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Book Review: Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

Total Money Makeover is, hands down, the best personal finance book I’ve ever read.

To be fair, its the only personal finance book I’ve ever read.

I’m not good with money.  Never have been.  I’ve got substantial debt for a person who’s only ever owned two credit cards (one of them, I didn’t even understand I was applying for a credit card when I got it!).  My credit score is on the lower end of so-so.  For years I’ve been wanting to pay off my debt, but I just haven’t had the motivation to do the things necessary to do so.

Having a baby complicated the matter further.  Single mothers aren’t known to be living in the lap of luxury.  Nearly half my paycheck goes to child care.  Throw diapers, food, clothes, and all the other little expenses that kids cost on there, and I don’t know how anyone who makes less than I do can afford to have children.  I’m not paying for fancy stuff (except the diapers, I do buy Seventh Generation) either. 

That’s why I think every single mom should read this book, especially if you don’t already have good financial habits.  Dave takes you through everything you need to write up a budget, stick to it, save up an emergency fund, pay down debt, and then start investing.  He advocates living entirely on cash.  No financing anything ever again!  I don’t know if I’m 100% behind that.  Things like student loans can be a godsend, and I don’t think its the end of the world to get a mortgage to buy a home.  But other than that, I’m totally with him.  I will certainly never finance a car again!

Dave’s tone is a little harsh, but I find that motivating, personally.  Since listening to his book, whenever I go to buy something I hear his voice in my head asking if I really need that.  Would I rather have that, or a debt paid off?  Would I rather have that, or be able to quit working full time one day because I have no bills to pay?

His tips are simple, practical, and within reach, I think, of every single mom out there.  His faith obviously plays a big role in his life and comes through in his book, but if you take the Bible quotes the same way you would take a fable with a moral from some other culture, I think even atheists can get a lot out of this book.

I definitely recommend this one on audio, because he is a riot to listen to.  The same material might be pretty boring on paper.

Mommy Multitasking – Reading While You Drive

I am dead serious about this.  I read while I drive.  Even when Elijah is in the car.

I know you’re all waiting for the punchline (if you haven’t guessed it yet), so here it is.  I’ve discovered audio books.

I love to read.  I always have.  I was reading before I was in school, and its always been my favorite past time.  I never thought I would ever stop reading.  Until I had a baby.

Maybe I didn’t stop reading entirely, but my reading time was severely cut back, and most of what I was reading was parenting books, and then doula books, and now midwifery books.  While I love reading this stuff, I miss reading fiction, and other subjects as far as non fiction goes.  But I was working more, commuting more, and when I got home, I had a baby to take care of.  When did I have time to read?  I did most of my reading while pumping breast milk at work, two or three half hour breaks a day (my work was super generous and accomodating for pumping milk, more companies should be like my work was).  Other than that, I didn’t get to pursue my favorite past time really at all.

At the same time that I had to give up one of my favorite past times, I had to increase one of my least favorite; driving to and from work.  I HATE commuting.  I’m not much of a fan of driving in general, but the worst is driving in rush hour on the way to or from a place you never really wanted to be in the first place.  I have a 50 minute commute to work in the morning and an hour commute home at night (traffic is better at 6:30 in the morning, when I leave, than it is at 5 in the evening, when I go home).  Trust me, if I could take the bus to and from work, I would, but there are no lines that will get me from my house to my work in a reasonable amount of time (less than three hours). 

Anyway, since discovering audio books, my commute is finally bearable.  In fact, some days I actually look forward to it.  And in the three months since I discovered audio books (or rather, discovered that I enjoyed audio books), I’ve read more than I have in the whole 18 months my son has been alive!

I got my first audio book quite accidentally.  My Holistic Moms Network group was doing a book club for the book A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle.  I had heard a lot about this book and wanted to join them, but wasn’t sure if I’d actually finish it, and I didn’t want to spend money on the book if I wasn’t ever going to finish it.  One day at work, about half way through the month we were doing the book club, I got an email about a service that provides free audio books to service members through a service that works kind of like Netflix (they mail you the books, you listen, mail them back).  I checked out the selection.  It was mostly books on how to improve your leadership skills, not the kind of stuff I was interested in reading, but low and behold, there was A New Earth.  I signed up and ordered it, along with Total Money Makeover, The World is Flat, and An Inconvieniant Truth.

The first books that came in the mail were A New Earth and Total Money Makeover.  I listened to A New Earth First, and it didn’t take me long to realize that I was developing an obsession for audio books.  It was great!  I could drive and read!  There were so many more books I wanted to get under my belt!

Since the selection at 3Leaf Group (the Netflix like service) was pretty lame, I got the brilliant idea to see what kind of selection my local library had.  I had not had a library card for my local library since I was 15 years old.  I had abandoned my card after the Columbine shootings, because the park that Columbine High School and my local library were both in was closed up and police taped off for a month, and I was unable to return my library books, but they continued to charge me late fees!  I didn’t think I could get a new library card, but when I saw how good their audio book selection was, I had to try.  I signed up for a new card online, and picked it up on my way home from work.

I am just flabbergasted at how much reading I’ve gotten done for free, without sacrificing time from anywhere else in my life.  So far I have read:

• A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle
• The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle
• Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey
• The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
• The Last Days of Dogtown, by Anita Diamant
• Midwives, by Chris Bohjalian
• The Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollan
• An Inconvieniant Truth, by Al Gore
• And I’m currently working on In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan

I can’t get enough.  As I’m writing this, I have another window open to the Jefferson County Libraries website putting audio books on my hold list.  Even if you’re not a big fan of reading, I think audio books are a great option for you.  Its enough like reading to satisfy the bookworm, but its different enough from reading to entertain the person who prefers radio or television.  In fact, listening to an audio book is very much like listening to a radio program.  You can pick something funny, romantic, tragic, informative, whatever.  Who doesn’t like to have a story told to them?

Eating placenta?

I read this article about eating your placenta and I thought I’d share it here.  What do you guys think?  The article makes the point that its just a peice of meat.  Okay, sure, just a peice of meat.

BUT IT’S HUMAN MEAT!!

I just can’t get around that. 

I know lots of people from other cultures do it, but its just not for me, thanks.

Results of used Christmas

I promised I’d post them, then I didn’t.  But here they are now!

Elijah examines his Christmas haul

 See that fire truck behind the stockings, the toy train in front of that red and white striped package, and the bench with Elmo on it?  All of that was Freecycle haul (in fact, they were all from one stop!).  That boat toy just barely visible behind Elijah there, along with a few other toys in his stocking and scattered around were used toys my mom picked up from a friend at work.  That rocking chair is the one I got on Craigslist for $25.  That little white car with the red spot on top of the silver package is a wooden ambulance toy I found at Thornton Winterfest.  It was hand carved by a local craftsman, I fell in love with it on the spot, and bought it even though I vowed no new toys.

Here’s what went well:

• I spent far less than previous years.  Actually, I spent very little on Elijah, about $100 total.
• What I bought new for Elijah was organic, handmade, local and/or natural, with the exception of some Tonka cars.
• My home made spa products were a big hit with my mom and sister.
• Elijah was totally overwhelmed with all his toys, and is still thrilled with all of them and plays with them regularly.  He particularly loves the train.
• What I bought new for my mom was pretty inexpensive, and mostly useful (I got her a cutting board – useful – and a box of petifours – not useful, but yummy).

Here’s what didn’t go so great:

• I still feel like I spent too much.  Total spending for Christmas was a little over $120.
• I should have started looking on Freecycle and Craigslist sooner.  On Freecycle, you pretty much have to take what you can get.  Did I go out looking for a fire truck, train, Sesame Street tool bench and a Bumble Ball?  No, I just got lucky and found them there.  Will I always be so lucky?  Who’s to say.  That’s why I should start looking earlier next year.  This year I started looking in November.  Next year, I might start looking as early as October.
• I turned down offers on Freecycle because they were too far away to pick up in a reasonable amount of time.  Everything I ended up getting off of Freecycle was close to home or on my way to work, so I didn’t do too much driving out of the way, but I can see how driving could quickly cancel out all the savings you’re doing by using Freecycle if you’re not careful.
• Speaking of a lot of driving, I drove for an hour and a half in the snow to get that rocking chair, and got stuck in a ditch at one point along the way.  Was it worth it?  Yes.  But I should evaluate that better in the future.  On the bright side, the guy who stopped to pull me out of the ditch was kind of cute.  That’s one reason why I’m glad some people still drive gas guzzling trucks.
• The toys I got off of Freecycle were a little dusty.  Not a big deal, but cleaning time should be factored into the convenience.
• I wanted to do more crafting for the holiday season, but I just didn’t have enough time, because I wasn’t thinking about Christmas early enough.
• My mom still bought a lot of new presents.  I’m glad I got An Inconvenient Truth, and I think all of Elijah’s new toys are pretty cool, but with some more planning next year, I think we can all do better with buying used.  We just didn’t plan enough (and my mom’s broken ankle threw a big wrench in things).

Non Consumerist Christmas Plans, DASHED!

Its been a rough few weeks for my family.  First, my mom got an infection in a broken tooth she had been unable to get fixed for a while.  It made, her terribly sick.  Then, I got tonsillitis, and my mom and Elijah both caught what I had, and we were sick for weeks.  Then my mom got her tooth pulled.  Three days later, last Monday, was the final blow (knock on wood).  While leaving work, my mom slipped on the ice and severely broke her ankle.  I mean SEVERELY.  Her foot was turned around backwards.

So now she’s basically bed bound.  We had plans to go check out a traditional German Christmas festival down town (its somewhere on 16th Street mall, if you’re interested in going).  We wanted to go to the Georgetown Christmas festival.  We wanted to go to Zoo Lights at the Denver Zoo.  We wanted to go to all the Advent services at church, and Sunday services, and Christmas Eve candle light services, and Christmas morning services.  We wanted to do a lot of things, to appreciate the spirit of the season through activity more than gifts.  But we can’t do any of those things now, because my mom can’t walk.

She has crutches, but its hard work doing those things on crutches, if not impossible.   We might still do Zoo Lights next week, because the zoo has wheel chairs you can check out, and we’re still going to try and get to Christmas Eve and morning services at church, but beside that, all of our Christmas plans are dashed.  To top things off, my mom had not done one bit of shopping for me and had only gotten one gift for Elijah (she wanted to do more), and now she is unable to do it.  I understand why and don’t mind not getting gifts on Christmas morning, and Elijah won’t know the difference if he gets one gift from Grammy or a thousand, but my mom is pretty upset about it.  She loves to give just as much as any mom or grandma, and this year she won’t be able to.

I have felt a great urge to make up for all of this, and have spent more than I wanted to on stocking stuffers for all of us and a “gift” for myself (a Deepak Chopra book), just so that we all have something on Christmas morning, and it will still feel like Christmas for my poor mom. 

I am however pleased because I had decided my big gift for her would be the same thing I was doing for my sister, home made spa products.  She knows I did that for my sister, and as I was showing her my sisters gifts, she said “I wish you had done that for me”.  Ha ha ha ha ha!  I did!  So at least I know she will like her gift.

What’s bothering me most of all is how hard it is to take care of my mom, my son and the house.  I just can’t seem to keep up!  The house is a mess, and I’m going to be spending a lot of time over the next two days making sure that its at least clean for Christmas.  When my mom scoots downstairs on her butt (because our stairs are too narrow to get down on crutches) on Christmas morning, I don’t want her to be distracted by a dirty house.

Tomorrow, I will post all about my successes and failures with my Christmas shopping goal to do everything off of Freecycle, Craigslist or homemade.  I will make sure to include pictures.  This is, in essence, the first Christmas I’ve put together entirely by myself, so I think a few failures are normal.  I’m working out the kinks.  Next year, my economical, green Christmas will go much more smoothly.  I learned a lot of valuable lessons this year.

No Christmas Gifts This Year

In my effort to have a greener, less consumerist Christmas, I am scaling back on presents.  I’m not eliminating presents, but I’m scaling back quite a bit.  I mentioned my digital cook book idea (its a Word document with a collection of recipes in it, Breakfast, Appetizers, Entrees, Desserts, etc) which I’ll be emailing out to friends near and far as a free but thoughtful gift.  But maybe I want to do a little something more for them?  Maybe I want to give a gift of experience.

Enter No Christmas Gifts This Year, an e-card service that gives you the opportunity to give a friend or loved one a gift of experience of their choosing, for free.  The recipient gets the ecard and chooses from a variety of activites listed in the card.  What they choose is what you’re obligated to give them for a present.  Activites listed include “Learn a new skill”, “Play at the park” and “Cook a meal”.

I think I’ll be adding this to my gift arsenal this year.

Finding Local Food and products

I’m a big fan of buying local.  Part of it is because I believe I live in the best place in the world, and therefore all products that come from my local area must also be the best.  I also believe that everyone should believe this about the place where they live.  Unless you live in Newark, NJ.  (Okay, that’s probably only funny to me, and maybe a few of the dudes I was deployed with who were from Newark.  Its just a joke though, seriously.)

But not everyone knows where the nearest farmers market or u-pick farm is, so here are a couple of resources to help you find them.

Local Harvest

Farm Fresh

Pick Your Own

Lets review about local products, if you aren’t familiar with the benefits.

There is a lot of debate about whether its best to buy local or organic, as far as health and environment are concerned.  I think every one can agree, however, that if you can find and afford products that are both local and organic, that would be ideal.  I don’t know which is better, they both have their pros and cons.  It might actually end up being a wash, organic has just as many benefits as local does, the benefits are just different.  What I do know is that local is most often cheaper than produce that was shipped from far away, whether its organic or not, so local is a really great option for me, and probably is for every single mom.

Here are the other benefits of buying local foods and other goods:

• Local products are not shipped very far, thus reducing the amount of fossil fuels burned getting from where it’s produced/farmed to you.
• Local produce and food tastes better, because its picked closer to perfect ripeness and is fresher when you buy it.  Shipped produce is picked well before it is ripe, so that it will ripen (instead of rotting) while it ships, and therefore has less flavor than ripe produce has.
• Local produce and food has higher nutritional value, because its picked closer to perfect ripeness and is fresher when you buy it.  Fresher, riper food has the highest nutritional value.
• Buying local keeps more money in your community, where it is more likely to come back to you either as money, improved local economy, or improved infrastructure within your local community.
• Buying local does more to rescue the national economy than bying stuff that has been shipped a long distance at big box retailers, because most of that money spent at big box retailers actually ends up going to the countries where the products were manufactured (think China).
• Buying local is a great way to immerse yourself and your family in your local community, providing tons of opportunity to meet new people, make new friends, and get a lot of networking done.
• Buying local is a great way to educate your self and your family about where the things you use come from and where the things you use end up.  It helps you to see and really feel part of the big web of life in which we are all entwined.  Its a real eye opener, helps to expand the mind, makes you feel like you’re part of something bigger than yourself, etc., etc.

My ambitious Christmas goal

I, like No Impact Man, consider buying used to be the superior green shopping choice over buying organic or something like that. He and I think so (as if we sat down together to come to this conclusion) because a) buying an unwanted item keeps it out of the landfill, b) buying an already made item keeps resources from being used to produce new items, c) buying used items greatly reduces or eliminates all pollution production, emissions, and energy usage associated with manufacturing and shipping new products, and d) buying used contributes directly to your local economy (unless you’re buying over a long distance through ebay or something, in which case you’re contributing directly to another local economy) by putting money in the pocket of one of your community members or a local non profit organization. Buying used is an even better green option for single moms, because it also happens to be the cheapest green shopping option.

In order to green my holiday season as much as possible, and also to save money for more important things (like paying down debt), I am going to attempt to do all my Christmas shopping in the following locations (in order of preference)

• Freecycle
• Craigslist
• Thrift stores (Goodwill, Arc, Savers, The KGNU second hand shop, etc.)
• The Flea Market
• Higher end second hand and antique stores
• Local craft shows/stores
• Etsy
• Ebay
• Local organic product stores
• Online organic product stores

Okay, craft shows and Etsy isn’t used, but handmade is a good thing too. I put Ebay under Etsy because half the crap on Ebay is new anyhow, and I don’t want to have to ship things. I did put places to buy new, organic stuff on the list, but I highly doubt I’ll use them. In fact, I intend to stick primarily to my first two options on the list.

Thats right. I’m going to try and do all my Christmas shopping on Freecycle and Craigslist. If this turns out to be a success, I am going to make this a holiday tradition.

I should add, however, that there are two over all stores I might have to make a stop or two at to make my Christmas shopping goal really work. The craft store (stops there should be fairly minimal, I’m pretty sure I have all the craft supplies I could possibly need) and the grocery store (stops there will be somewhat more frequent, I do love to bake during the holidays).

I will keep you guys posted.

Buy Nothing Day 2008

I discovered Buy Nothing Day when I was 17 or 18, when I realized that reading Adbusters was about more than looking like a hipster.  I don’t buy Adbusters anymore, because I can’t afford them (its a freaking expensive magazine for being an anti consumerism publication!) and I don’t have time to read them (and their consistent use of little, messy fonts – a personal pet peeve of mine), but I’m still a loyal supporter of Buy Nothing Day, an event they sponsor every year.

Buy Nothing Day is the anti consumerism movement’s response to Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year).  In some places, people actually hold demonstrations in shopping malls and other shopping hubs, but it seems like everyone in Denver is just as lazy as I am and no one ever wants to actually organize an event, they just want to show up and participate in one.  The idea is to educate people about how massive consumerism is harmful to the environment, society and our personal physical and emotional health.

I think you’d have to be crazy to go out on Black Friday anyhow.  I don’t like going into crowded stores, and those who do are practically rabid on the day after Thanksgiving.  I am fond of my eyes, personally, and have no desire to risk getting them scratched out by an angry super shopper who’s been camping out on the side walk since she finished cleaning up Thanksgiving dinner the night before in a battle over the last 9.99 sweatshop manufactured sweater at Old Navy.  No thank you! But apparently the majority of the population is crazy, because if not, then the day after Thanksgiving would not be the biggest shopping day of the year.

Obviously, participating in Buy Nothing Day was not a big change in my lifestyle.  I pretty much have participated in it all my life, I just didn’t realize there was a name for it.  I try to take it to the farthest extreme I can.  I make sure that my gas tank is filled and that I’m stocked up on any personal care items I might need (diapers, toilet paper, etc.) the day before Thanksgiving.  If I forget something, I do without that day.  If at all possible, I try not to leave the house at all, although this year I am going to visit my grandmother in Boulder with my sister and our kids, and last year I was in the hospital delivering my son (which unfortunately resulted in my family members going out and buying things; flowers, It’s a Boy balloons, some fresh fruit for me to eat). 

Maybe one day, if enough people participated in Buy Nothing Day, it might actually be safe to go out on Black Friday, but since I am now such a big supporter of Buy Nothing Day, I still won’t go out.  To learn more about Buy Nothing Day, visit their website or look them up on Facebook (there’s a Buy Nothing Day group there, I am a member).  I encourage all single moms, and everyone else, to participate in Buy Nothing Day by staying home and spending some quality time with your kids, or going out and participating in a demonstration.  You can bring your kids along, an opportunity to both spend time with them, teach them about the anti consumerism movement, and about civil action.  Its also an opportunity to meet new people.  You can find an event in your area on the Adbusters Buy Nothing Day website.

Have fun, and Happy Buy Nothing Day!

(by the way, all the links in this post go to different blogs and pages about Buy Nothing Day)