramsey's suggestions:
- Giving: 10-15%
- Saving: 5-10%
- Housing: 25-35%
- Utilities: 5-10%
- Food: 5-15%
- Transportation: 10-15%
- Clothing: 2-7%
- Medical / Health: 5-10%
- Personal: 5-10%
- Recreational: 5-10%
- Debt: Hopefully zero, otherwise 5-10%
Of course, these percentages are taken from your household monthly income. "Don't spend more than you earn" is our family motto. Dave suggests the envelope system which is an extremely wise choice (put only the allotted amount of cash in individual envelopes and don't spend more than what's in the envelope).
We follow his suggestions for the budget yet JD and I take a different route for the envelope system... mint.com. If you have not used this program, you are missing out!!! The website is free and 100% secure. Basically, you connect your bank account(s), debit card(s) and credit card(s) to this program and it categorizes all of your expenditures. You set up your budget for each category and it displays bar graphs and pie charts (sigh!) so that you can see where you are on your budget. Sometimes I look at it simply because the organization of the site is absolutely impeccable and it makes my heart happy. :)
The goal is to obviously stay in the green and to never let the bar go red! You can also set goals for yourself (i.e. buy a home or emergency fund). We're currently in the midst of building our Buy a Home fund. :)
That's the sum of our finances post. We hope that you receive inspiration and hope from the programs we suggested above.
