Celebrating Two Years Of Marriage

Today the hubby and I celebrate two years of marriage! It's been a crazy roller coaster ride, but all the ups and downs have just added to the thrill.

We went out for a special lunch on Sunday at the beautiful Juniper's Restaurant at The Wildflower Inn. The food was delicious, the view was gorgeous, and the company couldn't have been better.

As I think back over the last two years a few things stand out:

• We began our journey to debt-free living, and have so far paid off over $25,000 in debt.
• We got to be on the Katie Couric Show and meet Dave Ramsey and his daughter Rachel Cruze and win $594 in the money booth!
• We have gone on vacation to Boston, and Old Orchard Beach in Maine.
• We've had a blast creating three music videos, all of which Jake wrote the lyrics for.
• We've completed lots of home improvement projects together.
• We recently came to the decision to sell our great big beautiful home.
• We are still excited about all that we have to look forward to in our future, including hopefully transforming our imaginary kiddos into real kiddos, adopting some more kiddos, moving closer to our church and Jake's family and growing old together.

If you were to ask Jake (and I just did) he would say that our second year of marriage has been marked by events smaller than our first year, but more significant. Where are first year was a bit of a struggle as two extremely independent people learned how to share their lives, our second year saw us both learning how to relate to each other better while growing emotionally and spiritually. Our first year was tough. Our second year was much improved.

We've made it a tradition to return to the Ivy Chapel in our hometown of Bethlehem, NH, and re-take a photo from our wedding day every year on our anniversary.

Our Wedding Day 2012

First Anniversary 2013

Second Anniversary 2014

And Lord willing we will have about 50 more of these photos someday!

Keep pinchin' :-)

Developing An Attitude Of Gratitude In Your Kids

"Why is it that a two-year-old is often happier playing in the box a toy came in rather than playing with the actual toy? Why is it that children living in poverty in third-world countries seem happier and more content than kids in wealthy nations? Because neither is caught in the trap of comparisons. They don’t know what they are missing out on. They are simply grateful."

That's the idea behind Smart Money, Smart Kids, a brand-new book out by Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruze. Literally, it just came out today. I think.

I remember one Christmas when I was a kid, probably eight years old, I was tearing open presents like a madman... er, boy. My stack of presents was pretty big, and was piling up so fast that I couldn't unwrap them fast enough. I was oblivious to everyone else in our small crowded living room—my cousins Nick and Danny, my aunts and uncles, my sister Tess, my parents. I couldn't think of anything else but me. Me and all those glorious presents that just kept on coming!

I don't remember being aware of Philip until my dad tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to come into the bedroom. He closed the door behind me and told me that Philip was a foster kid, just a little older than me, who had been sent to live with my aunt and uncle the day before Christmas. No one knew he was coming, so no one had gotten him any presents. I remember feeling a little embarrassed at that point by all the presents I had so greedily been diving into.

Dad made me put on my coat and boots and we drove into town looking for a store, any store, that was actually open on Christmas. When we found a little hardware/convenient store, dad took me inside and asked me to pick out a couple presents I thought Philip might like. I found a radio-controlled car and an action figure. We took the toys back to our apartment, wrapped them, and gave them to Philip.

I don't know if Philip expected to get anything for Christmas or not, but being a boy of around 10 or 11, I'm sure he was hoping for something. The look on his face when I handed him the presents was one of surprise and happiness. He had that radio-controlled car racing around the kitchen in just a few minutes.

I tell this story because I think, more often than not, we see kids on Christmas throwing temper tantrums because they didn't get what they wanted, or they didn't get enough. I tell ya, it was an eye-opening thing for me to witness a kid like Philip endure a Christmas fast while I was enjoying a Christmas feast.

In their book, Smart Money, Smart Kids, Dave and Rachel talk about raising children who are sincerely grateful for what they have. How do you teach a child to develop an attitude of gratitude? How do you show them what it is to appreciate what they've got?

I think for my kids it's going to involve taking them to a soup kitchen or homeless shelter on Christmas Eve where they can help serve the less fortunate at a time when they're getting plenty. I want to give them a visual picture to keep in mind whenever they think they don't have enough, or complain because of what they have. Because I'll tell you this, after I gave those presents to Philip and went back to my stack of gifts—which had grown considerably in the time it took my dad and I to go on our brief shopping trip—I didn't have the same greedy, gimmie-gimmie attitude. I was sort of blown away by what my dad had done, and embarrassed that I didn't see the need that he saw in Philip.

"We all have things to count as blessings, but we also have a tendency to lose our sense of awe and our sense of gratitude. Make sure your heart is full of gratitude for the blessings in your own life. Let your children witness this in you, and they will want to respond with gratitude for the blessings in their own lives." —Smart Money, Smart Kids.

What has it been like for you teaching your kids to be grateful?

Keep pinchin' :-)

It's OK to Reward Your Hard Work

Back in the fall, Dani and I decided to axe our restaurant budget. We enjoy the pleasure of eating out just as much as the next person, but in our effort to pay down our debt we decided that we could live without going to restaurants for a little while. In doing so, we've saved about $60 a month, or more. That's about $720 a year, which is about one whole mortgage payment for us.

We did our taxes this month—a task I gladly let my more math efficient wife handle—and, though most of our return is going toward the mortgage, we decided to take some of it and treat ourselves to a new restaurant in town. When we got the bill we remembered why we don't go out to restaurants very often, but the momentary splurge was worth it. The restaurant was great. The food was delicious. And we had a good time.

It was a good reminder to us both not to be too stringent when it comes to this whole penny pinching lifestyle. There are times when you've got to open the wallet and just enjoy yourself. There's nothing undisciplined about that. In fact, it's good practice.

In week two of Financial Peace University, Dave Ramsey's daughter, Rachel Cruze, gives a great example of how NOT to be too strict when it comes to your financial rules. Rachel describes a woman who came up to her after a seminar and told her how well her son had been doing saving money. Apparently this 10-year-old boy had saved up $300 of his own money to buy a game system. Unfortunately when they went to the store to purchase the game system, the boy had forgotten about tax. The total came to more than he could afford. So what did the parents do? They walked out of the store.

Rachel says the parents took some of what they had learned in Financial Peace University far too literally.

"I thought, 'Your 10 year old saved up $300?! You pay the tax!'" Rachel says on the week two DVD. "So, remember parents, your little kids don't have to be soldiers marching around. ... Too many rules is just legalistic, but too much grace is enabling."

Just like there's no excuse to go overboard with your spending, there's no reason to go overboard when it comes to saving. Don't get me wrong, if you're neck-deep in debt you've got to fight for your life to get out of it, but do take time to smell the roses... or try out a good restaurant.

Keep pinchin' :-)

From Date Night to the Katie Couric Show

What started as a simple date night ballooned into a rather elaborate two-week production that culminated with an appearance on Katie Couric's daytime talk show, which was followed by newspaper interviews, radio spots, and... wait. I'm getting ahead of myself.

As a birthday gift to my husband, I decided to give him a year of free dates. Every month he opens an envelope in which is one or two ideas for relatively low-cost date nights. The suggestion for November was to "be famous" by producing a funny YouTube video or fake commercial as a way of spending some fun time together.

Now it had been about a year since my husband and I had completed a money-management course called Financial Peace University, by nationally known speaker and financial management guru Dave Ramsey. Our class was having a one year reunion for anyone who was interested to come and talk about how they've been implementing Dave's steps into their spending habits. My husband and I decided to do a Financial Peace University rap video for our class reunion. (You can click here to check it out!)

My husband Jake loves to write and has three published novels under his belt. Though he's the first to tell you he knows nothing about music, he enjoys writing song lyrics, including rap. He says he enjoys the challenge of rhyme. So I figured this was an assignment he would enjoy.

Two weeks later, with Jake having written some lyrics, and composed some music, we had recorded our music video, and posted it online—including on the Facebook page of Dave Ramsey. The following day I received a Facebook message from Marianne at Katie Couric’s show stating she saw our video, that Dave Ramsey was coming to tape a show with Katie the following Thursday, and that they would love to have us on with him! Within two days all our travel plans were locked and we were headed to New York City to be on national TV. Gulp.

We flew to New York on Wednesday night, enjoyed an evening taking in the sights at Times Square, and the following morning we were headed to ABC studios. Everyone on Katie's crew was super friendly and accommodating—from the time we spent hanging out backstage in the "green room," to our professional hair and makeup session, which definitely made this girl feel like a movie star!

Finally we got to meet Dave Ramsey, who came in with his entourage including his wife, his publicist, his son-in-law, and his daughter Rachel Cruze, who has always been a large part of speaking Dave's message to the younger generation. Jake and I were kind of in awe when we first saw them.

"Should we introduce ourselves?" Jake asked. "I don't want to interrupt them."

"If we were real fans we'd be over there already," I said.

"Then lets go!" Jake replied.

Dave, Rachel, and everyone who was with them were great, down-to-earth people. We took our picture with them, had Dave sign our book, and then chatted with him about our experience with FPU. He shared his heart and vision for his new program, Legacy Journey, and then it was time for him and Rachel to film their first segment. Jake and I were called into the studio shortly after. A quick hair/makeup-check-and-mic-adjustment later and were in the studio audience in seats they had vacated just for us. The whole thing happened very quickly and felt so surreal.

Katie introduced us and showed a portion of our "Penny Pinching" rap video, which was a huge hit with the audience, and then she asked some questions about what we did to get rid of debt and build wealth.

We kept hearing from people—the audience and the backstage crew—that we were exactly the kind of people they love having on the show. It's nice having the big celebrities on because they draw in viewership, but the stuff Katie and her crew enjoy the most are the real life problems and the real life success stories.

After a commercial break Jake and I were brought onto the stage to play a game called Money Myth Busters with Dave and Rachel. For each question we got right we were given 10 seconds in a wind machine filled with $5,000 for a chance to grab as much cash as we could. Now there's a situation I never imagined I'd be in—trapped in a hurricane inside a telephone booth stuffing fist-fulls of money down my shirt on national television.


I'm not allowed to report how much we won until the episode airs, but lets just say it's unnerving to go through airport security at JFK with a big wad of cash in your purse.

Keep pinchin' :-)