There's more to fitness than exercise

I'd like to say I've been taking a hiatus to work on personal development or something snazzy like that, but that would be a lie. I haven't been working out because I hit a lazy streak, and I'm running with it. The one area I'm not lazy in at the moment is our finances. We have GOT to get out of debt - or at least lower it a lot - before kids come in the next (hopefully) year or two, as those little munchkins are expensive in their own right.

I took a step a few weeks ago that at least got us on the map to the right track, and bought Dani Johnson's "War on Debt" program. I watched the DVD, took notes, and decided Zach and I would do this together! Well, life always likes to toss a wrench into the best laid plans, so I'm basically flying solo and telling him what we are going to do. Rule one is to find all the unnecessary spending in your budget, so I did that this afternoon. Last night, I did step two, and listed all our debt in order from lowest to highest amount and made a pretty killer little chart, if I do say.

This morning, I went through and created this awesomeness:

Now, I separated ours out like this because all of our school loans and a few other bills are on an autopay set up through our bank. The other monthly bills category is a guesstimate rounded up to the nearest pretty looking even number (no change), based on last month's bills (Vectren will go up come winter, as that's our gas bill). I probably flubbed when I totaled our savings total with the bills in the monthly outgoing, but I figure it's leaving our checking account for another account, so it counts as an expenditure in my book, as I can't use it to pay down the debt. I also didn't add in our retirement savings to this (bad, me!), basically because I forgot. There's so much to go through! 

That last column - "fat" - that is unnecessary spending, and boy, do we know how to do it. Friday lunch out with my dad has turned into not such a bad thing, as dad has said he'll buy my lunch if I drive - but my gas is still being used. 

I'm really hoping to get a second job soon, to get the loans in order and get rid of the credit cards, but we also need to ditch the coffee (especially since we have a coffee pot at home, and Zach has the K-cup thingies at work), eating out (I pride myself on my cooking), and the shopping. I really didn't need some of the stuff (yarn) that I bought over that weekend. Although a few things in the shopping category was a one time thing for the photoshoot I had a few weeks ago, like a mani/pedi and tanning. I never tan, and I almost always do my own nails. 

If you want to know Dani Johnson's 'War on Debt', I put the link above. I'm not going to give the woman's secrets away, but I will tell you the strategy is so simple, it's ridiculous, and it's only $100, so it's way cheaper than that Ramsey guy.