Since we have been conciously focusing on our budget and finances lately, things have “felt” tight. For example, Rachel has been wanted to do a few decorating things around the house but we’ve been putting them off until they made it up the priority latter. Today she was ready to just forget the budget and go buy! Fortunately, before we left we reviewed the budget and made a plan. Even thought things feel tight, I think we are...

I’ve been working on a zero based (envelope type) budget application. I’ve registered inzolo.com for this site. Inzolo in Xhosa (South African tribal language) means peace or tranquility. The idea is that following this budget will lead to greater financial peace. It’s been coming along quite well. I keep telling myself that I need to stay focused on one thing so I can see it through to success. I’m hoping this is...

Today I had lunch with an old friend – my favorite mission companion. I hadn’t seen him for over a year so we decided to get together. He wanted to talk to me about Dave Ramsey as well to help him get on a smart financial plan. I gave him one of my books of Total Money Makeover (autographed by Dave himself – I have two anyway). It was great to catch up and chat and reminisce.

Rachel had a meeting tonight so I was locked in our bedroom with the kids. I mostly watched the Jazz game and American Idol. During the course of our lock-down, Gracie decided it was time to play a game. She asked Gehrig what she was pretending to do. As I watched her I could tell she was mimicking playing a flute and that Gehrig would never guess, so I said “you’re playing the flute.” She got really excited and said...

Last year I got involved when Dave Ramsey came to Salt Lake City. I was given a promotion code to help promote his live event. The promotion code gave people $10 off the price of tickets. I helped sell over 150 I believe which allowed me to earn platinum tickets and a few other things. I get to do it all again this year. I’ve been in touch with the same person on his staff and got a promo code to promote it. This year the ticket prices...

This morning Rachel went to the store and when she got home Gehrig started bringing cans of dried food storage items to me to put away. Rachel could tell I was frustrated because we had just moved money from our food storage budget to another category to cover different things. It was sort of a silly little “fight” but not really a fight. What made it more funny was that tonight we watched lesson 3 in Financial Peace University that...

Last week the Bishop gave the lesson in Priesthood. As part of the lesson he recommended that we have regular interviews with our children and suggested fast Sunday as a good day to do so. So this morning, before church I had an interview with Gracie. I eplained what goals where and we set some simple goals together. After church I had an interview with Gehrig. He was less engaging so we just chatted for a bit. I started with a prayer and ended...