My husband and I started Financial Peace University last month and are in the middle of it. So how’s it going? Well, we have paid off some debt and cut up all our credit cards! We did it as part of a Family Home Evening lesson on avoiding debt with our four kids still at home. That physical act, what Dave Ramsey calls a “plastectomy” evoked a little bit of fear, I have to admit. It’s part of the homework for one of the lessons. We were both thinking “What if we need this?” Nevertheless, we went through with it and cut up every card in the house. We do have our emergency fund in place, Baby Step 1, so we will just have to rely on that. I have been using the envelope system since my first grocery shopping trip of 2016, on Monday January 3. Dave says to use cash instead of a debit card when you buy groceries, because you “feel” the money being used to buy the groceries, and you are less likely to overspend. I can vouch for that! It’s definitely been a little painful to use cash instead of swiping a card, but it has helped me to stay in budget. I had money left over in non-grocery envelope categories in January that I was able to move over to the grocery category for February. Now it’s the end of February, and I still have some of that money left over. Month by month, we are getting closer to doing our debt-free scream!

If you’ve ever thought about doing FPU, now is the time to do it! You can save 20% off with the coupon code “save20” over at Dave’s store, from now to through Leap Day, Monday Feb. 29th. It’s regularly $149.00, but with the coupon code discount you get it for $119.20. 

FPU contains lessons about why debt is so bad, how to make a budget, what the Baby Steps are to financial peace, aka getting out of debt and preparing for the future, what insurance is needed and what insurance is a scam, and more. The FPU Home Study course  kit comes with a workbook, the lessons on CD and DVD so you can watch on TV or listen, like if you are driving, Dave’s book, The Complete Guide to Money, an envelope system, a chart to track your progress, and access to the lessons online, which is great if you lose the CDs or the workbook. You can always watch the lessons online and print out the lesson PDFs. The Home Study Course also allows you to take the class at a place outside the home if you want the structure and support of outsiders, at no additional cost. I love that Dave includes a lot of Bible scriptures to teach his principles. 

I highly recommend the Home Study Course. If you haven’t taken FPU, get it today! Dave says that the average family pays off around $5K of debt within 90 days of starting the course, and that’s about what we’ve paid off so far. Come join the debt-free bandwagon and envision your debt-free scream!