Today was make out like a bandit day!

• 29 boxes of Kleenex
• 1 large bottle of Cascade dishwasher soap
• 2 Speed Stick deodorants
• 14 bottles Joint Juice
• 6 boxes Raisin Bran cereal
• 2 36ct packages Chinet plates
• 2lbs cheddar cheese
• 2lbs bacon

$89.15 retail prices for which I paid $6.48 (plus $3.84 in sales tax for a grand oop total of $10.32).  And, I have $6.00 oyno cash for my next purchase.

Not many sales at Safeway this week, but still did great!!

Let’s see… how many people “really” need WIC or foodstamps?  If we treated our inability to take care of our families as the #1 priority in our lives that we “say” they are, we’d be doing everything possible to provide for them, including taking on 2-3-4 jobs, selling the majority of our possessions to provide food and shelter, discontinue our cell phones, our internet, our cable/satellite TV, not take on (or get rid of) car payments, etc.

The fact is, we don’t really treat providing for our family as our #1 priority.  I’ve seen families take on as many money making things as possible to provide, even to the point of one of the family members getting as few as 2-4 hours sleep a night just in order to provide for the family through jobs, odd jobs, part-time work, etc.

I’ve seen families prepare for the inevitable disaster by not buying all of the so-called “necessities” in life (you know the things: movies, tv’s, dvd players, stereo’s, internet, computers, cable/satellite, cell phones, books, stuff to have stuff, etc.) and making sure they had “shored up” just a little to cover in case of that upcoming emergency.

We personally have gotten so “tight” financially that we wouldn’t even buy a cup of coffee at times.  If we needed to be with people in public places we’d just not buy something, it was that simple.   We are watching our pennies so closely now that we are being ultra careful… things such as an $8 business lunch are out of the question.  No it’s not convenient, but it can be done and with a little bit of work and organization, it works out just fine. We’ve given up many things and continue to do so in order that we do not become dependent upon someone or something else.

I’m constantly hearing all of the “reasons” people are receiving public assistance and in every single case they could have made choices prior to the assistance to change the need for assistance.  In most cases, they could be off the assistance quickly, but choose to continue to receive anything they can get. Why aren’t people working harder to change their circumstances while they are on assistance?

Do we realize the impact of this? The cost to society? The intent on this dependancy being created by the ones creating the “assistance” programs? We need to get off our butts and start really taking care of ourselves and our families.  Unfortunately, our country is moving into the opposite direction and has been for over 50 years (it’s all political parties, not just one).  It’s sad… in a few decades people will be so dependant upon the government to provide for them that they’ll essentially be “fat and happy” and the “government” will do whatever they want, because they’ve created a society of dependancy.

I supposed I should have mentioned this earlier… we completed Dave’s baby step #1 which is to put $1,000 aside as our temporary “baby emergency fund” while we are snowballing our debt.  We are keeping it in our local credit union savings account - interest is not important at this point.  I want the money accessible but no so easily accessible that we can squander it.  It’s current location requires us to physically go into the bank to withdraw it.

What’s an emergency?  Dave defines an emergency as not being able to financially fund your “4-walls” because something truly unexpected happens.. ie: job loss, accident, fire, etc.

I’m not overly comfortable only having $1,000 but like Dave says, this is temporary and only while we are paying off our consumer debt.

This comes up all the time. Repeatedly I see people asking how much they should be investing in their retirement plans: IRA’s, SEP’s, 401k’s, 403b’s, etc. while they are paying off their debt.

Here it is in black and white: the only time you should be putting any money into retirement before paying off your debt is when your employer is offering you a match on your funds. In other words, if your employer will give you a 25% - 100% on the 2% - 6% you put into your 401k, then you need to put the maximum into that 401k that they will match. That is pretty much a no-brainer.

However, unless you are receiving a match on your contributions, you should never be putting money into retirement until your debts are paid, period.

I know many of you will argue, but be that as it may, your best way to “save for retirement” is to get rid of the debt that is costing you 5% - 30% to have. That is the biggest return on your money you can make. Additionally, with debt paid off, you need less money at retirement to enjoy life fully.

Those of us in debt have no business “investing” our money anywhere else but in our debt first and foremost.