Over the weekend, wealthy_1 posted a comment on my If I Were Debt Free meme post asking

What about giving? Wouldn’t you give a percentage to your favorite charity?

And that had me thinking of just how to respond.  I asked him for a few days to form my thoughts into a coherent post, and this is what I have come up with.

First of all, I am not under a religious mandate to give a certain percentage, nor even to give at all.  For the record I am not Christian.  With that out of the way, I will say that I do give now. 

My favorite charity is the Red Cross Bloodmobile which hits campus about every other month, which is the recommended time between blood donations.  Usually I will pass out flyers until the last 45 minutes of the blood drive when I finally submit to the needle in spite of my mild phobia for needles and a penchant for passing out.  I am Type A Positive, so the “vampires” love me for my blood as well as my running around campus for 1-3 hours trying to get people to join me in rolling up a sleeve.

For the past few years I have also given small donations to the local firefighter’s disabilty support organization and also to a police essay scholarship contest, both once a year donations.  No, it’s not much at all, but those are both things I feel are worthwhile.  And I am not yet debt-free.

Once I do become debt free AND graduate from pharmacy school, it is my intention to set up not just one but TWO scholarships: one for the four year school I am currently attending - Austin Peay State University -  and one for the pharmacy school I will attend, which I have not yet selected.  These won’t be general scholarships either…they will be specifically for non-traditional students like myself, and will be for pre-pharmacy majors and first year pharmacy students with preference given to veterans.  These scholarships are perhaps the most important to me.

I didn’t mention this plan in my original post, because right now that is much farther out than being debt free is!  It seems like a faint, distant dream at this point, especially with my chances of going to pharmacy school next year beginning to look shaky because of my organic chem grade as well as the student loan/lack of scholarships angle.  Also, it is much easier to talk about things that really aren’t as important than to talk about things that are deeply important on a very personal level.

Finally, it honestly didn’t occur to me to mention giving in the original post because I am giving right now!  I don’t need to be debt free before I start giving, although I imagine the amounts I give in regards to actual money will increase over time as we do shed the debt we have remaining.  I just don’t have a set percentage or amount in mind, because I tend to give as I feel it will do good and is right for me at that time.  Or, as my Christian friends would phrase it, “as the spirit moves me.”  Hope this answers your question, wealthy_1

It’s near the end of the month, which means I have started playing with numbers for the month of November.  October has been a good and bad month for my budget, with the snowball thrown at the truck note so far totalling $1300 credited to the account, with another two payments totalling $635 scheduled to go out on the first and second.  I only told hubby about the $1000 payment…the rest will be a surprise for him.  Well, it will only be a surprise if he checks his account before reading the blog here LOL

The bad part for the budget this past month was hubby’s confession that he doesn’t really like the little paid-for purple truck and wants to keep the 2005 Chevy Colorado (I am biting my fingers to keep from calling it my usual nickname…he says he hates it when I call it the Stupid Truck Note).  So we will not be debt free before the end of the year as I had hoped and planned.

As I went to go indulge in my personal stupid tax, aka buying a pack of cigarettes, I noticed one of the store employees outside changing the price on the sign: Gas just went up a dime a gallon today.  This is a big impact on me as a pizza delivery driver, and I had been very much enjoying the lowered gas prices in comparison to the prices in the spring.  Time to fiddle with that number in the budget for November, because with oil hitting new records almost daily (at least it feels that way) gas prices won’t be coming down for a little while.  Another factor in raising the number budgeted for gas in November is hubby coming home from Korea, and he will be driving the truck while I am out driving the little Escort.

Now, for the sucker punch from last week: Lipscomb University sent a representative from their new School of Pharmacy to talk to us prospective students.  When I asked her about financial aid, she said the school has no plans to offer scholarships, and my only financial aid will be Pell grants and LOANS.  That one floored me…how can they not offer any kind of scholarship?  Especially when the tuition is $27,500 per year?  It sounds like I shouldn’t even bother to apply, and save the application fee.  Some days it seems to me that college financial aid offices are much more interested in pushing student loans on us rather than helping us find ways to finance education without debt!  Does anyone know if these schools get some kind of kickback from all these student loans?

I’ve got a physic test this evening, and homework due, but for those of y’all wanting your blog post fix, I have two posts in two carnivals that are both HUGE!

Millionaire Mommy Next Door hosted this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance and included My Meme: If I Were Debt-Free.  She’s also got very neat polls in the post where you can vote for your favorite out of each group of posts, with prizes for the bloggers who wrote the winning posts.  It’s a week early for elections, but it is always good fun!

PaidTwice hosted my favorite carnival this week, the Carnival of Debt Reduction and my Top 10 Reasons to Be Debt Free was an editor’s pick!

Now I will disappear into my textbook…and resurface tomorrow for more blogging fun.

It’s the weekend, which means I go out and taxi pizzas around (aka delivering pizzas) while most “normal” people are relaxing and having fun.  So I thought now would be the perfect time to toss up a couple of cute video clips I found on YouTube for entertainment purposes

First up is one of my My Total Money Makeover board buddies, which appeals to the latent pyromaniac inside me.  I tell ya, this clip makes me want to run out and buy a blowtorch for my credit cards!  Oh, the background music is SUCH a nice touch.

Next up has got to be my personal favorite!  Let’s combine firearms and destroying credit cards, and wrap it up with a humorous monlogue to boot.  If you have ever sat through a hunting show on TV you will  get a real kick out of this one, simply titled “Hunting Plastic.”

Now, for a little link love for “my homies” in the M-Network:

• Plonkee gives a nice intro and short bio of everyone in her excellent Focus on the M-Network
• I love cookies, so I really enjoyed ChristianPF’s Budgeting is Like Baking Cookies
• Lynnae over at BeingFrugal.net shares How to Shop Frugally.  I thought I could shop frugally, but still picked up some nice pointers here!
• David explores Getting a Green Mortgage and Using an Eco-Broker at My Two Dollars.  I had never even knew these existed…cool.
• GLBLguy is tying personal finance and movies together with his 5 Personal Finance Lessons From the Pursuit of Happyness
• PaidTwice discusses Making Choices About Halloween Fun and I think it is applicable to the entire “silly season” not just Halloween.
• The Dough Roller  also turns to movies for illustrations of personal finance lessons with his Personal Finance With No Regrets inspired by the Shawshank Redemption
• Pinyo continues his Money Lessons series with a discussion about Choosing the Right Tool for the Job at Moolonomy
• SingleGuyMoney shares some Online Home Value Sites to compare figures for a rental property he would like to purchase.

Enoy the videos, and enjoy the links :)  Hopefully I’ll be making good tip money tonight…or simply get my homeowrk done for physics class tomorrow night before the test.

Having lived in Indiana for about twenty years or so, I have known about Dave Letterman about next to forever, and have always loved his “Top 10″ lists.  So I thought I would put together my own little Top 10 list, Debt Free Revolution-style.  So here they are, the TOP TEN reasons to be debt free:

•  Reason #10: You won’t need to buy as many tin foil hats to keep “them” from tracking you electronically.
• Reason #9: It’s just so much fun to mess with those marketers with clipboards at the mall who want to know, “What’s in your wallet?”
• Reason #8: When your co-workers start complaining about their car payments, you can just smile at their confounded expressions when you tell them you don’t have a car note.
• Reason #7: Because earning interest is always better than paying interest!
• Reason #6: Not owing anyone money means you can devote your money to fun stuff…like going for the “Biggest Ball of Twine” world record!
• Reason #5: Because it confuses your kids to every once in a while say “yes” to “Mom, I want…” instead of the usual “No!  Save up your own money!”
• Reason #4: You’ve discovered that your vehicle actually gets better gas mileage when it no longer drags the payment book behind it.
• Reason #3: Because it is SO much more fun to dream about that particular movie star you will never get a chance with instead of laying awake at night worrying about how to pay your bills.
• Reason #2: Because every Monday morning you fantasize about giving your boss the one-finger salute while dancing out the door singing “Take This Job and Shove It!”
• And the Number One reason to be DEBT FREE: (drumroll…) You actually get to KEEP your take-home pay!

And there it is folks…some humorous, some slightly serious, and a few are both.  Now…to throw open the comments sections and see who has any to add :)  funny or serious, let’s hear what y’all have!

I had an interesting weekend.  At work, I made some VERY good money delivering pizzas, with Friday being a somewhat slow start with only $31.50 in tips.  Oh, the new pizza delivery job does things different: at night we only take home tip money, and mileage pay is added into our checks and taxed.  Saturday may have started slow, but we were really hopping by nightfall and I ended up taking home $69 in tips for 14 deliveries!  Sunday night was the most interesting, with $47.50 earned in tips…and a customer who asked me “Do you know about Dave Ramsey?” when I responded to their “How are you doing?” with the code-phrase “Better than I deserve.”  This was the first time since I have been delivering pizzas that someone recognized the “code” and asked me that.

I think they are just starting out, because they asked how the plan was working for me.  I was feeling in a hurry and didn’t linger to chat, and I now regret that, but there were more pizzas to be delivered.  Since they asked me if I knew about Dave Ramsey, I in turn asked them if they had used a DEBIT card instead of a credit card for their order.  LOL They did.  This is cool, because I haven’t met up with anyone locally that is also on the DR plan.

Another curve ball this weekend came from Hubby: he has been trying to figure out how to tell me that he wants to keep the truck (aka the Stupid Tax on Wheels, but he really hates me referring to it like that).  I have given it my very best shot, and lost, so we will be keeping the truck and paying it off instead of selling it and becoming debt free but the house next month. 

I’m still playing with numbers on this, trying to see how we can make it work with pharmacy school tuition next fall…if I get accepted.  Friday afternoon I got back my latest organic chemistry test and did NOT do nearly as good as I thought I did.  I’m beginning to see why half of the class that hasn’t dropped is REtaking the class for a better grade.  Ouch…I, the usually A-student, got a 69 on a test which brings my average down to a C for the class!  If it doesn’t get better I will end up spending next year retaking organic chem also instead of heading off to pharmacy school in Nashville!

But back to the truck note…I have authorized a couple of payments on it, since if we are going to keep it then I want it paid off as soon as possible.  Hubby wanted me to still put money into our money market savings account for tuition, but I just can’t stand the thought of putting off our Debt-Free Day that long.  I want that last debt GONE!  Destroyed!  Stomped out of existance!  Oh, and he admitted he just doesn’t like the little purple truck…so anyone in the Clarksville area want a cute little Ford Ranger 5-speed pick-em-up truck for about $800?  That was the offer I turned down last week…before hubby said he didn’t like it.  Still trying to get hold of that person through the grapevine to see if he’s still interested in buying it.

Building on the whole Could the Debt-Free Concept Go Viral? theme I have decided to start up a new (?) meme that I am giving the really lame name of “If I were debt free…” said in the same tone as “If I had a million dollars…” daydreaming we all love to do.  So…what will I do when (not if) I am debt free?

First up, I’d be saving money like a madwoman!  I have four years of pharmacy school looming in front of me, and I really want to graduate withOUT any student (stupid) loans.  And once we are debt free, it will be very possible to accomplish.  Paying off what I have already has freed up $600 a month that used to go towards my car note, signature loan, and credit cards.  Once we get free of the stupid truck note, we will be able to save over half our monthly income!

Once I graduate from pharmacy school debt free and get my RPh, it will be “on like Donkey Kong” to quote both hubby and son.  Can y’all imagine what it will be like to earn over $40 an hour with the only debt being the mortgage?  Needless to say, my small mortgage will not survive long at all…then I will be truly debt free.  To be honest, that is difficult to imagine right now.

Once I do finally get completely debt free, I will need to work my tail off to make up for lost time in retirement savings (remember, I have a grand total of $350 at age 34!).  My seriously long-term goal is to get into investment real estate, because I love house hunting LOL  I will even house hunt for others!  For me it is great good fun, and of course there are always at least five properties I want to buy at any given time “if I had the money.”

So now the question is “What would YOU do if YOU were debt free?”  I’m gonna start it off by tagging my M-Network buddies Lynnae from BeingFrugal.net and plonkee first, along with No Credit Needed from outside the M-Network and also on the “other side of the debt fence.”.  If you get tagged, just link back to this post and it will automatically put you into the trackbacks, and periodically I will post updates (especially if this gets big like Pinyo’s MOMA did) listing all the current “If I were debt free…” posts.

After this has gone live, the green 3 writes what she’d do if she were debt free, and glblguy from Gather Little By Little waves his hands at me saying “Tag me too!”

The other day I was reading an interesting article over at Yahoo called Hanging with the Money Crowd.  It basically takes that study released the other month about how being overweight tends to happen in clusters, and muses whether the same is true about money.  I have to admit I wondered the same thing.

My family is not the best with money.  Neither was my first husband for that matter, or several of the soldiers I hung out with when I was in the Army.  Not surprisingly, until I discovered Dave Ramsey after Christmas in 2006, I was pretty horrid at handling money myself.

Now that I’ve learned a few things about proper money management, I have found myself hanging out online at various PF blogs and the My Total Money Makeover forums and chat room and it really is rubbing off on me.  But let’s take this idea even a step further (prompted by watching Maxed Out three times in the past week) and say the whole debt free idea manages to go “viral” as they say on the web.

The question is: How to get the ball rolling?  Where do you start out?  How many of us discuss our finances in such detail in normal social settings?  How many of us actually discuss our finances in such detail with family?  I tried discussing it with my family, and they basically covered their ears and said, “Lalalala I can’t hear you.”  No, not literally, but it did go in one ear and out the other.  I tried discussing it with hubby’s family, which ended up in a financial tug-of-war about the stupid truck.  I try to mention little things at school or at work (like…I don’t have any student loans!) and that gets mild curiosity because it’s just so unusual.

So, that kind of just leaves us the internet.  It’s annonymous enough for people to open up about such a touchy subject, but can still be cool and personable enough at the same time.  With a little help from my teenage son, and some urging from my more tech-savvy-geekish blogging buddies, I have set up an account at del.icio.us and stumble upon, even though I can’t for the life of me get the stumble buttons on my toolbar.  (Anyone know if stumble has issues with Win 2000 or AOL?  Should I even admit to having AOL on my computer?)  My son is also threatening/promising to set me up with a myspace and facebook account….we’ll see just how good that works LOL. 

If it works and gets even just a handful of people on board, it will be worth the headache involved in learning this new medium, because if each person can get a handful of people into the debt free concept, and they get a handful of people into the idea of being debt free…ad naseum this could really take off and help out everyone’s life and money!  Maybe it’s not that modest of a goal, but they do say “Aim High,” right?  Oh wait…that was the Air Force!