Both myself and my husband had college loan debt (totaling over $25,000.00)when we met. Neither one of us had a credit card when we first met but we were swept away by the convincing mailings for low or no interest cards so we got a few (4). And before we knew it we were in (close to 6 figures) debt! 9 years ago we both worked 2 jobs and never seemed to put a dent in our debt. We were working hard making money and we knew how to spend it, we even saved a little. But what we didn't know was how to MANAGE our money. So we stayed in debt and our debt got bigger and bigger. Sleepless night and high stress prompted us to change. Finally we had enough and "the plan" was born. We made a budget and a savings plan. We projected where we wanted to be financially by 2010. A long ways away from where we were in 2002. It seemed impossible but our desire to work less and spend time as a family far outweighed our desire to hold a big mortgage on a high maintenance home and expensive automobiles. So we stayed as focused as we could. Expenses we didn't anticipated came up often seemingly sabotaging our plans, we would get mad and discouraged. One of us would want to throw in the towel and give up and the other one would remain persistent and positive.
It felt as if we started over at least 20 times over the past 8+ years. Most of the time I felt hopeless and impoverished. Then someone would come along and have a much worse story than mine to tell. A good friend filed for bankruptcy, another friend lost her young daughter tragically and other very upsetting stories. So then we would count our blessings and pass the blame on to the society we live in for making us want big expensive things. The temptation is everywhere TV, radio, billboards, mailings, catalogs, friends, neighbors and family members all tempting us to want more, need more. Having more would mean one would have to work more and be away from your family more. Hmmmmm.... that would mean also my family would have more time to be influenced by society to want and have more " things ". See the cycle here?
So we swam against the tide and we did it! We hold only a small land mortgage and we have enough cash to put a hefty down payment on a nice, low maintenance house. We have a 2006 car that is paid for, no college loans, credit cards and no unsecured debt! Mr BusyMomatHome works full time and I am a homemaker and a homeschooling Mom. We sleep great at night and I do not worry about money. I get a certain amount of cash each week for gas, groceries and other things and that is all I spend. The rest of the paycheck goes into the bank and when we want to buy something we have the money and pay cash.
Debt Free living was HARD to do, we made a lot of mistakes and we went without a lot to get to this point. Now we feel like we can have and do whatever we want, the only difference is we pay cash and we really think and plan every expenditure. In return we feel really good about every cent that leaves us. Spending cash and obtaining control over your own money is quite liberating !
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