The Dave Ramsey Dinner

My girlfriend and I have a new years resolution to work on our individual finances. We've opted to follow the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover plan to do it. Like Dave often says, we're gazelle intense about it!

If you've never heard of Dave Ramsey's plan, in a nutshell it is broken down into seven "baby steps" which are:

1. Put $1,000 into an emergency fund fast!
2. Pay off all debt (Not including your house) using the snowball method.
3. Once debt is paid off, put away 3 to 6 months of savings into your emergency fund.
4. Invest 15% for retirement.
5. Start saving for your children's college.
6. Once you have a decent college fund for your kids, pay off your home early.
7. Build wealth, and give to charity.

I'm currently on baby step two in this process, and with my latest paycheck I realized that not only do I have an upcoming business trip between now and my next paycheck, but I also have my daughter's birthday! 

Luckily, most of the business trip can be expensed, but my girlfriend is tagging along, so there will most likely be non-expensable expenses. My daughter's birthday party will also cost some money too.

But damn it, I am determined not to put any of it on my credit card! So, unlike the federal government, I realized that if I want to decrease my debt, I have to cut spending somewhere!

So for this paycheck, allow me to introduce to you what I am calling the Dave Ramsey Dinner!

Some of you snobs may scoff at this, and think that you would never stoop this low just to pay off your credit cards early and be debt free. That's fine by me. Scoff all you want, because as Dave Ramsey says, I am going to live like no one else, so later I can live like no one else.

Eating some $0.59 boxed mac and cheese, and ignoring people's judgement is well worth being debt free and being able to retire comfortably in my old age.

If you are looking to escape debtors' prison, and eventually get out of the rat race, then I highly recommend reading Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover! If you don't want to buy it, then check it out from your local library.