Waging the War on Stupid Food and Stupid Spending

So a few months ago I read a post from my friend Nicole (who I blog stalk incessantly for her craftiness) and she discussed a financial class that she took through her church. She chronicled some of her family's financial victories in some detail, outlining how much debt they had managed to pay off as a result of this class. I must admit that at first I thought it was a little strange that she discussed her personal finances in detail for the world to read, but I was totally intrigued. I started to think about our finances, and how much further we could make our dollars stretch if we really tried. Shane and I are both captains with our respective fire departments, and we both work our asses off. Seems like money shouldn't be an issue right? Not the case. In true fireMAN fashion, we have a few extras....nothing overboard, but extras nonetheless. We have a boat, trailer, a few motorcycles, and we own our home (at least that's the goal in 30 or so years). So for a hardworking two income family, why the hell are we out of dough at the end of the month?

Anyway, I prematurely dismissed the idea that I could take the same class as Nicole since it was through the LDS church. The very next morning, Shane and I were carpooling to work and I was telling him all about my friend's financial victory. At that moment we simultaneously received text messages from a friend of ours inviting us to a Christian based financial class being hosted at their house. Low and behold it was the same class.. Taking this as the sign of an opportunity to better our habits, we signed right up. Just as my friend described, it has been life changing. In only eight short weeks, we have managed to build up our savings and pay off a boat load of stupid debt. We immediately cut up ALL of our retail and credit cards, and have managed to pay them off and close the accounts. Thats right...buh by, Vics, Macy's,Kohls. Most importantly, BUH-BY Best Buy (a toughie card with which we bought our Macbooks, a fancy camera and Kindles). Did I mention that I finally PAID OFF MY STUDENT LOAN?!? The goal is to pay off all of our debt, including the house, in the next ten years. The thing that I love most about this class is that one of the primary goals is to build personal wealth so that you can give it away. It stresses the importance of making charitable contributions, something we plan to do a whole lot more of in the years to come. This has helped to organize us in so many other areas in our life. For instance, we meticulously plan our family calendar and budget according to what's coming up that month. Every dollar is spent on paper before it hits our checking accounts. Anything leftover in our account goes directly to paying off debt or to our savings. In the coming weeks it will begin to discuss investing, mutual funds, etc...mystery topics as far as I'm concerned. I'm Pumped!

Interestingly, these simple habit changes have spawned several others. The friends hosting this class (some of the nicest people in the entire world) have become considerably knowledgeable about food, specifically organics and the harmful impacts (to the environment and our health) of eating excessively processed, non organic food. They opened their kitchen to us, and it has become quite the topic of conversation. Afterall, we discuss our finances with them... why not discuss something as personal as food choices too? Anyway, I'm not going to pretend that we are perfect eaters or grocery shoppers. I didn't move my family into a bio dome...I don't raise my own corn fed chickens. I didn't convert my babes into vegans, and I don't think you're a murderer for lovin' a good steak. We've just made some simple changes in the food we buy, and the places we shop. This has become rather simple thanks to our local organic produce co-op, an organization that I am proud to be a small part of. For example, we now buy our own spelt flour in bulk from a local health food store and make our own bread. Six months ago, if someone had told me I would be making my own bread, I would call you bat shit crazy!

I was always under the impression that eating healthy food (buying organic produce, opting for the lesser processed foods, and finding safe meat) would be much more expensive than the old Wonder Bread route. With a little research and tips from our co-op peeps, we have actually spent less on groceries. Of course there is the obvious financial side effect of developing a tiny disdain for fast food.... I've finally managed to erradicate "chicken nuggies please!" from Cash's vocab. We have the occaisional splurge, but for the most part, our eating out bill has decreased by 60%. Whoot.