Excelling at Excel

This summer I took some time to "sharpen my axe" by taking some Professor Teaches computer courses on how to operate Microsoft Windows 7, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint & Excel. Some of the content was easy but I learned a great deal too. I tend to glean only what I need to get by but this was an excellent opportunity to expand my practical knowledge of these programs that I use every day.

When I got to Excel I was fascinated with the formula possibilities and knew that if I didn't put some of these newly acquired skills into action, I would quickly forget. I decided to take our humble family budget and make it into a Microsoft Excel masterpiece. Very soon I was lost in the intricacies of formulas and multi page tables that would terrify the average self-described "free spirit".

Shawn arrived home and I pounced on him immediately.

"You got to see our new budget. You're going to love it!"

One eyebrow shot up and he looked suspicious. Later I sat him down and gave him a tour of our FOUR page budget workbook.

Here is a simplified description of what I created:

Page 1 "Monthly Budget"-It looks much the same as it did before but half way down it totals itself and then shows the difference from our monthly income that is calculated on page two. We then can go through some pre-defined categories to "spend" the leftover monthly income until our budget reaches zero as Dave Ramsey has taught us. The genius behind this budget is that the totals for each category are automatically sent to other tables on other pages. Any changes to this master budget will be reflected elsewhere. Mmwahhaa.

Page 2 "Monthly Income & Disbursement"-This page has four tables. Our income, monthly account transfers, monthly cash withdrawals, and bi-weekly cash withdrawals are all displayed. Remember the page 1 monthly budget? The category totals are reflected in these page 2 tables so that Shawn & I know exactly how much to transfer or withdraw. I'm just getting started!

Page 3 "Commission Worksheet"-This page is all about our children and their chores. They have certain daily duties that when performed, they are paid for. Sounds simple but have you ever tried to actually track, calculate and pay exactly what is owed? Not to mention that at this age we are already teaching them to give & save 10%. We find ourselves making change for the change we are giving them! No more! I designed a table for each of them that when each chore is checked off, it "gives" them a certain amount of money. This amount is automatically reflected at the bottom of their chore chart with the gross pay, tithe, savings, and net pay all calculated out. They can literally watch their commission grow with every job they do.

Of course, I had to take it a step further. We "budget" a maximum amount every month that our children can earn but let's face it, kids don't always do every chore. I programmed the actual gross pay amount to be displayed on the bi-weekly withdrawal table on page 2 so that the actual money earned is withdrawn and the remainder stays behind in the bank for mom & dad. Oh yeah, baby!

Page 4 "Withdrawal Denominations"-This page was just because my mind was in Excel overdrive and well, I couldn't stop myself. It's all fine and dandy to know how much money needed to be withdrawn from the bank and to have a bank that I can go to and withdraw exact amounts. How am I supposed to make sure that I get the right bills and change based on our envelope category amounts and the kid's chore commissions? This table brought in the amounts needed in cash for each category on a bi-weekly and monthly basis and allows me to break it down into the denominations needed. The table keeps a tally at the bottom and it has to match the totalled withdrawal amounts on page 2.

Needless to say folks, Shawn was dazzled. No, he actually looked stressed. Especially when I told him he could not make any changes, however insignificant to the budget without my supervision. These formulas are sensitive.

I'm still very proud of my insanely complicated budget workbook and it worked brilliantly when we put it to the test the first pay week. The kids are doing better with their chores and excited to see their small fortunes growing. I have the peace of mind that I will not need to know calculus on Thursday when it is time to go to the bank. In addition, when we stop at the store on the way home and my children ask if they can get paid, I will not only know how much they have coming to them but I will actually be able to give it to them in exact change. A little Excel formula madness now for some huge serenity of mind in the days to come.

Have I created a monster? I'll keep you posted!

Bank Change

With the advent of yet another Financial Peace University class Shawn & I have decided to make some changes in our financial management journey. We changed banks.

This was a decision we had pondered many times. We couldn't wrap our heads around the potential loss of $20-$40 of PC points every month. Our new FREE checking account gives 0 points every month and charges $28.50 for every book of checks we order!

We don't write a lot of checks and we will be writing even less of them now but even without the cost of every check order, we are potentially losing $240-$480 a year in groceries alone. Yikes! Why did we deliberately do this?


We had two reasons:

1) In following Dave Ramsey's zero-balanced budget, we had difficulty making our bank machine withdrawals line up with our exact needs because of the limitation to increments of $50's or $20's. If we only needed to withdraw $136.71, we had to round it up to $140, get change, and deposit back the difference. Crazy. You know, you're not supposed to put change in those bank machines but Shawn insisted that the PC people said it was okay.

Not to mention that our children were constantly begging for their chore commissions and it was a chore for us to get the change to pay them exactly what they had earned.

Now we can calculate to the penny what we need to withdraw and get the exact bills & coin we need from a real bank teller. How exciting!

2) The Windsor Family Credit Union offers a Global MasterCard that is attached to our checking account so that we can't spend more than we actually have. It is much like a debit card except you can use it wherever credit cards are expected. Online purchases, hotel reservations, and other similar transactions can be conducted but you are not using someone else's money.

We had retained our PC MasterCard for this purpose and we were paying the balance every month so we weren't accumulating debt, but something about knowing you are going to earn PC points for your purchases and that you can put off the payment until the next pay period just doesn't work for us.

So we are hoping that the end result of this change will more than justify the loss of those free groceries. This kind of goes with Dave's "Blowing Up the Log Jam" theory that I blogged about earlier. Lose a little, gain a lot.

We have frozen our old accounts with PC for six months to see if our banking experiment works for us. If we have one of those, "What have we done?" moments then we could switch things back to the way they were.

We are a little leery about some of the limitations of our new bank. We're not used to dealing with people we can see and who can see us. We're uncomfortable with being given access to our accounts without having to list secret passwords and recite our transaction history for the past couple weeks without asking each other out loud. (I'm being facetious here) As frustrating as banking with PC Financial was at times, they were a phone call away long past traditional banking hours. There was more than one time where that service was valuable to us. Now, we are going to need to think about our large purchases ahead of time...wait a minute...maybe that was what Dave Ramsey was aiming for!

A New Challenge

We barely had time to revel in our new found debt-free status before the next leg of our journey began. We intended to move on to Baby Step #3 which is a fully-funded emergency savings to cover 3-6 months of expense, but from November 2007 to February 2008 our progression was very slow.

Then we received the letter. It was an official letter from my husband’s workplace, Ford Motor Company, informing him that he was on layoff notice. We didn’t know what to think. On one hand we were happy and vindicated that our sense of urgency to get out of debt was definitely part of God’s plan to preserve us during a time of global economic distress, but on the other, we were unsure of what the future held for us. During this time of questioning and uncertainty I would sing the words of a praise song that is dear to me.

“He didn’t bring us out this far to let us go back again...

He brought us out to bring us into the promised land!

Though there be giants in the land, we need not be afraid,

He brought us out to bring us into the promised land!”

I clung to these words as though they were a personal promise to me alone. God did not motivate and bless us in our total money makeover just to allow us to be plunged into financial disaster before we had even had a chance to enjoy the fruit of our labour.

In the natural however, our future looked precarious. Shawn’s job was our bread and butter. My small home business was growing steadily...but slowly. This was largely because instead of investing in traditional advertising and promotion, I was funnelling as much of my business income as possible towards our financial goals. I knew that now it was time to step out in advertising.

Unsure of what to do next, I went back to my knees in prayer and extended fasting as I had the year before. We needed guidance in how to promote my home fitness studio, what to do about Shawn’s job and we needed a good dose of hope.

We didn’t have to wait long for an answer. Just a day or two into the fast we received word that our son, Trysten, had been approved by Revenue Canada for a Disability Tax Credit that was back-dated 5 years. I had been persuaded by a child development specialist to send in the application over 6 months earlier and it took until that very week to be approved. We learned at that time that the amount of that tax credit and our subsequent income tax refund would cover the entire amount needed for Baby Step #3!

I was actively researching advertising strategies during this time and I priced one of Windsor’s local business magazines called Windsor Life. When I learned the cost of advertising in this particular magazine, I tried to cancel the appointment that the editor had scheduled with me. He convinced me to meet with him and during the appointment he informed me that he features all new businesses for free. I got a small place in the new business section for no cost at all.

Shawn was still on layoff notice, but this sequence of events significantly boosted our faith that God was in control and would continue to take care of us. We received the blessings and took care to sow seed into our church and into the lives of others who we knew were in need. We resolved to continue our journey in preparation of the changes that were sure to come our way. Whatever God had planned, the extraordinary provision He had made for us made us realize that it was going to be big!

We're Debt-Free!

The final months before our lifetime of financial bondage came to an end were like the adrenaline-filled sprinting moments after a tiring race. We found energy and focus that we didn’t know we were capable of. Every extra dollar that we did not need to live went in extra payments toward our final and largest debt. We
went through our home in late autumn and literally stripped pictures off the walls. Our motto was that if we didn’t absolutely need or “love” it—we would sell it. We were reassured in our hearts that we would be able to afford to replace these physical possessions later in God’s timing but nothing could equal the value of “owing no man”.

I made a heart-rending decision to sell scrapbook supplies that I had been holding on to for almost 8 years. By contacting former scrapbooking customers, current dealers and taking part in a scrapbook “yard sale” I was able to liquidate a vast amount of my supply and contribute over $1000 to our goals. It was amazing to me how good it felt afterwards to let go of an item on my to-do list that was weighing me down. De-cluttering will do that.

It was November 23rd, exactly 11 months after our journey began, that we paid the last dollar on the last debt except for our mortgage. We were beyond ecstatic!

I’ll never forget the first few months afterwards. Everything felt new to me. Every day brought an experience that I would compare to a previous one during which we were enslaved to monthly payments and I would rejoice. Our first Christmas…our first vacation…our first anything without debt was better than I could have ever imagined it to be. “I’ve never done this before” became a daily reminder of God’s mercy towards us. Saving up for and paying for things with money we actually had was absolutely novel experience for us.

The intriguing thing about victory is that it has the power to erase much of the agony and tears we experience to gain it. I’m glad we don’t have to live such a spartan lifestyle now, but I would do it again in a heartbeat to achieve the reward of being a free person.

The funny thing is that in all those months of toiling, we never listened to Dave Ramsey’s radio show and thus were unaware that callers are invited to share their success and finish their testimony by yelling in Braveheart fashion “We’re Debt-Free!” I have since been enlightened but by then the moment had passed and we were on to the next Baby Step. I have decided that on the day that my mortgage is paid off, I will definitely make
that call to Dave!

Thank you Jesus for your graciousness and mercy to those who repent of foolishness and follow after wisdom!

The Last Blessing?

Yesterday, I shared about “Blowing Up the Log Jam” which detailed a painful, but helpful and freeing step in my family’s debt-reduction process. Today, I am sharing a much brighter story that brings a smile every time I remember it.

Just over seven months into our Total Money Makeover commitment the strain of living in our self-imposed strict budget was beginning to wear on me significantly. I wanted things. My “wish list” was growing and it seemed the possibility of fulfillment of any of my desires was never going to happen. I was daily praying for our needs and wants and was reminding myself almost hourly that all I really needed was Jesus. I asked for the Lord to reveal himself to me and to change my passions and desires so that material things wouldn’t matter so much. “All I need is you, all I need is you…” was my fervent response when I was reminded of all the things I wanted out of life.

One particularly absurd but strong desire was for a cute, little dog. We never had much success with pets and after a string of bad experiences I had finally decided that we were not a family cut out to care for an animal. I was adamant about this but suddenly having a cute, needy, little dog was first and foremost on my mind. This desire grew and I began to talk about it. It seemed like everyone in our neighborhood had a dog and they stood out to me everywhere!

Finally one day we stopped at a pet store to look at the puppies. I didn’t know what breed of dog I wanted but assured my family that I would know when I saw it. I stopped at a cage that had two Yorkie puppies in it and knew instantly that this was the breed of my “pet parenthood” dreams. My son & daughter were as enraptured as I was and we asked to hold one. My husband who is gifted with objectivism asked the store worker the question I dreaded most.

“How much?”

When the worker answered, my husband turned and left the store without a word. My children & I hastily returned the puppy to its cage and followed. My tears flowed freely as my husband reminded me of the commitment we had made, the journey we were on and all the other reasons why spending that much money on a dog was a bad idea. I didn’t disagree with him. He was right. I was despondent because I didn’t know what to do with the desire that had taken firm root in my mind.

Shawn asked me an important question. “Do you think God wants to bless you with a dog?”

“No.” was my tearful answer.

Why would God care one way or another if I got a cute, little dog? There are starving children in other countries and needs way greater than mine…even in a strict budget…no, I didn’t believe for one minute that my desire to have a dog would register with God. My patient husband encouraged me to be obedient to our goals and believe that God would bless me with my desire for a puppy. He also reminded me that pet store prices are extremely inflated and that getting a pet from a private breeder would likely cost much less.

“But I liked that one!” I protested.

"You will like another one just the same” he admonished me.

I spoke with my mother later that day and she reinforced my husband’s reasoning. We located a private
breeder who was selling puppies for ¼ the price of the pet store, but God had not provided the income so we were stuck.

I eventually got to a place where I relinquished my desire in prayer with many tears but with a strong sense that this decision was going to influence my future. Was it going to be God’s way or mine? I called the breeder and left a message saying that we didn’t think we could commit to purchasing the puppy and to find another buyer.

The very next day we left for a family reunion. I wasn’t relishing the travel out of town but it was the first family gathering since the death of my paternal Grandmother and I knew that this was an important event for us to attend. We knew we’d have fun when we got there but we had to resolve to enjoy the drive as a family and not get stressed out on the way. We listened to the audio book “Celebration of Discipline” and talked about what God was doing in our lives and our dreams for the future. It was a beautiful day.

At the reunion I got in a deep conversation with one of my aunts and I shared with her the miracle that God was performing in our life through the Total Money Makeover and all the amazing provisions He had made for us along the way. I wasn’t sure how truly interested my aunt was in my story but I was excited and I wanted to tell anyone who would listen to me.

My aunt got a funny look on her face as she listened to me wrap up my story. She was smiling in a sneaky; I know something you don’t know kind of way that instantly made me stop and ask her what was going on. She shared that they had been planning on waiting until later but since I had been talking about financial breakthroughs they might as well let us know now.

As I shared previously, I had received an inheritance from my paternal grandmother. My aunt shared that the sum we had received was only the insurance portion. They had wrapped up her estate, paid taxes and now they were divvying up the money the same way they had previously. My uncle handed me a cheque that amounted to more than what we had received previously. I wasn’t expecting this. I had no idea. I went over to my husband who was swimming at the time and showed him the gift.

“Do you think this will cover the cost of the puppy?” I asked mischievously.

We enjoyed our family time and we talked like excited children all the way home. There was enough finances to wipe out a significant portion of our family debt, buy a few needs and even a couple wants like an adorable, new puppy and a mini-vacation for the family, but most importantly…to give.

We recognized during that delirious ride home that if we held on to every penny of that gift like it was going to be the last blessing we were going to receive, it very well could be. I recognized that God wants to bless us with every good thing but He also needs to know that He has our heart first.

I used to write my Grandma a letter after every birthday to tell her about my life and how I used the gift of money she gave me in my annual birthday card. This was the final gift she ever gave me and I know that she would rejoice over the good it has done.

Lastly, our cute, little dog named Milo has ended our curse of bad pets. She has been a blessing to me and my family for 2 ½ years now and we couldn’t imagine a better outcome. She wins the hearts of all who meet her. I even got to spend more than a year at home with her before I began working full-time for OBFF and she adjusted to my new full-time work schedule beautifully. God is so good and I think He might just have a weakness for Yorkies too.

Blowing Up the Logjam

Dave Ramsey shares in his book “The Total Money Makeover” that sometimes when we have done all that we can do, we can lose debt reduction momentum because there are no more budget cuts to make and no more sources of income to tap. It is as though the entire process is frozen because the pace is tediously slow. At this point, he encourages his listeners to blow up the logjam. This terminology originates from the logging industry where trees are cut and rolled into a river so the current can sweep them to the mill where they will be sold. Sometimes, the logs get jammed in the river and the only way to un-jam them is to use a little dynamite. The explosion destroys some of the logs in the process but the end result iss that the majority of the logs make it to market when the river flow is restored. The whole idea is that while some loss is incurred, the overall goal is achieved.

I came to understand this concept personally when we found our own debt-reduction at a standstill. It was several months into our plan and we were at a financial impasse. We had achieved great progress but we still had a long ways to go. We were jammed.

I was attending our church‟s financial class on Wednesday nights. To be honest, I was a little bored. I had listened to Dave Ramsey‟s book several times and knew the Baby Steps. I was intimately acquainted with everything being taught and I didn't need further convincing. I was tempted many times to skip the class but something made me keep going in hopes that I would learn something…anything…that would help us in our journey.

On one particularly tedious evening we were discussing Baby Step #4 which explains retirement and education savings. Part of me was zoning out because we were still on baby step #2 “The Debt Snowball” and retirement savings felt like a lifetime away. I had prayed before I went to class that God would reveal something to me that would help us in our situation and He was faithful to my prayers.

A light bulb went on. We had put a little RRSP contributions away through Shawn's work and we had been diligent to set up education savings accounts for each of our children when they were born. What if we could access that money and apply it to our debt? I discussed this with my husband and he was resistant at first because he couldn't see past the short-term loss. We talked about the logjam concept, prayed, did a little research and found out that we weren‟t going to lose as much as we thought in the process.

This is not the ideal thing to do as any investment broker will tell you and it didn't give us warm, fuzzy feelings. Instead it drove home the impact of our imperfect financial stewardship. I am strongly opposed to doing this unless you are fully committed to all the steps of the Total Money Makeover which will direct you to rebuild these savings in the future. We were committed and this was the right step for us to take. It propelled us toward the overall goal we were set on achieving.

This lesson applies to more than just money. Sometimes we have to take a couple steps backward because we have not acted wisely, waited for God's timing, or have built on a bad foundation. If God directs us to take a loss and we are obedient with the right motivation and stay committed to the process, we can be assured that He will restore all.

Practical Applications

I have been sharing all the wonderful blessings, great & small, that God bestowed on our family when we repented of our spending habits and began a Dave Ramsey inspired “Total Money Makeover”. Today I am
going to share what that repentance looked like as we endeavored to reverse the damage to our finances.

1) Enrolled Children in Public School-I am in favor of Christian education but because of our poor choices early in our marriage, we could not afford the schooling we wanted to give our children. We realized that no amount of godly tutoring would reverse the negative home life we were creating with our heavy work schedules, debt load and the resulting relationship issues.

2) Quit job-I don’t recommend this as a debt-reduction technique, but in this case it was a beneficial decision that enabled me to focus my efforts on saving our household money and building a home business.

3) Started Home Business-I had a mind-set that needed to be broken. I thought no-one would take me seriously if my business didn’t “look” professional right from the start. I had an aversion to starting small and growing slow. I learned how to “be” professional and offer my services at the level I could afford.

4) Cancelled Cell Phone Contract-It didn’t make sense to keep a cell phone when I was now working from home, but we had to pay a hefty cancellation fee to our service provider to get out of the contract. We did the math and it still saved us money to pay and walk away.

5) Gave Away Vehicle-Working from home enabled us to cut a vehicle and all its associated expenses.

6) Sought God with Prayer & Fasting-I will always treasure the many months I had during my career transition to pray and fast before the Lord. I experienced humility and brokenness, but as I sought the Lord, He showed Himself as my provider. This was by far the sweetest time in my relationship with God.

7) Tight Grocery Budget-I did everything they say to do. I planned meals that were made from scratch, made grocery lists and shopped with a calculator. We prepared and ate recipes based on beans & rice. The funniest idea I ever came up with was to buy a goat in an effort to save money on milk. I priced goats and determined that the $80 price would be recouped within 2 months. Fortunately Shawn opposed the idea and we never followed through!

8) Eliminated Paper Products-Not only is this a money-saving technique but it’s good for the environment too. I found we could use cloth rags for cleaning, cloth napkins for dining and old fashioned “hankies” for blowing our noses. I never did find an alternative for toilet paper!

9) Planted a Garden-This was a great way to save money and we enjoyed a variety of home grown, chemical-free vegetables

10) Sold Fitness Music-I let go of the past and sold all my professional fitness music & choreography.

11) Sold Craft Supplies-I had scrapbook supplies from a previous business venture that I had been holding on to for almost 8 years without using! I networked with dealers and friends and was able to sell my hoarded supplies for over $1000. It hurt at first, but then I realized how much that stuff was burdening me down with guilt over not using it.

12) Sold Trailer-This was a family sacrifice. We had a modest trailer that we had refinished and only used once. It was our dream family vacation. Trouble was, we didn’t have a vehicle to tow it. It sat beside our home for a couple years and was only used to hide Christmas presents. We decided to put it up for sale, but it didn’t look like we were going to find a buyer.

13) Sowed Shawn’s Bonus Pay-My husband worked for one of the big three automakers at the time and every July we enjoyed a pay bonus. It would have made sense to use it to pay off our debt but as we prayed about how to utilize it, we felt strongly that we were to sow it into WCF’s annual Abba offering instead. Remember, giving is a vital part of a total money makeover. We were obedient and the very next day, our trailer sold for a fair price.

14) Volunteered at Professional Conference-As an employee of a large fitness company I was provided a very costly conference registration for free and was accustomed to sharing a nice hotel room on the conference premises with co-workers. I couldn’t afford the conference registration on my own so I volunteered and instead of a hotel, I stayed at a relative’s apartment. It was a character-building experience to serve my previous co-workers as they enjoyed the conference in the style I was accustomed to, but I knew my volunteer experience was going to play a part in my future. I just didn’t know it would be with OBFF!

15) No Christmas Gift Exchanges-We called our relatives and explained what we were doing. We asked to be excluded from all gift exchanges. It was the only year that we had to do that but we used the experience to teach our children more fully the true meaning of the season. We were humbled and blessed when certain relatives chose to give us gifts anyway.

16) Children’s Expenses-Any parent knows that the many requests for money to fund children’s events can be huge budget busters. We sat our children down and explained what we were doing and what their sacrifice would be. If they wanted to enjoy a food day at school, they would have to use their limited chore money or bring a lunch from home. We would do our best to provide for field trips. It broke my heart on the few occasions they ate a packed lunch while their class enjoyed pizza. I cried when we declined a field trip that was beyond our means and the school used special funds to include our children anyway. I will never forget how that felt.

17) Sold “Stuff”-We had a garage sale, advertised on Kijiji, and auctioned on Ebay. We went through the house and if it didn’t get used or we didn’t absolutely love it, we liquidated the item.

A girlfriend came to visit during this time and she was stunned at some of the changes we had made. She exclaimed in amazement that one day she expected to come over and find our electricity disconnected, us cooking in our fireplace and washing clothes by hand. We laughed until we cried because even though we didn’t have immediate plans to do those things, it was true that we might come to consider them if we had to. We were going to do whatever it took (legally of course) to break the bond of debt over our life and we weren’t sparing ourselves any discomfort or humiliation.

I thank God that disconnecting our electricity was never needed. We were blessed in extraordinary ways. We can laugh about those days now from a place of victory. I have to admit that I am very happy today that we didn’t buy that goat!