Personal Finance

Personal finance, or money, has been on my mind lately.  Bob and I are trying to work up a new budget to do a few things, like save some money for a dream that we have percolating on the back burner.  There's also some more immediate things we want to address as well, especially as the cost of food, gas, and just about everything else is going up these days.

So did your parents teach you about how to handle money as you were growing up?  I realized recently that mine didn't.  I watched my mom pay the bills and saw her ledger sheets.  I knew that you should save some, give some, spend some on yourself ("mad money"), as well as have enough to pay the bills.  But I was never really taught HOW to do that; how much goes to each part, how to budget so you have enough at the end of the month to pay the things you have to as well as hopefully some for the things you want.  I really want to be more intentional about teaching Sweet Pea and Rosie Jane these things.

I'm a member of the Homeschool Co-op that gets discounted deals for homeschool families, mostly on software products. One of their recent/current offerings is Dave Ramsey materials, including his high school program.  I'd really like to get this to use with the girls to teach them how to manage their money so they know what they're doing when they're on their own in a few years.  I know at least one of their friends has been through one of Dave Ramsey's classes, not sure if it was the high school one or another one, and thought it was really good.  I'm going to suggest to Bob that we offer a "Bible study" using the high school materials so we can teach the girls what they need to know to give them a good foundation for their future.