About a month ago Steven pulled out the ironing board to get his work clothes ironed and the thing just plum broke off the legs. We laughed. Then we said, "Oh crap! We need an ironing board."
Being the middle of the week, neither one of us wanted to make a special trip to pick up an ironing board. Steven made do with a make shift ironing board. It was ghetto and pathetic, but it worked. The weekend rolled around and Steven reminded me to pick up an ironing board for him.
So there I was with my grocery cash envelope hoping to swing an ironing board out of my envvelope. Wasn't going to happen. Eek! I didn't have any other cash with me. Swiping the debit card was a possibility, but it would have been painful. I decided I would take the walk of shame into the house without a new board. Steven was not happy, but he is 100% committed to a cash only lifestyle. He was unhappy, but understood.
A few more weeks passed and it was definitely time to pick up an ironing board. Poor Steven had suffered long enough. Since we were still in the middle of the month of February, all of our cash had already been allotted to go somewhere. We had to make a decision. A new ironing board was around $30 and we had $35 in our 'Entertainment/Extra' envelope. Did we really want to clear that out or find another option?
It was hard for me to let go of $30. We had made plans to take the kids out to dinner that weekend and they were really looking forward to it. Rarely do we go out to dinner, so it's a treat they love. That's when I hopped on Craigslist. Part of me was grossed out at the thought of it, but I gave it a try to see what was available.
Guess what??? I found a brand new board for $10. A family who had just moved to OK from CA lost their board in the move so they bought a new one. Then they found their old one. Lucky me I got their newly purchased board, that was bed bug free (that was Steven's fear) for $10.
In all honesty, we could have easily purchased a new ironing board. We have the money in savings and large cushion in our checking. Before Dave Ramsey we would have swiped the card and not put that extra $30 in savings. Not so much a big deal now, but if we follow that pattern where does it stop? If $30, $40, $50 misses the savings account, we are hurting ourselves. This lifestyle makes us more accountable. It is difficult. It has us using a financial discipline like we've never used before, but it is worth it. Just a little creativity and searching allowed us to get what we needed and not change our monthly financial plan. A big plus for me.
1 comment:
Oh man what I wouldn't do for an ounce of your willpower! I failed miserably at our budgeting this week :( The kids clothes get me everytime. Do you have an envelope setup for clothes and do you mind me asking what you put in yours? Do you use it every month or save it up? The hard part for me is where to begin, I want to do the envelope system but the thought of it is SO overwhelming! I think O and I need to sit down and rewatch the Dave videos and reread the books then begin again.
I love when you post about your experience with it so keep it coming!
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