You may be wondering how these things all tied together?  Well, my wife and I are committed to a financial plan which operates under several conditions.  Two conditions in particular are first that we don't borrow money any more and the second is that money doesn't get spent unless it's in the budget.

So how does this all fit together? We recently sent off our camera for servicing.  We received an initial estimate of about $122 to repair the camera.  That price was cheaper than purchasing an equivalent replacement, so we decided to go ahead with the repair.  However, on Friday I received a notice that the camera was severely damaged and that the actual cost would be something in the neighborhood of $500.  Woah.  Stop.  Now what?  My wife has been eagerly waiting for the camera's return because she uses it to take weekly pictures of our kids.  A friend of ours has been letting us use their camera in the interim and we are very thankful for their generosity.  The camera will not be fixed.  The cost to purchase a close equivalent is about 250 dollars and there is no way I'm going to spend more to fix something then what it's worth.

Ah, but now what are we going to do?  We don't have a camera and we need to purchase another camera.  We're part way into the month and the budget has already been locked in.  Let me tell you, it's not always fun having emergency budget meetings.  We reviewed the budget and found that we can squeeze some extra money out of a couple of other areas and have the cash to purchase a camera this week.  I'm continually amazed by how changing priorities can be addressed with some creative thinking and intentional effort.

Second story, we received a phone call about some contest we had entered.  As it turns out we had to sit through a 90 minute presentation for a vacation club.  Of course it was basically an extended sales pitch which sounded too good to be true.  Well, at least until we heard the price.  For the low low price of 6995 (let's just say $7,000), we could have 2 weeks a year plus 10 last minute weeks a year.  The average price for a weeks stay at a 5 star resort was about 459.  But wait, for most opportunities that doesn't include the airfare.  If you ever end up in one of these types of presentations for a timeshare or vacation club, please consider walking out.  I can't think of too many good reasons to participate in any of these programs.  To be fair this particular program sounded more promising than other pitches we have heard.  Just don't do it. 

My wife and I and about 10 others listened to the presentation and were then escorted back to the original meeting room.  A representative called a regional sales manager stopped over and began to walk us down the prices.  They were only asking 6,995 and due to a special grand opening, were reducing the price to 5995.  By the way, this is a standard sales pitch type ploy to move you to a closure of the deal.  It makes you feel like you're receiving a good deal.  Anyway, then he went on to say that they only wanted 599 down and the rest could be paid of in payments.  I quickly told him that due to our financial plan we weren't able to commit to such a plan at this time.  He said not a problem we have Bank of America on site to provide financing… DOH!  NO freaking way!  I'm not going back into debt.  I didn't say it that way.  It was more of an explanation that my wife and I don't borrow money any more.  To make a long story short, we weren't willing to borrow money and we left without spending any money.  We did find out that they were willing to chop another $1,000 off of the price if we wanted to pay cash.

To wrap this up, what do these things have in common.  First, having a sound financial plan helps you avoid making stupid financial decisions.  My wife and I don't borrow money, so there's no way we are going to buy into some vacation club, timeshare or anything else if it requires us to borrow money.  Additionally, we aren't going to finance a camera just to have the camera because we want or need it now.  Second, budgeting within a financial plan works.  We will still be able to get the camera.  We just needed to determine what else we could live without for the month in order to make it work.  Without a budget we wouldn't even have a clue as to whether or not we actually have the money to make such a purchase.  And finally, you have to be committed to working the plan and sticking to your decisions.  We committed to following the plan and did so.  It served us well, twice in the same day this past week.

Are you ready to commit to getting out of debt forever?  Are you willing to change your life forever? You only have one life to live baby, so get to it!