I Want Dave Ramsey to Change my Life

During a visit to our accountant in 2009, I was introduced to the book The Total Money Makeover, written by Dave Ramsey.  After my husband and I had given our accountant our tax information, he reached over grabbed this book off his bookshelf and told my husband and I we should consider reading this book.  While most people would have taken that as a hint, especially since it was coming from an accountant, we put the book on a bookshelf where it has stayed ever since. 

Recently our daughter’s daycare offered a free course on Dave Ramsey’s, Total Money Makeover, which we declined again.  I mean we don’t have time to figure out how to save money.  We both have full-time jobs, my husband is a pastor so that consumes a lot of time, I’m going to school full-time, we have three children that all require a lot of time and two of them play a double header softball  game two nights a week in a town 45 minutes away.  We can’t commit to going to a class one night a week for six weeks.  Now, looking back I understand how irrational that statement really was, but it all made good sense in my head at the time. 

I’m recently became very interested in accepting Dave’s challenge and doing The Total Money Makover.  I have several family members and friends who have accepted the challenge and results that they are seeing are unbelievable.  We have a set of friends that has paid off almost $14,000 worth of debt since September. They have changed the way they eat, shop, and spend money and are happier now than ever before. 

I don’t know what the entire book entails but I can’t wait to jump in and beginning reading and working towards a debt free life for my family so that one day we can pay cash for college and those three weddings that I know will eventually come later down the road. 

Anyone that has accepted the challenge or read the book let me know your thoughts and what your struggles were when you began your challenge. 

What's your shoe?

My daughter recently convinced me to purchase her a new pair of TOMS shoes.  Since there is not a store near us that sale TOMS shoes for children, I turned to the internet to make my purchase.  While browsing the TOMS website I came across the history of TOMS shoes was started, their purpose, and what countries they currently donate shoes to.  For those of you that might be unaware, TOMS shoes started in 2006 and they promise to donate one pair of shoes to a child in need of shoes for every pair of shoes purchased.See the interview with the founder, Blake Mycoskie, below.  Sounds like a great way to give to those in need while also getting a pair for yourself, your child or someone else.  TOMS shoes have become very popular over the last 5 years and other companies are trying/have tried to mirror the TOMS project and shoes.

Once I read the history of TOMS shoes, it spiked my curiosity to find out about the history of the BOBS shoes that Skechers has out.  During my research I found that BOBS shoes were almost identical to the TOMS and Skechers also promised to donate a pair of shoes to a child in need with each purchase.  There were numerous articles on the internet that accused Skechers of mocking TOMS by creating the BOBS.  Many people seemed to have an issue with Skechers trying to “rip” off TOMS by creating the BOBS to sale at a cheaper price.  The argument seemed to deal more with the issue that TOMS was trying to do a charitable deed and Skechers tried to steal TOMS idea.  Although I couldn’t find a specific statement verifying that Skechers has pulled BOBS from internet sales, the BOBS website is no longer available and I couldn’t locate BOBS on the Skecher website. 

Have you ever heard of Paez? Paez is another company that I ran across during my research.  Paez shoes have the same basic design as both TOMS and BOBS.  Paez are cheaper than TOMS and since I couldn’t locate the BOBS site, I’m unsure of how they relate in price.  Paez does not promise to give a pair to child in need for every pair purchased, but guarantees that their shoes are 100% from Argentina products and made by the Argentine people.

There you have it, three very similar pairs of shoes from three different companies.  What is your choice of shoes?  Do you choose a more expensive pair of shoes simply because they are the brand TOMS or because they donate a pair of shoes to a child in need?  Do you choose the brand BOBS that so many blame for trying to steal the TOMS idea because they might be cheaper? Do you chose a brand that is cheaper and made by the Argentine people from Argentina products even though they don’t donate a pair of shoes to a child in need.  I want to hear from you!

After contemplating which brand I would prefer, I decided that TOMS is still the brand that I would purchase.  I was most impressed with the large number of shoes they sale each year and turn around and donate to children in need. 

To read more about TOMS shoes visit  www.toms.com and to read more about Paez shoes visit www.paezshoes.com.