Your Questions, Our Answers

A few posts ago, we asked for your questions. And then we asked again because, well, we didn't get many. Ha. So, now we have a lot, too many for one post, so I will answer some of them today. If you don't see yours, take heart, because you will see it in the future. (-:


Can you tell us more about how you guys are eliminating debt/saving for your first home?
 
  
This answer will be kinda long. Well, first of all, let me say it depends on the day you ask me. Some days I'm very optimistic about saving for a home and some days I feel like we will never get there. Many people have asked us if we are Dave Ramsey followers because of our blog title. Our blog title is not because of Dave Ramsey, but we are in fact, lovers of Dave's basic principles.


One of Dave's principles is the "debt snowball". You basically work from the smallest debt to the largest, paying them off in that order. Once you pay off a debt, you apply that money toward the next one, so your snowball gets bigger the more you pay off. 


So, we currently have zero credit cards, have one car payment we will pay off next month, and then have a couple of pretty hefty student loans. Once we pay off the car we will be putting our money toward saving for a house. We are hoping to save like crazy for three years or so and then have a large enough down payment that we can lower the monthly payments significantly. We live pretty cheaply, and we both work two jobs for the time being. This has allowed us to pay down debt pretty quickly.


We have had some requests for a post about our Dave Ramsey story, so we will be doing a post on that in the near future.


Do you want kids/if so how many/do you have names picked out?


We definitely want kids!  But not today! (-: In a few years we plan on starting that endeavor. We want 3-4 little ones, and have thought about names, but don't have any really set in stone yet. We like family names, so we have thought about using my grandfather's name, and my brother's name, which is Harrison. We also like Caroline. Those are a couple. Our minds will likely change though in the next few years. (-:


If you could live anywhere where would it be?


Well, we really love where we are living right now. It has a little of everything and is close to family. The Tulsa area is great, I only wish it would grow an ocean. 


What do you do for a living? It sounds like such a great job!!

 


Well, thanks. I do think my job is great. I work for a church in the Worship Ministry. I assist our minister of worship. So basically, I get music together for all the musicians, band, orchestra, choir, singers, etc. I also put together the bulletin each week and print 1500 of them, and I am the wedding scheduler at the church. Then I fill in the gap with whatever other office things need to be done.


Do you guys do devotions and/or pray together? Can you recommend some good readings for time with your spouse?


Well, yes we do. It's something I really love about our relationship. We pray together very often (not like 24/7 or anything, but relatively frequently). Anytime one of us has something that is a burden, we talk about it and we pray. It really brings peace in so many situations. We pray in the car, before we go to sleep, and sometimes even on the phone. Mark praying for me has been a huge blessing.


As far as devotions, this is something we have recently tried to incorporate. We haven't been great at it in the past, but we did start a couple weeks ago, and used a book called Devotional Classics. We didn't really know what the best way to do a devotional together would be, so we gave the that book a shot, and we both really liked it. It had a scripture reference and then a very thought provoking devotional. Mark read it aloud and then we discussed it. Although, some of the questions we didn't love, so we just talked about it how we wanted to. I definitely want to continue doing it. I was very personally convicted, and it's really neat to share and discuss those feelings with your best friend and be encouraged. But, it's hard to do - you have to really make it a priority - you know, turn off the TV and what not. So hopefully, we can keep doing it. (-:


Any time one of us reads something and really learns something, we discuss it, too, but that isn't as frequent or as organized, but perhaps just by reading a book together that is not a "devotional book" could be another way to do a devotion.


Last question for today is...


What are some of your fav places to shop? 


Hmm... well, I enjoy shopping, and Mark doesn't. At all. So his favorite place to shop would probably be Amazon.com if I had to guess. (-: My favorite places are many. For clothes, I really love White House/Black Market, The Limited, and Eddie Bauer. Unfortunately, I am really cheap, and so I don't often get to buy things from those places. I shop at Plato's closet a lot, which is a resale shop that has great bargains. I love J. Crew, but don't love their prices, so I just go on there, look around, and leave. I love boutiques and finding unique things. I really love Amazon.com, because they are the best price around and super fast shipping. 


Whew! I guess that's all the questions I can handle for one day. More to come. (-:


Happy Monday!


~Kathryn