We are approaching the end of year 3 on rice and beans. If you don’t know what this means, it’s part of Dave Ramsey’s debt-free plan. Step 2 in this plan is to pay off all outstanding debts, minus the house, by cutting back on living expenses. One of the biggest areas to reduce spending in is food/groceries. Dave recommends eating “beans and rice, rice and beans” during this phase of your life because those are the two cheapest food items at the grocery store.
So after 3 years, we are SICK of eating cheap food, we are TIRED of not having blow money and entertainment money, and we are SICK AND TIRED of being in debt. We have had some major bumps along the way, including eliminating one of our two incomes and welcoming our first child into the world.
We are ready to DUMP DEBT!! One of the things we’re doing to gain more traction is increasing our income. Guitardude is working 2 jobs to help cash-flow graduate school. I am maintaining our eBay business (JMS_Music on eBay) from home.
I often get discouraged when we sit down for our budget meetings and lay out the plan for the month. I see how much more we have to go, and I often want to just give up. After all this time, it still seems like our goal is sooooo far away. I’m sure a lot of you in Baby Step 2 have felt this same way.
But one thing that has helped me this week: read Proverbs 6: 1-11 EVERY DAY. What does it say? Here it is:
Proverbs 6
New International Version (NIV)
Warnings Against Folly
1 My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,
2 you have been trapped by what you said,
ensnared by the words of your mouth.
3 So do this, my son, to free yourself,
since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands:
Go—to the point of exhaustion—
and give your neighbor no rest!
4 Allow no sleep to your eyes,
no slumber to your eyelids.
5 Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest—
11 and poverty will come on you like a thief
and scarcity like an armed man.
So I hope this will help you take heart as much as it does me. You have planned your work; now work your plan. It’s a slow-cooker, not a microwave. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Just keep doing what you know is right. I know God is pleased with us handling HIS money correctly and I know He will keep blessing us as we try to become better managers of HIS money. ~Eph. 3:20-21
Making Progress 