Peace Signs and Polka Dots

I dressed Paige in what I thought was a matching outfit, it wasn't. But she looked cute regardless!

For my fellow Dave Ramsey followers:

Does living like no one else mean being lonely like no one else?

Am I the only one feeling like this?
This is one of the moments I dislike facebook. Between all the scheduled little parties to hearing about all the fun people are out having. Dinners and girls nights outs... I love getting invited (makes me feel wanted) but I could not even imagine how much I would have to budget.
We're trying to stay true to our debt snowball and keep gazelle intensity and we're doing really good. But I feel out of the loop.
Seriously, is anyone else feeling like this? Is there anyone that has been through this and is on the other side?

I am looking forward to the day we get to yell, "WE'RE DEBT FREE!!"

Living like no one else success story: My second daughter's first birthday.

Living like no one else success story: My second daughter's first birthday.

We're on the Dave Ramsey plan, knocking out our debt, saving money and living like no on else.

We've learned to live on a budget (Dave calls it a Cash Flow Plan) and spend our money differently. We think differently causing us to live and spend differently.

3 years ago for B's first birthday, we invited all her little friends, ordered a cake and had refreshments. At the time I thought it a very simple birthday.

Paige's first birthday was truly simple! We invited two families we're close to, threw a couple pizza's in the oven and I made the cake. The best thing was her present from us, a brand new Laugh and Learn Learning Home! I did in fact say brand new but I did not pay the $80 MSRP, not even close. I found one "used in good condition" on our local yard sale site for $10.00. When I went to pick it up the lady selling it informed me there was a piece missing but it was still functioning. I gladly purchased the unit knowing Paige wouldn't care if it was broken.
I went on the Fisher Price website and attempted to order the missing piece and was slightly taken aback when it wasn't available. I called Fisher Price and they told me if I sent them the bottom of the unit, obviously sans the missing piece, they'd send me a brand new toy! I only had to pay the shipping for the piece I sent in, what a deal!

Paige's First Birthday Party:
Decorations: $0 (we didn't decorate, she's 1)
Food, including cake: $11.00
Present from us: $15.00
Living like no one else: priceless!

Ramble: Advent Conspiracy

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I came across the above video while blog hopping and was very excited.

You see, I've been a bit down lately when thinking of the upcoming holiday. Usually the coming of Christmas fills me with joy and delight but this year has been a little different. This past summer we started the Dave Ramsey plan to get out of debt and it has drastically changed our lives in the process. It may not appear so from the outside but we now budget EVERYTHING with all extra money going to pay off debt. The cool thing is we've paid off close to $5,000.00 of debt in the past 4 months! But I digress.

We decided when we had our first child that we'd try to keep Christmas more about Christ and less about consumerism. We continued a tradition my parents started in my family, each child got three presents from Mom and Dad and then one from Santa. I wanted to go a step further away from too many toys, especially since we knew that's what most of the family would be giving, so we agreed one gift would be a toy, one would be something educational and the third would be clothing; the gift from Santa would be something asked for (within reason).

This year we applied the budget to Christmas shopping as well. I have been so stressed trying to figure out how I was going to give the girls the Christmas I felt they deserve on about $40 per child. I've been having so many internal struggles with this. I know they don't "need" any of this stuff but I want to give them things. Some how, I've finished shopping for both girls on less then budgeted and since Josh and I have decided not to get each other anything all we have left is to MAKE our gifts for family and friends.

Tomorrow is the first day of Advent and we've already started taking steps to (hopefully) ensure Brenna understands Christmas is about Jesus' birthday and not about opening presents. Tonight we read a poem and a bible verse as part of a series my church doing during Advent and on December 1st we'll start reading The Advent Book, the true story of Christmas. *Side note, this is an amazing book!