Graphs and Spreadsheets

I am an extremely visual person, mostly because I am an extremely forgetful person.  Because of this, whenever I want to stay hyper-focused on something, I need to surround myself with constant visual reminders that are convenient and impossible to ignore.  Since lighting my personal fire on getting debt-free, I have Dave Ramsey's book The Total Money Makeover as well as the Workbook sitting in a central location, I keep this blog tab open almost all the time in my browser, I have excellent Bible verses about debt on my phone's homescreen and my grocery planning is hanging very prominently on our kitchen wall.  Everywhere I look is a reminder of our focus.

But while these are all great things to get me motivated, I decided I needed a little bit more.  I really like to be reminded quickly and easily of the progress that I have made.  Anytime I get discouraged, it is so important for me to have a handy reminder of all the hardwork paying off.  Anyone who has tried saving money knows that one moment of discouragement or hopelessness can lead to an impulse by that blows it all.

For that reason, I turned to my amazing husband to create a few different graphs and spreadsheets to help me out.  An accountant by trade, he is phenomenal when it comes to creating just what I need.  Numbers confuse and overwhelm me.  I am horrible at math, percentages, interest and anything that involves thought beyond a simple plus or minus.  I mean, we're talking really bad at numbers.  So I am very blessed to just be able to tell my husband exactly what I need to see in a snapshot in order to quickly comprehend our state and jump start my fire anytime it starts to ember.

Now, added to all my other visual reminders of our herculean goal, on our fridge will be three helpful printouts focused on improvement and progress which shall be updated monthly:

• Expenditure Pie Chart - A simple, elementary pie chart of the previous month's expenses broken out by category (courtesy of the wonderful Quicken software) to help me focus in on any areas that can be shaved back.  **Improvement Focused**
• Budget - Our entire month's budget down to the last penny (which my husband has always made and I have rarely stuck to) so that we can focus as a couple on keeping in line with it.  Whenever a change is made, it will be immediately penciled in and accounted for.  **Improvement Focused**
• Debt Snowball Countdown to Freedom - Dave Ramsey's spreadsheet which shows all of our current debt and how long, based on minimum payments alone, it will take us to pay off our debt.  My husband has updated this so I can punch in any extra progress in Excel and easily see that date get  even sooner.  **Progress Focused**

On top of these three printouts on the computer, I also have a very snazzy spreadsheet that my husband created for the current credit card on which we are working that allows me to enter the extra money I have made for the month and see instantly how many months and how much interest I have saved.  It shows me that even the smallest amounts can add up to major savings once interest is factored in.  **Progress Focused**

Staying focused on improvement and progress really helps remind me that I can make a difference.  It is so easy to slip into the mindset that all those little things will never matter and that we are forever stuck as victims in a daunting chasm.  But seeing something as small as a $25 savings actually saves us $48 in interest transforming that $25 profit into a $73 profit shows me that I matter.  I am not a victim of circumstance.  I can build a ladder to climb, even if slowly, out of this chasm.  And that's exactly what I am going to do.