I was interviewed today by Focus Atlanta, a community affairs program that airs on the CW69 here in Atlanta. If you're in the area, tune in Sunday, October 26th at noon. As far as I know that's when I should be on!

It was pretty exciting--a whirlwind and nerve wracking, but it was a lot of fun! Thanks guys!

As soon as I get a copy I'll be posting it here! If you happen to watch it let me know what you think!

Perhaps one of the toughest things Beth and I have had to do when it comes to finances is actually sticking to a budget. We made a budget in pre-marital counseling, and we've probably made three or four more since we've been married, but nothing seems to happen after that.

But budgets are very important. We did go part of the way with actually figuring out how much we make and how much goes out in expenses, but we never kept up with our spending during the month--we never stuck with our budget objectives.

With the Pay Yourself First Challenge, that all has changed. I'm actually saving receipts! My motto used to be "Always save your gas receipts, you'll never know when you need to spit out your gum into something." Now I actually keep all receipts and records... it's pretty crazy.

Here are a couple sites I would recommend that help with budgeting. One is more hardcore than the other, but both are great.

Mvelopes. This is a VERY comprehensive budgeting site. It's a fantastic tool for budgeting and managing your finances. With Mvelopes you're able to not only write out your monthly budget, but you can take it to the next level -- you can add your bank and credit card accounts to track transactions and assign purchases to particular budget folders. Sometimes I call it "Budgeting For Dummies," but the site is incredibly efficient and easy. The setup takes a little time to get through but it's completely worth it. The membership features full online billpay, membership support, mobile access, and so on.

Cost: Quarterly plan - $39.60; 1 year plan - $129.60; 2 year plan - $189.60

Pear Budget. Now this is what Beth and I are using at the moment. This site is incredibly simple, sometimes painfully so (when we realize that budgeting is this easy YET we haven't been doing it for over a year). This site allows you to set up a monthly budget, and during the month you just keep up with your receipts from purchases and regularly put those costs into their respective folders. We used Mvelopes briefly, but we decided that it'd be worth the cheaper price to keep up with receipts. It's pretty much your bottom-line basic budgetting tool, but worthwhile in it's simplicity.

Cost: $3 a month

You can also make your own excel spreadsheet that keeps up with monthy budgets. Although I have not made any attempts to create one, I'm sure it can be easily done. For now we're enjoying Pear Budget, but if we can figure it out we may save more by making our own!

I know this is a small list, and I'm sure there are lots of great budgeting tools out there. Let me know of any that you might know about!

The other finalists have inspired me. I was really nervous about sharing my goals. I did not know how they would compare to others, where my goal would be considerably smaller than others. I'm way too self-conscious like that.

As we have mentioned, Beth and I are striving to pay off my student loans, the (very fortunately) only real significant debt in our lives at the moment. The price tag is neither $25,000 nor $15,000, as our contest video joked, but it's somewhere in the middle around $20,000. We know that there is no possible way to pay off that much in six months with our income and budget, but we decided to set our goal at $6,000-- kind of naively at first. We looked more into our budget afterward and have realized it's going to be a challenge, but that'll make it fun.

We haven't decided if we are going to Direct Deposit and entire paycheck into our FNBO Savings Account, but we are going to put a hefty chunk away with each paycheck. We are going to do this not only by cutting back on our spending (more of which I'll go into in the future), but also try to make some outside income:

-- Currently I do some freelance videography. I do anything from weddings, to kid football teams, to promotional videos for businesses. Granted, it's a very small side part-time job given my full time job, but it's extra money and something I love to do.
--As I have mentioned before, my job lends itself to many overtime hours. Whether it's working six days a week or working 9-10 hours a day, I'm able to make a little bit extra. It can definitely be exhausting, but the extra dollars on the paycheck are just so relaxing.
--Ebay and Craigslist are our friends. Over the past month or so, Beth has sold a ton of things through Craigslist (some stuff I'm probably not even aware of!). She's sold boxes of random VHS tapes, books, old records that we both didn't want, a digital picture frame, and so on. For the sake of this challenge, I've been able to give up things I've held pretty dearly, but have just been cluttering our house up. The great thing about Craigslist is being able to find people to buy items in our local vicinity, cutting out shipping costs.
--Does my FNBO Direct Savings Account with 3.50% APY count? I submit that it does!
--I'm that guy that picks up every penny he sees off the ground. Heads or tails side up, it's all money to me. It all adds up.
--Taking money out of tip jars--how wrong can it be if nobody notices?? (just kidding on this one, although I am tempted to take a change in those little cups at gas stations)

I'll let you know when new income opportunities arise. Who knows, maybe in the coming days I'll be able to trademark a word or phrase-- I'll get a commission every time you say "That's what she said!"

I owe a ton of thanks to Mornings with Lorri and Larry for my success thus far in the competition. Without them, I probably would have never heard or known about FNBO Direct or the contest. Every Friday we have a financial advisor on the show, Parkey Thompson. He's a great guy with a lot of wisdom. One day in July I decide to go up after the show and ask him about different banks with online savings accounts. He advised me on a few banks and also told me to check out his website with lots of resources, including a list of great online banks. As I was scouring the list, I came upon FNBO Direct. The first eye-catcher that shot out at me was the 3.5% APY, noticeably higher than most other online savings accounts. As I looked more into the site, I found the ads for the Pay Yourself First Challenge. From there, the rest is history. I owe it all to Mornings and Parkey Thompson. :-)

But to turn this all back around to saving money, I owe a lot to Mornings as well. Because I work for the mornings show here are some ways that I am saving money:

* Because I leave for work by around 4:45 - 5:00 a.m., I miss the traffic (ESPECIALLY here in Atlanta) that would normally keep me backed up for ages. The same is true with leaving work. Because of that it means less time the car is running and less time I'm braking for other cars and stop lights. Granted, it's probably not much, but every little bit counts.
* Most coffee places are closed, so I cannot be tempted to pick up that expensive cup of joe (unfortunately, however, QuikTrip is open. But if I ever grab something there, it's usually smaller, cheaper, and more healthy).
* Because of my early work schedule, I usually work about 9 hours a day. Even with 9 hours under my belt I get off at 2:30 and it still feels pretty early!

Odds and Ends
On completely unrelated note, if you'd like to respond or connect to me, check out my personal blog at furtheranalysis.blogspot.com. The blog itself is nothing special, just things that I find interesting or frustrating in life. But from there you can comment and get in touch-- I'd love to hear from you!

A small disclaimer: On the lower third graphic, Dan Harley's name is misspelled. I'm not sure how that happened!

Okay, okay. Granted, it's an interview on the very show that I work on, but I'm so excited!

On Monday, October 6, from 8:38 a.m. - 8:50 a.m. EST, I'm going to be on Mornings with Lorrie and Larry. Dan Harley, from FNBO Direct will be joining me as well on the phone.

Here's a picture of the crew (minus Tom the director):

And here I am hard at work on the board:

Check out FamilyNet to see local listings. We're on Sirius Satellite Channel 161, and I do know that here in Atlanta we're on Comcast Channel 265.

I always have the hardest time when it comes to an introduction. How do I start? The middle and end come just fine as long as I have a good beginning, and I've been spending days trying to figure out a good way to start out this blog (tend to over think and over analyze a bit too much). I've decided, cleverly enough, to use the introduction to 'introduce' myself. Brilliant idea, I know.

Before that, I must say how blown away I am to be involved in all of this. I am still shocked an amazed to this day that I'm a finalist. I had an incredible opportunity to meet the other four finalists in Omaha recently and they are all super people. They were all genuine, encouraging, and a lot of fun. They are all deserving of the grand prize. In the end, I hope it's a tie-- then we play rock-paper-scissors as a tie-breaker and I win! But seriously, I look forward to the next six months--I'm very fortunate to be placed among the other four finalists.

As my bio says, I'm a recent college graduate. I graduated from Toccoa Falls College just over a year ago in May of 2007. TFC is located in Northeast Georgia near the town of Toccoa, the city I grew up in. I graduated with a degree in Mass Communication, and I have been lucky to be able to put that degree to work at a Television/Satellite Radio Station in Atlanta, GA called FamilyNet. There I work as a Production Assistant, helping out with just about anything imaginable. I work on a morning show from 6-9 where I do audio, produce occasionally, and help get guests set up for interviews. The rest of the day much of my time is spent with the programming of our satellite radio station, Sirius channel 161. I basically make sure the programs get in on time to air.

I have an fantastic wife named Beth. We met while in college, and were married the Summer after my graduation. She works at World Relief, a non-profit refugee resettlement agency. She loves it, and it fits her personality perfectly.

With both of our jobs we have been working off to pay off all of my student loans. We both hate debt, and I have about $20,000 to go before it's all paid off. Granted, it's not as bad as it could be (thank you scholarships and multiple jobs!), but it's still a huge number. We look forward to this contest--not only to work towards paying off my debt, but towards learning about new ways and tips to saving whatever we can. I can't wait to share what I discover along the way. In the immediate future I'll share some of my difficulties when it comes to savings, as well as areas where it may be easy for me to save. There will also be plenty of video blogs along the way, and I can't wait for that (the Comm major in me is jumping up and down with joy). It is aprivilege and honor to have you along for the ride.

And don't worry, I didn't really cut my gas tank in half. :-)