Max 10 hours per week of TV – Made it. Even though I was sick and watched quite a bit of extra TV, it was all non-trackable according to my goal.

• Knight Rider (0 hr) -Forgot to set this to record on the new satellite receiver.
• Battlestar Galactica (1 hr) – Caught up on a few episodes, still have a way to go.
• Biggest Loser (2 hrs) – One of the Idaho girls got sent home, I was hoping they’d stick around longer.
• Dirty Jobs (0 hr) – Didn’t air last week.
• Grey’s Anatomy (0 hr) – Didn’t air last week.
• ER (1 hr) – Watched a few episodes to try to get caught up.
• 24 (1 hr) – Watched the rest of the 2-hour episode we started last week, then one more. We’re missing an episode so I’ll have to see if I can get it on Fox’s website.
• Solitary 3.0 (1 hrs) – #7 was the winner much to my surprise, I thought #4 would take it.
• Non-tracked viewing: A bunch of educational shows, and a few movies Hi-Def is simply amazing on nature related shows…

At least 2 books per month -February’s goal met, now working on March.

• New Moon by Stephenie Meyer – Finished!
• Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer – Finished! Took less than a week!
• Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer – About 1/4 of the way in already.

Minimum 3 blog postings per week – I wrote 2 entries but haven’t published them yet. I did just finish up and publish a page I had written over the last week though.

100 lbs (2 lbs/week) – These last couple of weeks have been so busy and so stressful I haven’t been paying as close attention as I should to my diet. I also missed going to the gym most of last week, and have not been getting up early enough to go this week. I’ve been getting to bed slightly later than I intend (the dangers of reading a good book!) which has made me pretty tired in the mornings.

Budget – I’m happy with where we’re at this week.

Max 10 hours per week of TV – Made it.

• Knight Rider (1 hr) – I’m liking how they’re changing the show, I think there are many more places they can take the show now.
• Battlestar Galactica (1 hr) – Falling further behind in watching.
• Biggest Loser (2 hrs) – I can’t believe the records some of the contestents are breaking.  Only 9 weeks into the season and several of them have already hit some major milestones.
• Dirty Jobs (1 hr) – Normally I hate recap episodes, but when Dirty Jobs runs them, they show more of the behind the scenes information that makes it worthwhile.
• Grey’s Anatomy (0 hr) – Didn’t air last week.
• ER (1 hr) – Didn’t watch this.
• 24 (1 hr) – Starting to get caught up. We’ve watched  the first 2 hour episode, and half of the 2nd 2 hour episode.
• Solitary 3.0 (1 hrs) -Down to the final 3.
• Non-tracked viewing: Other than some evening news, I’ve watched a few episodes of The Dave Ramsey Show and a couple of episodes in the background of Cops-type shows while working on other things.

At least 2 books per month -February’s goal met, now working on March.

• Twilight by Stephenie Myers – Finished!
• The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying by Suze Orman -Finished!
• New Moon by Stephenie Meyer – About 2/3 of the way through this one already.  I don’t think I’m going to have a problem with this goal.  Now I just need to decide on a non-fiction book to read this month.

Minimum 3 blog postings per week – I had 2 posts this week, and honestly it felt good just writing a couple of posts as I wanted to rather than feeling pressured into making a 3rd one.  I still don’t want to drop this goal, but I haven’t decided how to re-write it to meet the spirit of my goal in the first place.

100 lbs (2 lbs/week) – Up 2.3 direct, also up 2 on the averaged trend. These last couple of weeks have been so busy and so stressful I haven’t been paying as close attention as I should to my diet.  I also missed going to the gym most of last week, and have not been getting up early enough to go this week.  I’ve been getting to bed slightly later than I intend (the dangers of reading a good book!) which has made me pretty tired in the mornings.

Budget – I’m happy with where we’re at this week.

Max 10 hours per week of TV – Made it.

• Knight Rider (1 hr) – Didn’t watch yet.
• Battlestar Galactica (1 hr) – Falling further behind in watching.
• Biggest Loser (2 hrs)  -Go Green, well now Black!
• Dirty Jobs (1 hr) -  Haven’t watched yet
• Grey’s Anatomy (1 hr) – Got caught up on this one, it was another combined episode with Private Practice below.  It was actually a pretty good storyline.
• Private Practice (1 hr) – See above…
• ER (1 hr) – Didn’t watch this either.  I think I saw the Finale is this week, so I can reclaim this hour.
• 24 (1 hr) – We’re kind of holding off until we get our new TV to watch this now, but it will be nice to watch several at once.
• Solitary 3.0 (1 hrs) – The solitary confinement is starting to make a couple of them crack I think.
• Non-tracked viewing: Other than some evening news, I’ve watched a few episodes of The Dave Ramsey Show and I’ve watched some shows on the Science channel.  I also watched Obama’s speech last night too.

At least 2 books per month -January’s goal met, on track for February.

• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer- Finished.  This was surprisingly good for being a book targeted more towards late teens/early adult.  I finished it Monday night, though I didn’t plan to.  I planned to read for about an hour, but when that hour came and went, I ended up reading another hour and completed the book.  There was that point of no return where it got really good and I couldn’t put it down since I was “almost done” anyway.  Will be starting the second book in the series as soon as I finish “9 Steps”.
• The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying by Suze Orman – Couple dozen more pages and this is done.

Minimum 3 blog postings per week – I wrote 2 posts but did not get them polished up and published.  I’m considering modifying this goal, not because I’m having trouble meeting the goal, but because I don’t think the goal is meeting the intent.  I’ve been thinking “I need to hurry up and get this out” or “I need to find something to write about” when I’d rather be thinking “This would be something great to write about” or “I’m going to hold off a couple days on posting this to make sure it is polished.”  I don’t know how I am going to change it yet, but I don’t want to eliminate it altogether.

100 lbs (2 lbs/week) – Up 4 pounds this week, Yikes!  I was not careful over my birthday weekend but I did not go overboard either. 0.09 pounds down on the averaged trend. At this point I have to assume it is water weight, so next week’s weigh-in should be great.  Even though I may not have hit my weekly goal I have to remember I’m still down 10 lbs from the start of the year, which is still progress towards this goal, and there is plenty of time.

Budget – Our tax refund did not arrive yet and it was supposed to be here last Friday.  This changed our planned budget but it is not going to break us.

Max 10 hours per week of TV – Made it.

• Knight Rider (1 hr) – Didn’t watch yet.
• Battlestar Galactica (1 hr) – Falling further behind in watching.
• Biggest Loser (2 hrs) -Go Green!
• Dirty Jobs (1 hr) – This week’s episode did in fact have Mike visiting Boise, ID!  I had to work late last night so I’ll be watching this one tonight.
• Grey’s Anatomy (1 hr) – Haven’t watched it yet.
• Private Practice (1 hr) – Tied in with Grey’s Anatomy episode from above, so need to see it to get the entire story.
• ER (1 hr) – Didn’t watch this either.
• 24 (1 hr) – Still lagging here.  The first 2 episoded were 2 hours each, and it has been hard to find time for us to both watch it together  If we can make it pas the initial hurdle I think we’ll be able to get caught up rather quickly.
• Solitary 3.0 (1 hrs) – The solitary confinement is starting to make a couple of them crack I think.
• Non-tracked viewing: Other than some evening news, I’ve watched a few episodes of The Dave Ramsey Show and I’ve watched some shows on the Science channel.

At least 2 books per month -January’s goal met, on track for February.

• Twilight -about 1/3 through it now.  This one is a fast read.
• The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying by Suze Orman -Almost done.

Minimum 3 blog postings per week – Only one post this week, but there’s been a lot going on.  Its kind of a catch-22 in that when I have a lot going on, it makes things I can blog about, but it consequently takes time I could use to write the blog entries.  I could sacrifice some more TV time, but I’m already down to watching a few specific shows and outside of educational programming I never just watch something to be watching something anymore.  I have to have some form of passive entertainment.

100 lbs (2 lbs/week) – Down 6.3 pounds direct weight this week!  1.87 pounds down on the averaged trend. I’m tracking ever so slightly above my goal, literally by 66 calories per day.  I need to be a little more diligent about getting up in the morning so I can squeeze in an extra 15 minutes at the gym, and/or I need to try to cut about a hundred calories per day average from my diet.  That is such a small number but it really adds up over the long term.

Budget – Back to using cash.  It’s too easy to let it slip and overspend when using plastic, even when its just a debit card.

Max 10 hours per week of TV – Over the limit, but was home sick yesterday and consequently watched more TV than normal.  If I had not watched the extra episodes of Solitary I would be well under.

• Knight Rider (1 hr) – Didn’t watch yet.
• Battlestar Galactica (1 hr) – Watched one episode, still several behind.  I can’t imagine the feelings people would go through to strive for this perfect solution to literally all of their problems, only to find out that solution was only a dream and failed to produce.
• Biggest Loser (2 hrs) – Finally got rid of the Silver team!  Yay!  I felt bad for Carla as she worked her butt off just to have Joelle throw it all away for her, but that’s the breaks and they chose to be together as a team.  And then when they met afterward for Joelle to keep saying she tried when it was very obvious she didn’t was beyond annoying.  She has some issues with personal responsibility for sure.  It was too bad to see the black team get split up too, but I was glad to see the brown team got to stay for another week with a phenominal loss!
• Dirty Jobs (1 hr) – Was pretty gunny watching Mike separate out dirty diapers from last week’s episode.  Went to watch this week’s but the wife was too freaked out about watching anything to do with spiders right before bed.
• Grey’s Anatomy (1 hr) – Haven’t watched it yet.
• ER (1 hr) – Didn’t watch this either.
• 24 (1 hr) – Still behind on this, but I can’t wait to get started. Marathon didn’t happen yet.  I did notice the DVR was missing one episode so we’ll have to catch that one on Hulu if its there.
• Solitary 3.0 (5 hrs recorded) -  What a crazy show!  It is amazing how far these contestants will push themselves for $50K.  I have not watched all of the episodes I’ve recorded yet, but I have watched 3 of them.
• Non-tracked viewing: Other than some evening news, I’ve watched a few episodes of The Dave Ramsey Show.  Dish finally added Fox Business to their lineup, though I had to increase my programming package in order to get it.  It may seem odd to spend more money ($10 per month) to watch a show where the primary theme is saving money but I get more than that in motivation over a period of a month, plus there are several more channels (like the Science Channel and Discovery Kids) that we will enjoy too.

At least 2 books per month -January’s goal met, on track for February.

• Twilight – Finally started reading this.  I’m not too far in but so far it seems to be well written and should be a fast read once I get going.  Cristi read it in a few days, and if she can read a book that quickly I have no doubt I can too if I take the time to do it.
• The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying by Suze Orman -Almost done.

Minimum 3 blog postings per week – Got this one done this week with plenty of time to spare!  I should be able to do the same this week too.

100 lbs (2 lbs/week) – Up 1.5 pounds direct weight this week, but if I go by yesterday’s weight I’m down 4.2 lbs.  I had quite a bit of sodium yesterday being home sick eating raman noodles, so I think today is artificially high.  Even with today’s higher weight I am still 1.65 pounds down on the averaged trend.  If I use yesterday’s weight (its easy to be artificially high, but not artificially low) I’m on-track for my long term goal.

Budget – We never did set down and do our budget for the last pay period as I mentioned before, but even so we still didn’t overspend and come up short.  We made a few smaller trips to the grocery store, rather than one big trip, but overall we did very well having considering ourselves as completely slacking off this time around.  We will be going over our specific budget before this week’s paycheck to get back on the wagon.

Max 10 hours per week of TV – Back under the limit this week.

• Double Shot at Love (1 hr) – Season Finale ran.  What a train wreck.  Vikki and Rikki both chose Trevor, and he was forced to choose between them.  He chose Vikki much to my surprise.  I don’t envy his situation, or any of them for that matter.  This show had bad news written all over it from the start.  But then they all chose to put themselves into the situation so I really can’t feel too badly for them.   I recorded the aftermath show (half hour I think, maybe an hour, under goal either way) but went to bed before watching it last night.
• Knight Rider (1 hr) – The last episode seemed to get back to the roots of the original show, a group of people secretly helping law enforcement.  I think it has some good things in store if the network doesn’t blow it.
• Battlestar Galactica (1 hr) – Still Haven’t watched this yet. Been too busy with other things.
• Biggest Loser (2 hrs) – This week’s episode will be watched tonight.  Cristi and I played Halo and Wii for a while last night and didn’t want to stay up late enough to watch this.
• Dirty Jobs (1 hr) – Haven’t watched it yet.  I did hear rumors yesterday that they filmed an episode in Boise and it will be airing in a couple of weeks.  I can’t wait to see if it is the truth, but I don’t have time to go search for info to confirm it ahead of time.
• Grey’s Anatomy (0 hr) -No episode this week.
• ER (0 hr) – Don’t think this one aired this week either.
• 24 (1 hr) – Still behind on this, but I can’t wait to get started.  Marathon this weekend?
• Non-tracked viewing: Other than some evening news, I watched a couple of episodes of Predator Raw, the behind the scenes and update show on Dateline NBC’s To Catch a Predator series.  I don’t know if it was necessarily educational, but I disqualified it as I was in bed, waiting for Cristi to get done with some things.  I was tired enough I didn’t want to read, but I didn’t want to go to sleep before she joined me, so it didn’t stop me from doing anything else.

At least 2 books per month -January’s goal met, on track for February.

• Twilight – Have it back from our friend but haven’t started it.  I will start it this week though.
• The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying by Suze Orman -3/4 of the way through it.

Minimum 3 blog postings per week – Dropped the ball on this one if you don’t count the smoothie recipes, met the goal if they are counted.  This wasn’t the intention of the goal, kind of as with last week’s 3 posts the day before the update.  I’m going to work harder on this goal to ensure I don’t completely blow it.

100 lbs (2 lbs/week) – Down 2.5 pounds direct weight this week, 1.07 pounds down on the averaged trend.  I’m only slightly behind my overall goal.  At 5 weeks I should be down 10 lbs, but I’m currently down 8.  Since it appears I’ve beaten the plateau I’ve been on, that should correct itself rather quickly and put me back on track..

Budget – We’ve fallen off the wagon a bit here.  We have made a few larger non-budgeted purchases, including the Wii Fit. It was a concious decision though, and with our budget being where it is we could afford to do so.  So while the purchases weren’t budgeted per se, they weren’t impulse purchases that will leave us short and scrounging for food before the next payday either.

Max 10 hours per week of TV – Back under the limit this week.

• Double Shot at Love (1 hr) – Haven’t watched it yet this week.  The DVR didn’t record it when it was supposed to so I set it to record a re-run later on.
• Knight Rider (1 hr) – The cheese I was worried about was only a short part of the last episode, so I’m now looking forward to the rest of the season.  With the change in leadership they just put in place, I think it has many more avenues it can take to keep it interesting.
• Battlestar Galactica (1 hr) – Haven’t watched this yet.  Been too busy with other things.
• Biggest Loser (2 hrs) – Wow, talk about screwing your team mate over.  I think Dan and Dave would have been able to stay if Dave hadn’t spouted off about being able to do just as well at home.  The video showed he couldn’t, and I think he gave up.  Unfortunately he also took his friend out too.
• Dirty Jobs (1 hr) – Haven’t watched it yet.  DVR skipped this one too for some reason so it’ll have to record later on.
• Grey’s Anatomy (1 hr) – Not only are they offing Izzy’s “dead husband” story arc, it appears based on previews that they may be offing the Izzy character altogether!  This is actually disappointing as I’ve always been a fan of Katherine Heigl ever since I saw her in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory when I was a teenager.
• ER (1 hr) – Falling behind on watching this one.
• 24 (1 hr) – Behind on this one too.  Its amazing that since I’ve been actively reducing my TV viewing, I’m not finding time to watch the shows that I truly DO want to watch.  I guess this is a prime example of changing a habit.
• Non-tracked viewing: Other than some evening news, I actually haven’t watched anything extra this week.

At least 2 books per month – Goal met.

• Otherland: River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams – Finished. Twilight was supposed to be next, but we loaned it to a friend since I wasn’t quite ready yet.  That’ll give me a chance to fly through a couple of shorter books in the queue.
• The Real America by Glenn Beck – Finished.
• The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying by Suze Orman – Originally decided to read this mainly to see if she actually knows what she is talking about or if she is purely TV hype and has sold some books because of it.  I’m about half way through it, and I have to say she really does have some good ideas.  I’m starting to think she is selling herself short by being a shill for FICO on her TV show since it is blowing gaping holes in her credibility.

Minimum 3 blog postings per week – Met.  All 3 were posted yesterday, which is not the intent of the goal to rush through at the last moment to make it happen.  In defense on that point, 2 of the 3 were postings were already done in rough draft form with the intention of publishing them earlier, but didn’t get a chance to polish them up on time.

100 lbs (2 lbs/week) – I’m actually up 0.4 pounds direct weight this week, but 0.89 pounds down on the averaged trend.  I’m frustrated with this slight gain, but at the same time I also had a very low weight in the middle of the week which would have put me at 1.5 pounds down.  Plateaus happen, and since I’ve had 2 weeks straight like this, I should see a pretty sudden drop as my body gives up on trying to hold that extra weight.

Budget – No update here.  Unless we have a wild blow-out week where we go on a spending spree, this goal is really measured every other week as we review our performance on the last 2 weeks and plan the next 2.

Losing weight is the same as paying down debt/saving money in that there is only one way to do it. Calories in vs. Calories out, just like money in vs. money out. When working to lose weight you must burn more calories than you eat, this creates a deficit and your body will burn fat (and lean mass if you aren’t careful) to make up that difference in what it needs to operate. Just like your debt, where you spend less than you earn so that the extra can be applied to payments or to savings if you’ve paid everything off.

The Bodybugg is a little device worn on your arm that does nothing but sit there and monitor the calorie burn rate of your body at any given point in time. To do this it uses a variety of sensors including an accelerometer, a couple of temperature sensors, and a sensor to read galvanic skin response (skin moisture level.) You wear it 24 hours a day, minus any time where it may be exposed to water, such as showering and swimming.  The Bodybugg ties my health and fitness goals to my geek obsession with gadgets.

The device itself has no indication of current rate, or any other feedback mechanism other than to warn when the logging memory is full (about a weeks worth of data can be stored) or when the AAA battery is getting low. In order to view the data, you have to connect it via USB (or a wireless communicator) to the computer and upload its data to the Bodybugg website.

Once the data is up on the website, this is where the real power of the system becomes apparent. You now can see how many calories you’ve burned so far today, as well as the number of steps taken and minutes of physical activity (when calories per minute are above a certain threshold.) This is great, but doesn’t this only provide half of the equation for losing weight (calories burned – calories eaten = calorie balance?)

Yes, that only covers the burned half of the equation. The website also has a food tracking system built in as well. It is set up for you to enter your food consumed for Breakfast, AM Snack, Lunch, PM Snack, Dinner, and Evening Snack. It includes a very extensive calorie database, so most foods you eat will be on there. If not, it allows you to enter your own foods based on the information found on the nutrition information label. You now have the calories eaten portion solved.

The system takes it one step further and you enter in your current and goal weights, and it will calculate it all out for you. This means if you want to lose 10 lbs in 10 weeks, you need to lose 1 lb per week. Since one pound = approximately 3600 calories, that means you need to eat 3600 calories per week less than you’re burning, or an approximately 500 calories per day deficit. You can adjust the different factors such as increasing the daily deficit and see how quickly you can lose that 10 lbs, or how much more you could lose in the same time frame.

When you set a new goal, it goes through a wizard asking you several pieces of information, including your activity level, your weight/height, and your preferred diet profile. Based on this information it generates a diet plan for you and sets your target burn and consume goals so you can see at a glance exactly where you are for the day.

The version of the armband I have is the V1/V2, and they just came out with a V3, which is smaller, and is black instead of grey. While I don’t see the information directly on their website, from what I’ve read from other sources it has upgraded sensors that will be used sometime in the future to increase the accuracy of the device even more than it already is.

The key to the Bodybugg is to work the program. If you upload the data often, especially before indulging in any extra eating, you will be able to take the most advantage of it. If I’ve burned extra calories during the day and maybe have eaten less than anticipated, I can see that it is OK some nights to have an extra snack, where others I need to just have a glass of water and forget about it. If you don’t upload it often, and don’t enter your food in, its slightly better than the guessing game you’re playing right now.

While the Bodybugg is expensive at $250 (or more depending on the accessories and subscription length,) it is well worth the price if you’re willing to put the work into the program. I’ve had my Bodybugg for several years, and have used it off and on. When I use it and actually follow my advice in the previous paragraph, it does wonders. My only problem I’ve had with it is I’ve been lazy and have not followed the program. Since I have a long-term goal in place, I’m confident this time I’ll make the most of it. Like any piece of exercise gear, if you use it properly you will see great results, but if you neglect it like the exercise bike in the basement, you’ll get the same benefits the bike provides. The bottom line is when you use it properly, you won’t find a better tool to assist you in reaching your weight loss goals.

Max 10 hours per week of TV – Back under the limit this week.

• Double Shot at Love (0 hrs) -This did not air this week.  I checked the DVR schedule and it shows the final 3 going to Vegas next week, so apparently they took a week off.
• Knight Rider (1 hr) – Yes, Deanna Russo is still very watchable.  Friday’s episode had quite the twist to it that I wasn’t expecting.  I won’t say any more as I don’t want to give a spoiler at this point.
• Battlestar Galactica (1 hr) Now that  Stargate Atlantis is over, this is now on.  I was looking forward to dropping a show off the list, but I can’t resist watching the final season of this show too.  The story has come too far to miss out on how it ends.
• Biggest Loser (2 hrs) – Still watching this for inspiration.  It amazes me how the Silver Team just doesn’t get it.  Joelle  complains at every opportunity and was giddy about the opportunity to go home, even though it was due to their over-eating (WAY over eating) at a temptation.  Her partner Carla has some serious control issues and needs a good slap in the face.  I was disappointed to see they got to stay in the game even though they were up for elimination.  I think everyone else decided that they probably won’t make it eventually, so keeping them in longer and eliminating tougher opponents is to their advantage at this point in the game.
• Dirty Jobs (1 hr) – I learned how they plug old mine shafts in California using polyurethane foam on last week’s episode.  Interesting stuff.
• Grey’s Anatomy (1 hr) – I think they may finally be bringing Izzy’s fling with her dead husband’s ghost to an end.  That has been a particularly annoying plot line more suited for some daytime soap.
• ER (1 hr) – Almost done then I get to mark this one off my list.
• 24 (1 hr) – Back to one hour now that its kicked off.  I still haven’t watched the 4 hours from last week, but the way this show works it is almost better to save up a few episodes and watch several of them all at once.
• Non-tracked viewing: Other than some evening news, I actually haven’t watched anything extra this week.

At least 2 books per month – On track.

• Otherland: River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams – 2 chapters left.  There are two more books in this series, but the wife is bugging me to read the Twilight series.  She’s on the 3rd book and it is driving her nuts not being able to talk to me about it yet.  I’m always up for a good vampire book.
• The Real America by Glenn Beck – About half way through it, but I should be done with it this weekend.  Next up is a Suze Orman book.  I figured after my post talking about how she seems to be a hypocrite on her TV show, I would also be one as well if I don’t read her books to make a more informed decision.

Minimum 3 blog postings per week – Met.

100 lbs (2 lbs/week) – Only down 0.2 poulds direct weight this week, 0.1 pounds down on the averaged trend.  Even though my loss this week is lackluster, I’m still on target for my 100 pound goal.  If you plot a line from my starting weight on the 1st of the year to my goal weight on Dec 31 I am under that line.  THe body will plateau, and several factors can change a weight by several pounds, including sodium intake, the types of food eaten the prior day, and even mood over the past few days.  I’m going with the sodium and food theory since I’ve been in a great mood over the last couple of weeks.

Budget – We’re doing great this week.  We were under budget on our food, and we budgeted some spending money for each of us.  We had a small windfall too which helped fund our savings, as well as a little extra spending money.  This helped take the edge off immensely and allowed us to get a few things we’ve been wanting.  These small purchases every now and then seem to help remove the motonony of living as tight as we have been.

When we were going through our rough times, I started listening daily to Dave Ramsey’s radio show. I’d heard him off and on over the past couple of years on XM, but his message really started to hit me. People were calling in with situations 1000% worse than ours, and he was giving them hope. This in turn gave me hope because if they can recover from where they are, there is no reason we can’t do it too. Up to that point I was slightly cynical, thinking “Wow, that is a dumb person to be in that situation. How could they let themselves get into that mess?” I had realized at that point that I was now one of those “dumb” people. Intelligent people make bad decisions too, and sometimes certain circumstances beyond their control can put them into situations they would never have planned to be in. That was a profound lesson I learned about myself that day.

I went to the library and borrowed his Financial Peace book, and started reading it. I read it in a couple of days and started telling Cristi what I had learned. I told her let’s start by taking our day to day expenses out of the bank and spit it among envelopes for the budget categories and stick to it. She reluctantly agreed, but later she admitted to me it was only in order to prove to me it was another one of my hare-brained projects that would not work and be abandoned after a few weeks. Fortunately it worked, and then she became more interested in the rest of Dave’s teachings.

I’d heard Dave mention his Financial Peace University course several times and decided to check into it. Since Cristi doesn’t learn well just from reading a book, I was hopeful it would help her learn what I just did, and to expand upon my understanding of the materials. I was disappointed to discover it was $200. “We’re already struggling to meet the budget now, there is no way to afford this.” Well I did some searching and found the eBay outlet store had it for $125. Just as I was trying to figure out how to afford it, I received a payment for some contract work I’d done, and even though it would have been useful in other budget areas, we discussed it and decided to go ahead and purchase it.

Once it was on the way I searched for the next class sessions starting in our area, and narrowed it down between a few different choices. In the end we chose a Wednesday evening class because the church sponsoring the class offered free childcare during the class sessions. We would have preferred a weekend class in order to keep the kids’ bedtime schedule consistent, but this took away any hassle in finding a sitter (and having a backup sitter in case of illness) and additional expense for gas driving back and forth.

The membership kit arrived just in time for the first class. I couldn’t wait to get started, so I resisted temptation to read ahead in the book and listen to the included audio tracks of the course. The Financial Peace book I had borrowed from the library was also included, so I was already a little ahead in that aspect.

The location we chose for class was Cathedral of the Rockies. They even have a dinner Wednesday evenings before everybody splits off into their various evening studies called “Wonderful Wednesday.” This includes singing, prayer, and kind of a mini-sermon. We had some very wonderful meals there and we’ve introduced several different foods to our routine (including couscous) because of these dinners. After dinner was finished, we’d march the kids downstairs to the daycare and get them situated, then head back to the sanctuary for class.

Every class session was very entertaining. Dave makes it fun to learn about personal finance, as he is very charismatic and throws in humor to keep the excitement level high. He sets the program out in small chunks called the Baby Steps, which takes a huge hairy goal and breaks it down into attainable short term goals. He not only explains how to do something, but more importantly why to do it. He mentions several times not to go do something just because he said so, but to fully understand it first. He highly emphasizes this point during the lessons that mention any kind of investing. The lessons are also highly motivating. After each session we wanted to go home and do it. After the saving lesson we wanted to put all of our money into savings, who cares about food! Obviously we didn’t do that, but we are making it a point to put some into savings every payday now. After the giving lesson we wanted to go out and give away all of our money, who cares about saving! Obviously that is not how he teaches it (and not what we did,) but he does encourage responsible giving and talks about how rewarding it is to your spirit to be a generous giver.

Each of the lessons we’ve learned are worth more than 10 fold the price of the course. If you take away one point out of the entire 13 week course you will have gotten your money’s worth and then some. Since we had started using the envelope system before we purchased the class membership we had already saved in late fees alone more than the cost of the classes, and now we’re on the right track to change the financial future for our family. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but now we’ve been armed with the proper tools so that the work we perform is in the right direction.

The most difficult part of the program so far has been criticism from family members. Its been tough saying no we can’t go out to eat another time this week. We received negative comments when we were asked how much we spent on the kids’ Christmas gifts, even though it was one of the best Christmases we’ve ever had. When we’ve tried to tell some of them the benefits of FPU, they’ve said its a rip-off MLM and its not worth it, which couldn’t be further from the truth. I don’t make a penny by referring someone to FPU, in fact there isn’t even a referral program.

One of the benefits I’m most happy with is the fact that Cristi and I are now on the same page when it comes to finances. Before it was constant arguing and fighting. I would say she’s spending too much, she would say I’m being too tight and need to let her live a little. In the end we both gave up and stopped caring about it altogether. It was easier to play ostrich and ignore how bad it was getting than to fight trying to change it. Now we still have the occasional disagreement, but we’ve learned to work through it and compromise.

The bottom line is we did it, through the ups and downs, through the encouragement and discouragement from others, and the setbacks and victories. We did it. 13 weeks is not enough time to fix all of the mistakes we’ve made in the last few years, but we’ve learned what to do to stay ahead of the game while we pay for those mistakes. According to the plans we’ve laid out, we will be debt free within 2 years, something that would not have been possible without attending the class together.