Budgets, Bills, & Dave Ramsey

Ah, the topic no one loves to talk about.

Well, no one but me.

I could talk about budgets and bills all day.

And I know one thing is for sure, you have to talk about this topic if you want to be successful with your money.

One of the greatest resources we were given when we began our marriage was Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover.

We read it. We talked about it. And we decided that I would be in charge of budgets and bills in our home because my husband knows he doesn't do well budgeting. Thankfully, I'm the Budget Queen so he ended up married to a woman fully prepared to handle his finances.

We also made some other huge decisions.

The first being that we are not a credit card couple. We don't get credit cards. We don't use credit cards. And we don't accumulate credit card debt. That was our first decision.

Our second was that if we took out loans, we would discuss, pray and decide together how much we would pay monthly for a house and a car. And we would only ever have one car loan at a time.

Those are--and have been--our two biggest decisions when deciding how to handle our budgets and bills over the course of our marriage.

To date, we have stuck with our decisions and have made sure we always discuss large financial decisions.

However, the day-to-day small decisions, my husband leaves to me. Our system works. And I enjoy the hours spent laboring over numbers.

But I think it's crucial to your financial success to take a positive approach and action toward this area of your life.

Budgets and bills are difficult, but you should arm yourself with all necessary tools to learn how to make handling your finances easier.

The best tool to start with? Dave's Total Money Makeover.

I can't tell you how helpful this has been to me over the last 3 1/2 years. It's helped me figure out a way to track my bills and budget for the future.

Do you have any resources you use to help you with your budgets and bills? I'd love to hear them!

--Jessica