Dave Ramsey Is Messing with My Head

In order to teach Personal Finance in high school, you have to receive certification. Since it will be a graduation requirement for the class of 2013, I went to a Dave Ramsey training session for teachers to receive my certification. For a bonus, I got to spend two nights in Nashville in a nice hotel with all expenses paid. What more could I ask for, right??

Wrong! Since I returned home, I've been feeling guilty about the way I spend money. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to shop! If I want, I buy it. Our closets are all full of clothes with the tags still on them! My husband gets 1/4th of our walk-in closet while the rest is mine. I haven't counted lately, but I probably have well over 100 pairs of shoes. Both of my children require a dresser and two closets to store all of their clothes and shoes. Oh, and our house looks like the local Toys R Us! We have a playroom full of stuff, a living room full of stuff, and each bedroom is full of stuff! In addition, we have so many riding toys of every variety in our shed that there is no room for the lawn mower! Just thinking about shopping gets me high!

That euphoria quickly dissipated and turned to guilt, though. That Dave Ramsey training didn't just arm me with information for the course. It also made me take a look at my own spending habits. Yikes! With an M.B.A. and a degree in economics, you'd think I'd be on top of the money game. In the words of Maury Povich, " You ARE NOT..." correct.

I'm a mess! I'm surprised my husband hasn't kicked me out of the house yet. While we aren't crazy in debt, we do tend to pay things off only to have me charge them back up again. And every month we get into the same argument about how I charged stuff on my Gap or Macy's cards without letting him know. "They aren't in my budget!" he'll say. Then I come back with, "Well, I work too, dammit!" It always ends with "Screw you!" and "Screw you too!"

I'm hoping after we have our first Budget Committee Meeting this afternoon, I won't feel so guilty. Maybe we can actually plan for my outrageous spending habits. We could put it under "Entertainment Expenses" since we don't ever do much any way. The biggest issue will be, however, making my 4 year old understand that he can't have a toy every single day of his life. He's mad at me right now and is threatening to drive his Diego jeep to Wal-Mart if I don't take him.

I started giving him $5 per week this week. I made him put $2 in his piggy bank, and he was able to spend the other $3. Of course, there's not a thing anywhere for $3 so I had to kick in a bit. Now he thinks I'll just give him money to pay for his daily toy fix. It may take us some time to get him on board with our Living Debt-free Plan. He currently owes me $13 for his most recent purchase, and is already looking for another creative financing option so he can hit the aisles of Wal-Mart!