Lisa Zahn

My motivation. Do you see those numbers over to the right looking better today? I just made a big credit card payment. Next month will see the end of credit card debt for us--we can see the light!

"If you do the things you need to do when you need to do them, then someday you can do the things you want to do when you want to do them." ~Zig Ziglar Today's going to be a quick post because I babysit a little toddler on Thursdays and won't have much time to think big enough thoughts to write... But yes, we're going to put the Honda CRV up for sale. It's been a painful decision, but when it's in black and white after I wrote it on this blog a couple of days ago, it's just so obvious. We want to be out of debt in a year, and the car is over half of our debt load. No brainer. Dave Ramsey says "SELL THE CAR!", especially if you can't pay it off within 18 months. Luckily the car is worth more than we owe so we should come out of it with some cash. We've got one dependable car right now but we'll move to two cheap, paid-for-with-cash cars. Yesterday as I was mulling over getting a "junker", I was walking across a bus...

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender." ~Proverbs 22:6-7 (NKJV) Did you even know those two rather famous Bible verses go together? That "training up a child" involves giving them the knowledge that the borrower is servant to the lender? This is wisdom far more ancient than the current "American Way" of credit, debt and consequently, fear. We don't even have to look very far back to find this wisdom practiced. My grandparents, children of the Great Depression, took this wisdom to heart and as far as I know, never borrowed for anything but instead paid cash or did without. They lived a good life and my grandma, who's still alive at 93, was able to live on savings and a modest pension until age 90 or so when she had to go to a nursing home. George and I want to practice being more wise. Yesterday I asked him, "why do y...

Something that bugs me is the shame and secrecy that so often our culture feels about financial matters. We don't talk numbers and instead seem to talk about money in code and innuendo. It's almost as bad, if not as bad or worse, as that other "grown-up" topic we speak of in innuendo. So, I'm gonna talk numbers with you. I've never felt bad about putting the truth out there, and my husband has given me the go-ahead because he thinks it should be done too. George is a teacher, his salary and benefits are a matter of public record so anyone can go find them out. I don't know how, but I suppose it starts with a search into school district information. Anyway, you don't have to do that because I'll tell you straight out. This is the monthly net income we're living on right now: $3018--first income from full-time teaching $1080--second income from teaching two nights a week at a local college (ends in May, restarts in September) $200--my avera...

I'm getting ready to start posting at this blog again TOMORROW! I've added some of my favorite blogs, and some great links, all of which pertain at least somewhat to my topics of homemaking, urban farming, and finding our way to financial (and other) peace in a world gone a bit crazy. I can't wait to see you all here again!