“I don’t want to walk across hot coals because it is fun, but if I can be shown how a short, painful walk will do away with the lifetime of worry, frustration, stress, and fear that being constantly broke brings me, then bring on the hot coals.” — Dave Ramsey, Total Money Makeover
“If you can’t control your peanut butter, you can’t expect to control your life.” -Bill Watterson
“To think that the handling of your personal finances is merely a matter of math control is naive. You must get better control of all aspects of your life. Until you do, [even the best advice] will have little effect but will instead be neutralized by the other habits in your life.” — Dave Ramsey, Financial […]
We are winning the debt race. Dave and I will be debt free between July & August of this year. This has been an uphill struggle, but we have learned much in this time. We recently tallied how many peanut butter sandwiches we have eaten for lunch. Does anyone want to take any guesses? 25? 100? 500? 1000? If you guessed 500, you are WRONG, haha! Yes, that’s right, we have collectively eaten over 1000 peanut butter sandwiches.
Perseverance, goal setting, discipline, and much grace was required (and a friend who made homemade preserves was a lifesaver). People’s comments of, “I could never do that!” would almost fuel our drive to keep eating pb&J because we knew it was a matter of choice in the end.
We calculated that we could have 3 peanut butter sandwiches (2 were Daves), chips, an apple, and an occasional soda (always purchasing the 12 packs for less than $2.75) for less than $1 each/ day. Just by not going out to eat, we saved approximately $3500 a year.
For those who are wondering, we did not gain weight- if you consider the fat grams in a combo meal or pizza to a pb&j sandwich, it is a no-brainer. We take the stairs and walk whenever possible. The little steps are what add up quickly.
We are indeed on our way. Although I am switching over to ramen. We’ll see how long I last, I may be returning to peanut butter.
Interesting!! Take care, ramen, by itself will not sustain your health, and may well damage your health, and perhaps even endangering your future children. Beware false economy. Peanut butter is an excellent food, especially the kind without hydrogenated oil added. Have you tried the kind with palm oil? Excellent, palm oil was once thought to clog arteries, but research has proved otherwise.
Ah yes…the beauty of PB&J, ramen, and occasional leftovers. Obviously we connect with all of those things…especially the debt and money part. You’re right…it is amazing what can be done with a little perseverance and sacrifice. And really, it doesn’t seem that sacrificial once you get in the habit of doing it. Being debt free is a great accomplishment. Some day we will be there. Dang you school loans! Keep on with the envelopes and budgets. Miss you at work.