Some Dave Advice for Christmas

In all honesty our Christmas isn't going to be "lean" even though we are dumping debt left and right.

* We don't go overboard on gifts. Our girls each get three (hey, Jesus got three. If it was good enough for Him it is good enough for them) one from Mommy & Daddy, one from each other & one from Santa.
* We don't buy for extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews).
* We don't buy big things for each other ($50 limit).
* And, instead of gifting between siblings this year we all decided to go out to dinner and to see Spamalot. The tickets came from our entertainment fund and have already been paid for and my mom is giving us cash for dinner and babysitting as her gift to us.

So the $300 we alotted for gifts has gone a long way- including filling shoeboxes for Operation Chirstmas Child.

For the girls' teachers we are making truffles and we'll bake cookies for the others that help us throughout the year (chiropractor, mechanics, IZEA...)

That's our plan. Do you have one? I'd love to hear about it?

Are you panicked because you just don't know where to begin? Head over and read Dave Ramsey's most recent newsletter. Don't skip the part where he talks about the "dread B word"- BUDGET. It may be uncomfortable to make one and you may have to do some soul searching on what you can and can't live without. But once you have one, trust me on this, life begins to flow just a bit smoother. Here are Dave's budgeting tools to help you get started.

Are you new to Dave? Go buy Total Money Makeover. It's the book that got us started. It's easy to read, easy to follow and it works! And right now it's only $10! This book will change the way to handle money. (Too bad our politicians won't read it! Maybe we should send all of them a copy!)