Causes Worth Supporting: Your Family

Photo credit to the amazing Lauren K. Photography of Cleveland

This week's Cause Worth Supporting is a simple one that not many of us think about. We forget how important it is to support ourselves and our families, to make effort and sacrifice for the betterment of their future - to invest in ourselves! So today it's all about how you can support your family by saving more, spending less, and paying off debts as quickly as you can to become debt free!

My husband and I have been in debt since we got married (we both came into the marriage with debt from college - his credit cards, mine student loans) and it's only snowballed as the years have passed. I have made a lot of progress on our little mountain in the last year using Dave Ramsey's Snowball Method and paid off about $8,000 worth of debt (in total we probably have around $120,000 - though the majority of that belongs to my student loans and the car we purchased last year and make payments on each month). So while things like that are on hold and we're burning through what little savings I held built for us - a lesson learned that won't ever be forgotten - I'm working to eliminate any extraneous spending (which is really hard sometimes) and do what we can to keep all of our bills current.

What you see up there is Dave Ramey's Baby Steps to becoming debt free. For at least the next few years Step 6 won't apply to us except that we'll be saving for a home in our future. Regardless, this is the pattern I follow for our goals (steps 1-3 in particular). When I was working on our savings and debt last year, I would take a few hundred dollars of our flex paycheck each month (the first paycheck was devoted to almost all of our bills, the second would be focused on debts and other needs) and put it towards paying off some of our debts (while paying minimum amounts on our other debts/bills). Another $100 would get put into our savings account and then I had a little cash savings I was building at home that I would add to any time I went shopping at Target or to buy groceries by getting $10 or $20 cash back and just taking straight home to the little billfold I was keeping it in. When things were going according to plan, I could save $2-300 a month. I'll be honest, that didn't happen for as long as it should have and it several times would get spent on minor emergencies or needs - hey, we've got kids and they need some pretty expensive stuff sometimes. Anyway, that's how things were and we'll return to that style again when we're back on our feet. My husband and I have also agreed we're going to try out the cash envelope concept from Dave Ramsey (can you tell I'm a fan?) and I'm also considering the idea of opening a savings account at a different bank from The Nester - or just a different account than our usual savings - so that your savings don't get touched as easily as when they're attached to your checking account.

Below are a few other links I've found in the last couple years that I really found helpful or interesting about paying off debt, managing finances, and/or savings -

A Starter Post for Saving Money Tips & Couponing

'And Then We Saved' - a great blog on becoming financially solvent

The Spending Diet from ATWS - or the more intense & quickly successful Spending Fast

All Hail the Life Changing Ecstasy of a Home Management Binder
 *a note on the HMB - there are a thousand different styles and free printables for these available on the web (just search it on Pinterest and you'll be set for life really). I've used one for a couple years and it's insanely helpful. Invest the time to set it up right and you'll love having everything all in one place!

Enjoy your day and your family, everyone. Here's to a 2014 where we all get a little closer to being debt free and having the life we want!

27 Acts of Kindness

Yay I'm finally writing what you've all been waiting for since Monday ended! I spend my 27th birthday doing 27 random acts of kindness - 28 actually....one to grow on. It was truly an amazing experience and my best birthday to date. I'll be doing this for my birthday every year from now on I think. The list I wrote out to plan our acts for the day had some changes, but I did replace them with other acts as we went. It's best to go with the flow in these situations. This is going to be a long post, so - here we go!

Shopping for Good: Charity

So it's Thursday night - apologies for the slacker late post. Tonight is the last post of the Christmas Shopping for Good series and I'm focusing on gifts through charities. There are a million amazing charities out there that you could support and give your loved one a great card or small gift explaining that their gift was spent to support a charitable cause - tonight I'm focusing on two.

First I want to tell you about Heifer International where you can support several different causes and choose from a lot of various gifts from as little as $10 to $15,000 - that's a lot of variety. With Heifer Int. you are choosing a gift to benefit those in need in different ways. For example, you can buy an Earth Gift Basket for $60 will provide a hive of bees and seedlings of trees to a family. Or you can pay $50 for a Hope Basket which includes a gift of rabbits and a starter flock of chickens. Families also receive training and education in the animals' care to make sure their hope becomes a reality. Giving a Boost of Nutrition for $36 provides fruit and vegetable seeds to start a small farm, chickens to raise and help maintain it, and training in sustainable farming and nutrition. You can even spend just $10 to buy a share of various things such as rabbits, pigs, or tree saplings; they let you know the number of shares it takes to provide the full donation. 

There are really so many amazing options that would allow you to give a much better gift to a family member and know that you have helped a family or village so much with a life sustaining gift! Please, go peruse the site and see what they have - it's truly amazing. 

 Next up, I want to share Athena's Warehouse (AW) with you. This is a great organization run out of Atlanta, Georgia. AW uses enrichment programs, different initiatives, and positive female role models to give tools and resources for at-risk, disadvantaged girls attending Title I schools to reach and celebrate their fullest potential. You can donate in two different ways to help this great organization and support a community of young women in need. First you can donate financially (either online or by mailing a check the old fashioned way), or you can be a part of the The Prom Project and donate prom dresses, bridesmaid dresses, homecoming dresses, cocktail dresses, and formal attire in any size or color. Be sure to check their website for more specific information about what they cannot accept, but as a woman I know I have shuffled through at least 6 or 7 formal dresses at this point - why not donate them to a young girl who might otherwise not be able to experience her prom in a dress that allows her to feel as beautiful as she is?

I want to also let you all know that there's an aspect of AW that makes it truly amazing. The Prop Project with Athena's Warehouse requires participants (meaning the girls who will end up with your graciously donated dresses) to spend time volunteering at a local nonprofit, with the understanding that it promotes self-empowerment through public service. This is particularly great in my opinion due to the fact that I think that public service - generally a life in service - is one of the best things we can do with our lives. I love that AW is working so hard to teach young girls this as well as what a privilege it is to help others. - Go check out their website or follow them on Facebook!

Like I said before - there are a ton of other organizations you can support and I will be sharing more with you in the future through spotlights and interviews, so stay tuned for new great causes you can support all year long! Enjoy your Christmas season and hopefully you've been able to make your Christmas shopping do a little extra work for you and your loved ones!

Shopping for Good

Happy Thursday, all! Today and each of Thursdays until Christmas (three in total), I'll post a selection of ways that you can make your Christmas shopping list do some good. Today I'm focusing on local business ideas, and since I have two homes there will be businesses mentioned for both locales: Gainesville, Florida & Cleveland, Ohio!