Day One of The Learned Family Total Money Makeover.

Yesterday was the first official day of The Learned Family Total Money Makeover. (Wild applause here).  We are so excited about it.  Literally, we are just fired up.  Our Day One progress consisted of:

Depositing $5 into our savings account!

I know that doesn't sound like much (and admittedly, it isn't).  But it is actually VERY big deal.  We established a new savings account with the online bank ING Direct.  It's not sketchy, we did our research before we signed up.  It's a real bank that is FDIC approved and all that jazz that you hear on commercials about banks that I never paid attention to before yesterday.  The cool thing about this bank is that they offer good interest rates because they don't have very much overhead, since they have no actual branches.  They have wonderful customer service, and it's absolutely free.  There is no account minimum, either.  You can have unlimited accounts (we plan to eventually have a savings account for separate categories...more detail on this later) and even have a checking account.  For now, we are just going to keep this savings account, which we have nicknamed "1000 Emergency Fund."

The gist of what we're doing is this: Step One of the Total Money Makeover is "Save $1000 Fast."  It's your baby emergency fund.  Since you do not use credit anymore, you have to have some sort of security in case it rains (and, as Dave makes sure to tell you, it WILL).  He encourages people not to dwell too long on this step, just get it done.  Every extra bit of money that you can save should go straight to this account.  He also encourages people to keep it liquid, but also keep it safe and protect yourself from being too impulsive.  You will come back later and build up the emergency fund significantly, but for now, the goal is to move on and get to Baby Step Two: The Debt Snowball.  You can't do this until you have a backup plan, and that's what the $1000 is all about.

The thing is, you'd think that scrimping any extra money would be painstaking and awful.  But actually, it's not!  It's fun!  Once we have the end result firmly fixed in your mind, you want to do every little thing you can to get there.  Including eating leftovers at home instead of going to Taco Bell.  Including looking at the price per ounce at the grocery store and getting the best bargain, even when it means sacrificing your favorite brand of cereal for the store brand instead.  I could go on and on.  When you WANT to find ways to save money, you CAN.  Every dollar counts.

And the funny thing is, yesterday, I was really focusing on trusting God to help us get through this.  I want to get out of debt.  I want to have financial security.  I want to be able to retire (even though this is 40 or 50 years away from now) with dignity, and be a blessing to our family instead of a curse.  I want to be able to give generously and be a good and faithful steward.  And it is scary to begin this process.  But the goal is looming large in my mind, and we will make it.  God will provide.  And even yesterday, he did!  One of my clients at work had his business partner (who works out of Jacksonville, Florida) in the office, and I speak to this man on the phone almost daily, but have only met him in person a couple of times.  I was sharing with them that my husband and I are starting this process, and he reached in his pocket and pulled out $20 and told me to add it to our savings!  It is so cool to watch how God is taking care of us!

My primary stress has been coming from finances, for months now.  But now, I feel the burden lightening already, because Rob and I are on the same team, and we are working together to get to the end, even from Day One.