I know by the title you are expecting me to proclaim myself a Garage Sale Goddess. NOT SO! The Garage Sale Goddess I’m referring to was brought to me by God, via, my very own website. Now that I’ve done my homework, I know what she was there for and I am sharing her with you.
Early on the first day of my garage sale, a woman named Dara stepped up to pay for her purchases and handed me another $20 bill. With it, she had a note, and she said, “I found your blog and think you need to read this book. The $20 will make sense after you read it.”
The book was Dave Ramsey’s “Total Money Makeover” and I read it that weekend. Dara is following the TMM and has her own blog about the process. The crazy thing about all of this, it’s almost exactly what I had started doing on my own.
Now I’m no financial whiz, I was just going by common sense and found that someone else had already laid the groundwork. Dave Ramsey’s book is the how to, Dara’s blog is a great resource to guide you along the way (check out her many coupons and tips), and my take-away from it all is I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. As I mentioned in my commencement speech to Wichita State University’s Class of 2009, when something works STEAL IT.
The other really great thing about this, it was a sign that what I’m doing does work. Heck Dave’s getting rich off his book, Dara’s living with less the way I want to, and Allelulia, this may just mean I am indeed heading down the right road.
Thank you, Dara, for coming into my life, and starting that emergency fund. Since we’ve met, I’m starting my fund, and I’ve taken Kent’s credit card away. (He now has his own DEBIT travel fund for work). The debt is completely paid off save for the house, and that’s the next step!! Just when I think I may not be able to do this someone tells me I can. Who am I to say THEY are wrong?!
Posted: May 30th, 2009 | Author: anitacochran | Filed under: Breaking News - "I'm Broke!" | Tags: blog, Dara, Dave Ramsey, debt-free, garage sale, Total Money Makeover | 2 Comments »
So you are all wondering, “How did that garage sale go?” Let’s just say, I asked for a sign and got one.
Leading up to the big “Sale”, I’ve been dealing with building our smaller, debt-free home, and let’s just say building is NOT for me, even though I’ve done it several times. Everything, and I mean everything, costs more than you think it will, and more than they gave you credit for in the sales price.
The real problem, of course, is we haven’t sold our current larger home yet. Because the contract on the new house is written with a contingency clause based on selling our current home, we’d come to a point where we could walk away. But was it too early? We decided yes, we needed to stay the course, go ahead with the trim stage of the new home, and believe that our home would sale in time to pay off and move into the new one. Leap of faith but one I think God has given his blessing to. Why would I say that?
Well he’s finding the money for me to come up with MY share of the mortgage payment even though I’m unemployed. Take for instance that garage sale. As the garage sale queens ran the numbers, my tally came up just shy of $1,700.00 My PORTION of the mortgage. By the time all the money was counted, I deposited that and had enough left over for our annual “School’s Out” dinner that night. In my mind, God’s helping us make it till the buyer comes along. That, or he’s saying, “Sit Tight Blondie, You’re headed back to WORK.” Oh, I hope he’s telling me the buyer is coming.
And there was another sign from the garage sale, that I’m doing the right thing. More about that next time!!
Posted: May 26th, 2009 | Author: anitacochran | Filed under: Breaking News - "I'm Broke!" | Tags: debt-free, garage sale, home, mortgage | No Comments »
Mid life crisis here I am. in reply to dlfndreem #
