126. Total Money Makeover - Pay It Forward

One of the keys to financial success is giving. Dave Ramsey talks a lot about giving. Baby Step 7 is focused on it. However, you don't have to be debt free to give. In this group we want to win with money and part of that means creating a culture of giving as well.

Dave says: “Giving to those in need will bring more joy than money could ever buy.”

So what does it mean to Pay It Forward? Paying it forward can be defined as "responding to another person's kindness to oneself by being kind to someone else."

We have experienced this joy. Would you like to experience it to? The challenge is for you to do one of two things:

Challenge 1:

1a. If you don't own a copy of TMM buy a copy for yourself and your family. If you don’t have money to do so, sell some stuff or work overtime so you can buy a total of 3 copies.

1b. Give a copy of the book to someone in this group.

1c. Give a copy of the book to a friend, family member, or acquaintance with a personalized note stating how the book has impacted your life.

1d. Pass the TMM Pay It Forward Challenge on to someone else by sharing this post! Use the hashtag #TMMPayItForward

Challenge 2:

2a. If you already own a copy of TMM, buy and give away 3 copies of TMM to three people. If you don’t have money to do so, sell some stuff so you can buy the 3 copies.

2b. Give a copy of the book to someone in this group. (See the list pictured below)

2c. Give a copy of the book to a friend, family member, or acquaintance with a personalized note stating how the book has impacted your life.

2d. Give a copy of the book to a complete stranger.

2e. Pass the TMM Pay It Forward Challenge on to someone else by sharing this post! Use the hashtag #TMMPayItForward

Note1: You can buy and mail a good used copy of TMM through Amazon for about $10 shipping included! Dave’s website www.daveramsey.com also usually has some good deals as well. This challenge is absolutely optional. Participate at your own risk. :-)

Note 2: If you are doing The No Spend Challenge you wouldn’t be “breaking” your rules by raising your income (making money by selling some stuff, working overtime, etc.) .

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125. The "No Spend Challenge" Day 1 - January 2015

Time for another No Spend Challenge! This month we are challenging ourselves again to cut spending drastically with a “No Spend Month.” Check out our first challenge last year in October 2014, also what we learned 31 days later from our October 2014 No Spend Challenge, and finally some highlights from the month of October 2014. 

We've actually created a group with over 1300 members on Facebook called The No Spend Challenge to encourage and facilitate helping others take the challenge to save. 

This is the first day so simply put we’re making the commitment and setting some ground rules.

I think both of us are a little apprehensive about doing this challenge again. Even more so trying this again on a month that once again is essentially 5 weeks.

Our goal is to save 20% of our budget by the end of the month. We believe this goal is SMART. It’s specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-sensitive.

Please note each family should account for their own circumstances. If there are known events like birthdays, vacations, vehicle maintenance, doctors appointments fit them in the budget and then move on. If you’re doing this for the first time and you don’t have a huge stockpile of food in the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer you’ll probably have to make a few trips to the store and include that in your rules as well.

We’ve set our sights again not to spend money on anything outside of our basic necessities and eat from our food pantry, refrigerator, and freezer as much as possible. We’re limiting grocery shopping to essentials (milk, eggs, fresh fruit, etc.) only.

These are the things that we will seek to avoid this month:

No eating out at restaurants.
No Starbucks.
No shopping at stores.
No shopping online.
No excess entertainment (we already subscribe to Netflix monthly, but no Redbox or Amazon Online rentals). 

No extras. (chocolate, manicures, pedicures, games, etc.)
No home décor.
No toys. (We tend to buy $1 toys at Target)
No crafts or hobbies.

We’ve agreed to a mini-budget to allow for our basic needs  this month. This includes a small stipend for DW, myself, and miscellaneous expenses outside of our normal bills we may incur this month. 

We're also accounting for some free give aways in our new Facebook Group: Dave Ramsey - Total Money Makeover (note the group has no official affiliation with Dave Ramsey). This group was officially launched last night about 9pm and already has 400 members! 

We hope this challenge will help us once again refocus our efforts in reducing our debt. We also hope it will motivate us to be better stewards of the resources God has given us.

We understand that life does not always go according to planned and our experiment may not go exactly as planned. However, we hope once again the discipline will prove beneficial and a good learning experience regardless of the outcome.


Source I used: http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/31-days/livingwellspendingzero/

#nospendchallenge

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Follow me on Twitter! @JWKEagle

Check out my pins on Pinterest! http://www.pinterest.com/jonathanwkey/ 

‪
Also look for the blog's website online: #‎eaglesoaringhigher

Looking for a particular topic? Please check out the new Table of Contents to see posts listed by topic.