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Total Money Makeover took our communication to the next level

So I read The Total Money Makeover about 3 years ago but I could not get my husband to read it.
I kind of tried to do it myself and guess what that is a huge burden for one person to take on. He was on board with paying off debt but he wasn't so on board with the whole rice and beans approach.

So it didn't work very long and we both got back to our spending ways.


Then in the midst of a heated disagreement spurred by money talks I asking him to please get Audible and listen to Dave Ramsey. He did and that changed everything not just financially but with out relationship.

We have always been communicators. Michael and I both talk to each other about everything. We always discussed purchases but it was a "hey there is this great deal so I bought xyz" kind of thing. He hardly ever looked at our account and I paid all the bills. I would print out a budget I did once a month and then he would look it over tell me it looked good and then it would go in the drawer never to be seen again.

We would spend 10,15,20 on drive thru coffee or a pizza for dinner. I added it up one month and we spend over $75.00 on drive thru coffee runs I mean that is just insane but neither one of us was concerned enough about debt and our budget we were just half way budgeting.

I felt so much pressure to make it every month and I started to feel isolated when it came to finances. So while he our marriage was good and we were happy I knew we needed to work on this area specifically.
We thought we were good at communication but we never communicated properly about money! Which by the way is one of the major reasons people get divorced and should be something constantly discussed.


So once he read the Total Money Makeover we had a real talk about our finances. We put blame and shame aside. You see I have always felt guilty about being the only one with student loans but we are a team and we both take responsibility for our debt. Our money is one and our debt is one. There is no separation.

I mean we talk daily about our budget, projected debt payoff, which money is going where, life insurance, long term disability insurance and the man himself Dave Ramsey.

We both listen to the pod casts daily and Michael loves to YouTube debt free screams, which something that is now on our bucket list!

We are on the same page and when I went to pay bills this month. I smiled, like a big cheesy smile because there was no stress at all. We had already budgeted everything and if something came up we had made the necessary adjustments.

We are less stressed and it shows even our kids can tell. I'm not trying to juggle the accounts and squirming when Michael talks about buying something. We are so in sync with this debt payoff and it is so wonderful.

We are starting FPU in 2 weeks and I can't wait to watch our marriage get even stronger. There is nothing like working on a goal with your spouse. Plus it helps that we are both competitive and have hopes to kill out two year projection of being debt free. But I think it goes deeper than that we are changing our family and it's future and that is just something that makes both of our hearts so full.

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