A GoodPlans Book Review ~ The Money Answer Book by Dave Ramsey

If you've been a reader of this blog for any lengtrh of time, you should already know that I'm a huge Dave Ramsey fan.  The principles Dave teaches have changed my life in seriously positive ways, and I was excited to see The Money Answer Book come up for review with Thomas Nelson's BookSneeze! 

Here's a little about the book from TN:

This question and answer book is the perfect resource guide for equipping individuals with key information about everyday money matters.

Questions and answers deal with 100+ of the most-asked questions from The Dave Ramsey Show—everything from budget planning to retirement planning or personal buying matters, to saving for college and charitable giving. This is Dave in his most popular format—ask a specific question, get a specific answer.

Now, here's what I think:

I really enjoyed reading this book.  I never thought of having a "no matter what" list until I read this.  Dave's principles are clearly outlined in the pages of this book, and if you've not been a listener of his radio show, this book is a great first resource to own to become familiar with his thought processes.

From an outline of the Baby Steps, to the Debt Snowball worksheets to insurance planning, and straight through investing, this stratagem is a proven method for debt freedom and wealth building.  If you're looking for a quick and easy read that is also a source of clear financial wisdom, order this book today!

To read more from Thomas Nelson's product page click here.  For a sneak peek inside the book, go here.

In exchange for this honest review Thomas Nelson has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book.

Dear Lawn...Please Grow!

Nate spent a few hours researching and discussing his next steps to get this lawn growing. (Remember.... the house was forclosed on right before summer so the yard went through the summer without any water. Oh! and the previous owners took all of the plants with them...). He decided to reseed the yard. He raked up all of the dead grass (and there was a lot), put grass seed down, covered it in compost, and fertilized it. Now we water and wait.

BOGO French's Mustard at Target!

The Lynn Lane Target has the bonus packs of French's mustard shown above, and if you go here, you can print coupons and get the whole scoop on the deal!  Enjoy!  Thanks, Totally Target!

Book Review ~ Nelson's Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts

One of the best ways to get free or super cheap books is to provide reviews for companies and authors.  My wise daughter, Carman, has been doing this for a few months on her site, A Sequence of Continuous Delights.  Because of her encouragement, I'm now reviewing for BookSneeze!

There is no greater wisdom on this earth than Scripture, so getting to review free Bibles and Bible study materials is very exciting to me because of the multiple benefits!  Free books + God's wisdom = a win/win situation!

Here's a summary from Thomas Nelson's website:

Book Description

Beautiful full-color maps and charts illuminate the Scriptures.

This updated edition of Thomas Nelson’s popular Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts has everything your customers need to visualize the events, places, and people in the Old and New Testaments. The resources include:

* New, full-color, high-resolution maps and charts.

* Downloadable PDFs of maps and charts for presentations and classes.

* Tables, charts, and diagrams that organize Bible information for ease of learning and memorization.

* Historical articles providing insight into Bible times.

* Introductions to each book of the Bible.

Perfect for small-group leaders, Bible school teachers, and anyone curious about biblical times or wanting to locate key events from Scripture, Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts provides a visual overview of the Bible in its entirety.

I've been studying along Hebraic lines of Christianity for many years now, and I enjoyed the charts and maps in this book because I could get a better picture in my mind of places and the timeline of events.  It would take many years of study to exhaust the resources packed into this resource!

I'm providing a link to the book’s Thomas Nelson product page, and a link that will allow readers to preview the book.
Thomas Nelson, through BookSneeze, provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for reveiw.

Facing a Challenge

All my best intentions to post more regularly have taken a back seat to finishing the school year strong, and keeping up my responsibilities here at home.  Thank God for Proverbs 31 Amplified, which reminds me that I can't take on new responsibilities that cause the neglect of my present duties!

So, here's a little sneak peek at what I've been doing since my last post...

I was one of three sponsors for the ropes challenge course activity for some of our juniors and seniors.  The humiliation of wearing the harness and helmet is so small compared to the thrill of getting to have this great experience with such a fantastic group of young people!

Yup.  I climbed it. A 55 foot verticle wall is nothing for this homeschool mom!  I did it!

After conquering the elements on the big blue tower, we took a 100+ foot zipline to the bottom!  It was such a blast!  Challenge courses make great homeschool field trips!

Note to self:  Next time, make someone take pictures of me actually doing some of these things, instead of me always being behind the camera!

Surprisingly, I wasn't very store the next day.  So that day, we did some of this:

Yes, we've been taking dance lessons!  My daughter is going to prom in a few weeks, and for the last five weeks or so, we've been going once a week to learn ballroom dancing.  She asked me to join her in the lessons, and I have for most of them.  The foxtrot is my favorite, followed by the rumba.  They've also learned West Coast swing, which I've not practiced much.  It's all great exercise, too, which is a bonus!

What have you been up to this week?

Clearing Clutter Progress!

Big Give Count & A Sneak Peek

My final count from yesterday's Cleaning Out the Clutter challenge was 47 items gone!!!  I'm excited to once a gain be making progress towards simplifying my home.  So far, I've given 117 things away so far this year!  I going to attempt to hit 300 before the end of April, so stay tuned and keep me accountable.

I attacking the kitchen next, and here are some before pictures of what I'll be cleaning:

As you can tell, I really needed this cleanout!  It is humbling to expose your my cluttered home, but in a good way, because it gives me incentive to keep cleaning.  I also watched two full episodes of Hoarders on A&E online last night, just to give myself more perspective on what can happen when I refuse to let go of my stuff!

If you haven't checked your mail yet, you might be surprised like I was to find a free $5 gift card from Walmart.  I don't know what I did to get this, but I'm hoping they do this often!

Pray for me as I continue to tackle the kitchen!  Laughing all the way...

Clearing the Clutter: Does This Count?

Let me start out by saying:

I'm going to be real here.  This has been a difficult few days.

As part of our commitment to becoming debt free, we sold our camper.  ((Insert sad face here.))  Since we didn't owe anything on it, it was nice to be able to instantly reduce our debt by several thousand dollars, but it still hurt to let it go.  Oh well, life goes on.

MoneySavingMom is doing a Clear Out the Clutter Challenge, and since I've been a little lax in my purging for the year, I decided to join in.  I'm including my totals in my Big Give as well. 

Here's my blurry before picture of a neglected area in my den:

Since we don't have a garage, we keep our deep freeze in our den, and this area catches all types of homeless clutter.  I removed 13 items including the upholstery cushions I will be listing on Craigslist tonight.  I also sorted many items from our camper, which were deposited in front of the freezer. 

I keep the blue box all the time, and purpose to fill it with giveaway items once a week.  This round will go to the Goodwill unless I decide to have a garage sale.  And, if I do, maybe I should use that money to take some photography classes.  It's been a rough picture day!

Wave goodbye!

Free Crest Toothpaste @CountryMart!

CountryMart has the 4.6oz Crest toothpaste varieties on sale this week for $0.99.  There's a $0.50 P&G coupon from the Sunday paper, which will double at CountryMart making the toothpaste FREE!!!