Through a series of serendipitous events, my husband and I finally met with Ahmad Davis of Victory By Design over the weekend. After the meeting I felt more purposed with regards to our plan to be debt free by the end of the year. With the way he explained and reviewed the priorities we had, you would’ve thought he had a counseling degree, navigating through our relationship with each topic and finding a suitable method to aggressively pay specific bills. We reviewed our priorities, debt, income, goals and developed a spending and debt snowball plan. Over the last few days, we’ve fine tuned the spending plan while getting a bit more specific with what we will do with each paycheck and other income that comes into our hands.

Ahamd’s approach is very much  faith based and we appreciate that aspect of his work since we share the same Christian faith.  Given my strong feelings around modern day tithing, we did butt heads on the issue however agree on abiding by the word in the spirit of how God intended and not based on man’s actions.  That much I agree with.  For more clarity on my perspective, you can read this post on Old Testament vs New Testament tithing.

In short, I agree with tithing but I don’t agree with how some church’s make it more about manipulation and compulsion when “inspiring” their members to tithe. I am a New Testament believer and as such don’t subscribe to the ten percent standard never mentioned in the new covenant established upon Jesus’ arrival.  I am a happy giver of my time, talents, money and anything else I can do in the service of others.

2 Corinthians 9:7: “Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver.” Here Paul directs the church to give what they have purposed in their heart. Notice that the Apostle does not tell them how much to give, or give them a fixed percentage as a standard. He simply tells them that whatever they have decided to give they should go ahead and give. We are not to allow others to manipulate or intimidate us so that we give out of guilt or pressure. There is to be no compulsion in our giving; the amount must be our own decision.

These New Testament texts teach us that God leaves the amount of our giving up to us. We should give proportionate to our means and how God has prospered us, but in the end we are free to give whatever we want to give. How freeing this is when we consider the manipulative money-making tactics that the Church uses all too often today.

The Nitty Gritty: Making these changes will require hard examination of my discipline and habits because I need to cultivate one and break the other.  So this is a process and I respect that it will be hard for me to get in line.  But this is what I need right now if we’re going to get to our goals over the next 6-18 months.

Here’s the plan we set up, keep in mind that the plan is based on Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.

1.  Put aside 1000-$2500 for immediate emergencies

2.  Get on the budget plan for utilities

• Our utilities combined  are no more than $200 for the month so we’re good in this area right now but getting on a budget plan might reduce it some more.

3.  Reduce eating out to $0

• I have to be honest, this will be a CHALLENGE! LOL!  We are die hard foodies so eating out after work or on the weekends has become pretty routine for us.  We are only a few days into the month ans we’ve blown that goal already so I think slowly ramping down will work.  Still, over the last 18 months, looking back, we’ve gone from eating out to the tune of $900 down to $400 a month.  Now that we are more cognizant of our goals, we can realistically aim for $150 this month.

4.  Non-Monthly Savings/Car Repairs and Maintenance

• Automobile tags/plates
• Home Warranty
• Car insurance

Save $125/month saving towards car repairs and maintenance.  We usually just pay for this stuff out of pocket and Im not sure I want to create a savings account for them.  I’d rather pay them outright when they are due.  Too many details for me to track but this might change in the near future.

Areas to watch:  These are the areas that we’ve agreed to use cash in but Im not sure how that will work out since most of my purchases are online via Amazon.com.

• Aimless shopping: Target is the devil so I don’t go there unless I absolutely have to go there.
• Groceries are pretty much under control with a budgeted amount of $400/month for the two of us.  We came under at $340 in May.
• Entertainment isn’t a big deal either since we both work long hours and primarily eat out on the weekends.  We go to movies every few months and may occasionally (as in a few times over the summer) rent bikes to go riding by the water.

So where do I blow my money?  Eating out at work, hair and make-up products.  Yep, that’s me!  So I will adjust these areas as they seem to be the ones that throw my budget off.  I also need to include an allowance for impulse or random purchases but Im not sure I really want to encourage that right now.  Still, it happens from time to time.

Debt Reduction

I was most excited to talk about this part of our plan as I need the accountability to get to our goals.  So for the next 6 months we have some pretty hard goals to reach and we can realistically get there.  Every month we are on target to pay off a good chunk of debt!  Discipline will be key and I am looking forward to starting 2011 off declaring:

WE ARE DEBT FREE!

Overall, this was a great meeting. This does mean that I need to work on changing certain habits like impulse purchases and garnering more discipline in the interest of meeting and exceeding our goals for the year. We will meet 3 more times over the next few months and I will blog about my experiences as we go along.

Check out Victory By Design and let me know what you think! If you had a financial coach at your fingertips, what are some areas you’d like to address?