"Rein" in the Spending this Holiday Season

Hi this is Michele of The Nichols Journey. Though this blog is a family blog, my husband is the one who actually writes all of the posts here, but he's asked me to start contributing as a guest blogger. I have two blogs of my own: Memoirs of a Movie Maven & Nichols & Dimes DIY. After reading the first paragraph intro here, please click the link below to go to my blog to read the guest blogger post. It's about shopping movies with shopping tips for this Holiday season.

 The average person spent $736 on Winter Holidays last year. The average American is one missed paycheck away from homelessness. Over 70% of the nation is living paycheck to paycheck, and the average credit card holder has over 15K in credit card debt. So cut your budget, get 1K in a Money Market account for emergencies, pay off all your debt, save 3-6months worth of emergency savings. Cash flow the holidays. Have a written budget. Find inexpensive ways to spend the holidays. When you're in debt, no big purchases and no trips until you have debt paid off. Check out my other site. Nichols & Dimes DIY to see some ways that you can do this.
Below are those movies to salivate over and laugh over.  Watch these movies for the strategies, pratfalls, and funny shopping scenes and tips I've gathered from those films.

Shopping Tips

Our Financial History

For years we have been your average American couple i.e. living paycheck to paycheck, some credit card debt here and there, student loans, car loans, and budgeting monthly with an excel spreadsheet. We were completely happy with that because I am in the military and just knew my paycheck was going to be there no matter what (how naive is that). Then the government shutdowns happened and every day was a mystery as to if we were going to have food to eat that next payday, shortly after that the USAF started with their personnel cuts and my secure paycheck seemed so much less secure. 

Shortly after all of that a guy I worked with introduced me to The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. I read it in one sitting, and it changed my view on money forever. Many of the teachings in his book I already knew and understood but never really followed. As any DR follower has heard, Personal Finance is 80% behavior 20% head knowledge. The part that really hit home for me was the debt myths that I had always believed. I started listening to Mr. Ramsey's podcast on the radio and following every word he said. It did not take long for Mrs. Air Force to get on board because we both knew it was sound advice. We just finished Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University and have learned a ton about personal finance.

We started the Dave Ramsey Plan immediately and got our $1k emergency fund in place pretty quickly (less than a month) because we already had a small one set aside. We were still using Excel for our budgeting but were well on our way and began working on Baby Step 2: Pay off all your debt except your home mortgage. We have now paid off and canceled all of our credit cards ($2k worth) and half of our truck payments ($2k worth). We have also decided to sell our third car (my baby, a 2007 Nissan 350Z) because for one it’s not a need, and two it would improve our financial picture a ton.

We have now decided that it is no longer a desire of ours to continue my military service and would like to separate from Active Duty at the end of this contract in October 2015 and move closer to family in SC.  We decided to put our debt snowball on hold to start saving to cover living expenses until we get a new jobs

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The Nichols Journey Vol 1.

Hi all,

what is this blog about?

It is my intention for this blog to be a record of our adventure as a couple as we start getting serious about our finances and maybe serve as some motivation for those of you who may wish to join us in our Journey to financial peace.  I will be regularly updating this blog with the triumphs, struggles and tips as we take the steps to improve our financial lives.

A little Bit about us: 

Mr. and Mrs. Air Force were happily married in 2007 after only knowing each other for 30 days. Both of us instantly knew that we were God’s plan for each other. We are both from the beautiful state of GA, but I am enlisted in the United States Air Force and now stationed in ND. Mrs. Air Force is a professional actress and singer with a degree from Georgia Southern University. She also is currently employed by KMOT, the local news station in our area as a Production Assistant.