I’m a huge Dave Ramsey fan. I’m also very thankful Joe and I have the same mindset on finances. Don’t live above your means, pay your bills in full each month, and pay off your debts as soon as possible. Which is great because that’s pretty much the basis of what Dave Ramsey teaches. I hate debt. I hate “owing” people.

One of my/our goals for this year was to be more mindful of our expenses and try to cut back where possible, while also paying off a small student loan. I’m really excited that not even a sixth of the way into 2013 and we’ve paid the loan off!!! Now to start tackling one small thing, our house, and the medical school loan!

The thing is, we can’t pay things off faster if we don’t watch our everyday expenses. I’ve been using Dave Ramsey’s cash envelope system only for our grocery expenses. You have to start somewhere, and that’s the best place for us. Last month we saved more on grocery expenses than we did the previous month. I’m hoping this month will produce similar results!

Another area we’ve found to cut back is with our cable package. Time Warner is not only increasing rates AGAIN, but their service is getting worse. We love our tv time, but we don’t watch certain things anymore, like HBO. So we’re got rid of it. We also don’t watch much tv in our bedroom, at least not enough to warrant having cable in there. Got rid of it too! Those two things alone will save us a couple hundred dollars a year.

Saving money is incredible, and there is a little adrenaline rush you get when you pay off a debt. Hopefully over the next few months we’ll find other ways to reduce expenses and/or pay off the rest of our debt quicker!