The Debt-Free Family

We're Debt-Free!!!

2014-05-24T08:37:00.000-05:00

We made it! On May 20, 2014, we paid off our last student loan payment and we have no more debt. Chris and I took the day off and spent the day together just hanging out at some of our favorite places. That evening we took Ethan out for some debt-free fun. Such a simple day for us, but exactly what we wanted to do. Now all of our excess will start rolling into areas we WANT to spend money.
Cue California vacation fund!

Part of our countdown was to read The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. We read chapter 40 together the morning of our debt-free day.

We wanted to pay off our last debt somewhere other than our living room. So we went to the run-down apartment we lived in when we first took the Financial Peace University class. We submitted our last payment outside that building. (Kind of surprised the building is still there!) Chris committed to run/bike/walk 40 miles in the last 40 days, so he rode his final mile on our debt-free morning. Pictured is his mileage check off sheet. Also, one of the biggest helps to the process was paying most things with cash. That brown wallet has envelopes in it that we divide our cash into different categories. We know it was one of the tools we used to becoming debt-free.

When we opened our front door that morning this was displayed for all to see! We have some great encouragers that helped us big time along the way! The rest of this collage is Ethan's evening with us. He got to buy a toy at the mall...he picked the villain from Toy Story 2, Zerg. Out of all the toys in the world...he was the winner! Haha! He got to pick out what he wanted to eat for dinner- one big slice of pepperoni pizza. Then we rode the carousel. The best part was when we passed Chris we yelled "WE'RE DEBT-FREE!!!" Ethan doesn't really know what that means, but he loves to yell it!

2014 Debt Pay-Off: $5,461.25

Total Debt Pay-Off: $61,334.95

Amount Left to Pay-Off: $0.00!!!!

The Countdown Begins!

2014-05-12T21:42:00.000-05:00

I had to stop in and start the debt-free countdown! ONLY 8 DAYS LEFT!!! Here is a quick recap of our debt-free journey:

January 2009: (broke and seriously needing a financial mediator) we took the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University Class (Get more info here)
January 2009: we totaled our debt and realized we were dropping over $800/month in debt payments to feed our $61,000 debt monster.
2009-2011: we worked the FPU plan and paid off $24,000 of debt in the first 3 years and added a family member, Ethan, aka: Hulk.
January 2012: we started blogging about our debt-free journey and created a motivational system to kick our debt pay-off into a higher gear. (Click here to read our first debt pay-off post) **this helped us pay-off on average over $1,300/month over the last 28 months.
2012: we paid off $13,000 of debt!
2013: we paid off over $16,000 of debt!
April 11, 2014: we began a 40 day countdown to our debt-free date. Chris committed to run/bike/walk 40 miles in these 40 days and we both committed to reading the Purpose Driven Life (40 chapters) to remind ourselves the purpose of our lives and why being debt-free is part of that purpose. (Get the Purpose Driven Life book at Rock Brook Church for free when you visit or on amazon here)

This should be my last post until we make our final debt payment! Thank you for reading and encouraging us along the way. We are excited to rename our blog soon and share what debt-free looks like for us- stay tuned!!

2014 YTD Debt Pay-Off: $4,552.07

Total Debt Pay-Off: $60,425.77

Amount Left: $911.12

Debt-Free Date: May 20, 2014

Speed Bumps

2014-03-23T09:45:00.000-05:00

So many posts combined in this one. We have experienced some major speed bumps over the last few months and I started to write about one and another one happened! So here are the last few months abbreviated.

We began the year in full force! We came off of Christmas with the motivation to make even more budget cuts right off the bat to help our debt-free cause. We live pretty tightly already, so deeper cuts were hard work.

January Budget Cuts

No BAM (that's what we call our blow money)
No Date Night Money (we saved a gift card to suffice)
No Clothes Money
We cut our Grocery Budget by $100

We planned this month well before Christmas and knew these cuts were coming. The best part was seeing how interested God was in our finances! A couple in our church gave us a Christmas card with a $50 Walmart gift card in it. Little did they know what kind of impact that had on our month to come! We are so grateful for times like these that show us we aren't doing this big task alone!

February Speed Bumps

So much to record, here are a few big ones-

Our Honda's transmission went out
Sold Honda and bought a SUV from my parents
Our Chevy started overheating
Replaced Water Pump in Chevy
Sold Chevy (we have put over $1000 into that car this year…we were ready to say goodbye!)
Bought another Honda
Paid for Taxes and Tags for both vehicles

March Non-Madness

So far this month has been a typical one- so very thankful for that! After the drama of February, we had to sit down and re-evaluate our debt-free date. We initially planned on being debt-free in the middle of April. After those big bumps in the road, we are planning on a debt-free celebration around the middle of May. One month behind after all of that February craziness- I'll take it!

2014 YTD Debt Pay-Off: $2,569.93

Total Debt Pay-Off: $57,392.58

Amount Left: $3,916.59

Our Last Christmas

2013-12-15T20:59:00.000-06:00

...in debt. What a great thought! We are making this Christmas special although it's on a limited budget. We know that within a few months we will be debt-free and have decided to cut our spending now so we can make it to that goal sooner. Here are a few things that we did to keep our Christmas spending under control.

1. Make a budget and stick to it!!
In true Dave Ramsey fashion, we spent every Christmas dollar on paper before we spent it in real life. Chris and I sat down together and decided on how much we would spend on each other and how much we would spend on our extended family and friends. We also decided what we were going to buy before we went shopping. It was a great way to focus our spending and not buy things that weren't on the list!!

2. Get creative!
We looked for items on our Christmas list to go on sale. Because we knew exactly what we wanted to buy, we didn't have to buy unnecessary sale items- just the ones we had already budgeted for.

We made gifts too! We made stovetop potpourri and cookies for our neighbors. We also made cookie jars and ornaments. We bought 30 yards of kraft paper for $5 to wrap presents. All these ideas and more came from…you guessed it -- Pinterest.

I also did a "make and take" Christmas with 3 of my friends. Each of us picked a craft of some type and bought all the supplies for all 4 of us to make it. After that night, we walked away with some amazing quality time together and 4 handmade Christmas presents. I don't think any of us spent more than $15 total!

3. Practice Gratitude
We have had such a thankful, stressless Christmas season so far because we are trying to keep our thoughts on how blessed we are. It's a choice, we aren't thankful naturally. We often jump to our default emotion of selfishness. It's a daily effort to change our thinking to being thankful for the ultimate gift of Jesus and how our giving should be a reflection of His gift.

4. Give More
The people we know have plenty…we have plenty. We don't need to keep adding more and more to our stockpile of stuff. We made sure to also budget money to spend on people who don't have plenty. We included Ethan in this practice too. He helped us pick out a gift to give to a child we don't know. We know this child is 18 months old and at that age, Ethan played endlessly with a drum that had shakers, a tambourine, bells, etc. We picked it out and Ethan was so excited about it. It did take a while for it to sink in that the drum wasn't for him though!! We found other reasons to give our money to people who are struggling to survive right now. We pray that they find the other side of the wilderness that they are in because they have found Jesus to lead them through.

Merry Christmas!!

2013 YTD Debt Pay-Off: $16,822.65

Total Debt Pay-Off: $54,822.65

Amount Left: $6,486.52

Fall is Here!

2013-11-05T17:52:00.005-06:00

It's our favorite season for the weather, the leaves changing, and our anniversary! We are going to celebrate 6 years of marriage soon. It's pretty wild to realize that we have been working to become debt-free for almost five years of that time. (less than 6 months left though!!!)

Now that we're so close to being finished, we can start realistically dreaming about what we want to do with our money once it's not going to debt. We decided a few weeks ago our first debt-free endeavor is going to be a family vacation. We've been dreaming about being "vacation people" since we started this debt-free journey. We've taken trips but they have been short and in near-by locations. This time…we're packing our bags and going to Disneyland for a few days and then visiting San Deigo too. This summer we will be taking our first MAJOR family vacation!! It's the light at the end of the tunnel. It's what keeps us going when we've been doing something so "weird" for so long!

Ethan just started pre-school yesterday and we are so excited for this new chapter in his life.

2013 YTD Debt Pay-0ff: $16,050.63

Amount Left: $7,240.96

Total Debt Pay-Off: $54,050.63

On Furlough...

2013-10-08T20:58:00.001-05:00

Well...just from blogging. Unlike the US government we are in complete agreement about our budget and are gaining ground on our debt-free journey. We aren't feeling a single pain from the shutdown that is going on in Washington and all over our nation, we are planning for our soon to be debt-free days!!

Some updates since my (forever ago) last post:

Ethan turned 3 and celebrated with some of his 3-4 yr old friends and then partied again with some church friends and family that night at Culvers.
Chris was offered a different position in his store that will help his chances of getting a promotion sometime soon. He just finished training for his new job last week and will start as soon as he trains his replacement.
I have started my 9th year of teaching and things are in full swing now!

Here are the latest debt pay-off numbers:

2013 YTD Debt Pay-off: $14,957.03

Amount Left to Pay-off: $8,343.67

Total Debt Pay-off: $52,957.03

Coming October 18th...we should be opening another envelope!! :)

$50,000 Richer

2013-07-23T22:32:00.000-05:00

We made it to a HUGE milestone in our debt pay-off. We've officially paid off more than $50,000 of debt. With about $11,000 to go, we are well on our way to becoming debt-free.

So if you are like us, when we started this whole Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University/Total Money Make-Over thing we just wanted to stop living pay check to pay check. We felt broke all the time. After we got ahold of our spending and stopped living strapped all the time, we realized we were so incredibly wasteful in our spending and we had nothing to show for it. That's when we started using our excess each month (never had excess before!) to pay our debt down. We thought we could do more if we had less going out in payments each month.

After paying down some debt we realized how much of our money was going to interest. It increased our dislike and intensified our mission. Then that transformed into the realization that if something happened to our income or for some crazy reason all of our loans were called, we were in a heap of trouble! Those thoughts motivated us to high-tail it out of debt. We were under the illusion that if we can make the payment, we could afford it. The truth is, as hard as it is to admit, we couldn't afford anything we had debt on like furniture, a computer, a car, and STUDENT LOANS. Now our excess is a large sum of money each month and we are making big plans on how we want to spend that money once we are debt-free. That's my favorite part!!

2013 YTD Debt Pay-Off: $12,299.35

Amount Left to Pay-Off: $10,888.55

Total Debt Pay-Off: $50,299.35

Going Bargain Hunting

2013-07-10T10:25:00.000-05:00

We are bargain hunters at our house! I started looking around our apartment and realized almost everything we have was free or on sale. I thought I would share what we've done to save a few bucks here and there. Now we can’t just buy things because they are on super sale otherwise we would be broke. So we thoughtfully purchased these items because we had the money and the desire/need to buy them. It’s a good idea to have someone in your life who can keep you in check in this area if you know it’s a struggle.

1. Bookcases- we bought 2 matching bookcases at target for $12 each.

*Tip: If you notice Target has a large number of an item on clearance at 30%, there is a very good chance you can buy that item cheaper if you wait for it to go 50% or 70% off. Since Chris works at Target we get a 10% employee discount and we use our Target debit card which gets us another 5% off.

2. Bedside table/dresser- dumpster dive! Not kidding, I found this sitting out by the dumpster at my old apartment complex and swiped it. It’s a cute little touch to our bedroom.

3. Tall Bookshelf- this was another Target buy. It was clearance and a display model (they take more off for that too) and Chris bought it for $25.

4. Sony Flat Screen TV- this one is a good one! So sometimes store employees mess up. This worked well in our favor. This TV was taken out of the box to be put on display. After it was taken out, they realized they already had one just like it on display and they had to sell it at display model price even though it had never been hanging on display. Chris saw it and we had to act fast to be the first to buy it. We paid $250 and it was originally priced around $375.

5. Duvet Cover- We have had the same comforter our whole marriage and it was getting blah. We didn’t want to spend the money to buy a whole new set yet. So we found this duvet cover on sale at Target for $35 (which was 50% off). We decided to wait it out to see if it would go to 70% off and it did. It did and we bought it for $21 before our own 15% discount rang in.

*Not pictured: the same day we bought the duvet cover, we bought curtains for our bedroom and Ethan’s bedroom. They were originally $18/panel and we found them on clearance for $5/panel and bought 4 right then!

Tip: Not every Target has the same things on sale or the same clearance schedule, if the item you want is on sale at one it doesn’t mean it’s the same price at another Target. Get to know your area’s Targets and check them all for the item you want. One store might have the item on 50% or 70% off while another store has it full price.

6. TV stand- Another Target purchase…Chris found this one and paid $40 for it. It was a display model.

7. Plaid oversized chair- FREE! Chris’ sister was getting rid of the chair and gave it to us! Can’t beat that!

8. 24x32 Picture and Frame- This is a family picture of ours. We had it made into an engineer print at the UPS store for $2.50. Next we were in search for a frame. We went to a couple of frame places with no luck- we didn’t want to spend $100+ on a frame when we only spent $2.50 for the print. So we went to a store that sells expensive art and frames. My husband went in and asked if she had any clearance frames. She said she only had a frame that was a little beat up and was actually going to throw it away. So she gave it to us for free and it is the perfect frame for the picture! I used a sharpie to touch up a few scratches and it works great!

9. Dresser- This was originally white with wooden knobs. We started it in Ethan’s room but decided to paint an older dresser for him and put the white one in ours. The color didn’t really fit though. So we bought some dark brown paint and silver knobs and here’s the finished product. Chris bought it clearance and we paid maybe $20 for it. (We can’t remember exactly what we paid!!)

2013 YTD Debt Pay-Off: $11,048.29

**NEW** Amount Left to Pay-Off: $12,138.65

Total Debt Pay-off: $49,048.29 ß Almost to $50K!!

Attention All Teachers!!!

2013-06-18T21:44:00.002-05:00

I have to talk about what just happened to our debt-pay-off! I found out about this sweet little program for teachers who work in low-income (Title 1) schools. In short, teachers who work in qualified districts for 5 years can get $5,000 in student loans forgiven. Hot Dog!! I sent in the paperwork a couple months ago and I was notified last week that my application was approved and processed. I now owe $5,000 less on my student loans. Yeeeessss!!!

For more info about the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program- click here

Teacher Loan Forgiveness Application -- click here

In other news:

Chris and I are in the middle of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University Class again. (Third time...still learning!!)
I started working summer school (beef up the debt snowball)
Today is Chris' 27th Birthday!! He's working! :(
We're headed to St. Louis soon for Chris and Ethan's first Cardinals game!!

2013 Debt Pay-Off: $9,525.90
Total Debt Pay-Off: $47,525.90

The Move

2013-04-20T18:09:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy last few weeks because we are moving back to the apartment complex we were in a year ago. Our lease is up at the end of the month and we decided that this isn't the place we want to spend the next 3 or so years as we become debt-free and save for a house. We've not had good experience with the management here and there are some problems with our apartment (mold!) that helped up make the decision to walk away from it. When we considered the outlandish amount we were paying in utilities here too...it clinched it for us.

So one year later, we are packing up again. Over the last few weeks we've made time to go through our things and really decide what things we need to keep and what things need to go. It's been really freeing to get rid of, sell, and donate things that we no longer have a use for. We want to enter our new place with a minimalist mindset. So here we go!!

Here are our latest stats:
2013 Debt Pay-off: $2,802.74
Total Debt Pay-off: $40,802.74 <---- Two-thirds of the way done!

Breathing Room

2013-03-12T22:23:00.001-05:00

Inhale............Exhale..........(Repeat as much as necessary!)

I have to share about this recent ah-ha moment. It came from an Andy Stanley sermon series called Breathing Room. (Listen to the full series here or find North Point Church in Atlanta on itunes and subscribe to their podcast)

He speaks about living a life with margin or breathing room. This can apply to your schedule, relationships, and finances. What would margin in those areas look like for you?

I started thinking about how much breathing room I was allowing in my life. At one point, we were living with little to no breathing room in our finances. Our spending pace was right on top of our spending limit. The changes we made financially felt even better than that deep breath you took at the beginning of this post. We have space between our current pace and our financial limit.

Because I know how freeing it is financially, I want to create that same space in my time. Andy Stanley described how creating breathing room with how I spend my time is a life changer, because my time is my life!
"Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12 NIV

I encourage you to write down 4 different things about your time, finances, and/or relationships.

1. Write down what you need to add
2. Write down what you need to subtract (get rid of something completely)
3. Write down what you need to do more of
4. Write down what you need to do less of (not completely get rid of but reduce)

Now try those things and breathe in the freedom of space in your life!

With our financial breathing room, Chris and I recently celebrated paying off a student loan by taking a weekend vacation. I wanted to share some highlights! :)

I got a manicure and pedicure while Chris spent some time at Guitar Center- both of us got pampered!!

We stayed at a hotel on the Plaza- they delivered fruit to our room!!

We both bought new books and on Sunday and Monday morning we spent some time reading. We also listened to a podcast sermon on marriage while sipping our coffee at Starbucks. (headphone jack splitter!!)

My yummy stuffed (with brie, lump crab, and shrimp) salmon at McCormick and Schmick's (Chris' fish and chips wasn't as photogenic!)

Sunday night we went to a Kari Jobe and Chris Tomlin concert- highlight of the weekend!

Step Away From the Panic Button!!

2013-02-23T19:50:00.001-06:00

Did you hear it? Did you hear the celebration when we made our final payment to another student loan this morning? If you've been following our blog this last year, you know this is very exciting news! We started 2012 with 3 final debts, all three of those debts were student loans. We paid off the first of those 3 loans in April 2012.

Our attack strategy is called the Debt Snowball. Here's the jist...we make minimum payments on all of our debts except the smallest balance. The debt with the smallest balance gets all of the extra money we can scrape up and we pile it on until it's paid off! (Need extra money? Check out how to make a zero-based budget) Then you take all the extra money and minimum payment from the smallest debt (which is gone now!!) and put it on the next smallest balance and BAM you've got a debt snowball! So in May 2012 we did just that and started chipping away at the next student loan balance and paid it off today. ONE MORE LOAN LEFT!!!

Because we were getting so close to our goal, naturally, something had to go wrong! So far this month, we have had some "planned emergencies" and found out we needed to set enough money aside to get the fuel injectors replaced in one of our cars and save money for Chris to get some dental work done. Next, I guess we needed a "spontaneous emergency," our same sick car needed a new battery today. So glad we don't have the debt we did four years ago or we wouldn't have the ability to put as much money into life happening than we were able to this week. Sorry no panic button today!

2013 Debt Pay-Off: 1,606.49

Total Debt Pay-Off: 39,606.49 <--- even closer to $40,000!! :)

You Snooze, You Lose!

2013-01-26T22:39:00.001-06:00

We just opened our first envelope of 2013. We also just hit the four year mark since we started the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class. At times, four years has felt like a really long time to be chipping away at the same goal. I get discouraged some days because I just want it to be finished.

Leave it to God's word to pull me out of my small-minded thinking. Obviously His timing is perfect, He will not delay. This Old Testament book reads more like our current time and culture than Old Testament living.

So if you feel stuck in a rut, ask God for a vision-something to make your days on earth make a greater impact. He desires purposeful living not aimless meandering for our lives. Our financial life isn't the only thing we have been intentional about. We've grown up in our marriage and faith in the last four years too. We don't even feel like the same people we were 4 years ago; for the better, most certainly!

This year I decided to start one new thing that would help me be more intentional. It's monumental- get ready....in 2013 I, Teresa Brown, will wake up when my alarm goes off. So far (except for the morning I pushed snooze in my sleep) it has happened. Something about hitting the snooze button used to start my day off the wrong way and it led to other lazy decision-making. I've had time each morning to read while I drink my coffee- which is such a great way for me to start the day.

**What is one thing you can start today?

2013 Debt Pay-off: $1,075.90

Total Debt Pay-off: $39,075.90 <-- So close to $40,000!!

2013 Here we Come...$1,000 at a Time!

2013-01-01T18:03:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year!! One year ago we started the super snowball to pay-off our student loan debt. It has been a great year! It was so great...we want to do it again! Stay tuned to find out how!

In 2012...

We paid off one of our three student loans
We paid off $14,000 to make our debt pay-off total $38,000!! That's 14 envelopes!!
We bought a replacement car when Chris' car broke down
We made a monthly budget to follow
We made goals for 2013 to make it even more intentional than 2012!

Goals for 2013

2012-12-27T22:56:00.001-06:00

Instead of the normal New Year’s Resolutions this year, why not set some goals for 2013? If you are really interested in doing something different this year set goals and make a plan. Here are the 5 areas we focused on in 2012 and I feel like we have become a better version of ourselves because of it. We still have plenty to work on in 2013!!

1. Physical Goals

2. Relational Goals

3. Financial Goals

4. Spiritual Goals

5. Professional Goals

Physical Goals

Losing weight, working out regularly, eating better, or creating more balance are great goals to start with. Make a workout plan that improves on what you are already doing little by little. If you don’t work out at all, don’t make a commitment from January 1 to workout 6 days a week. Decide in January to workout 1 day a week for 30 minutes. February can build on that. You didn’t make bad habits in one month, you aren’t going to turn the ship around in one month either.

Relational Goals

I divided mine up into different categories. I wanted to improve with my relationship with my husband and I made some goals that I kept and a lot that I broke too. I made goals to improve my relationship with myself…weird, I know. I don’t always have the best things to say about myself and I don’t want to continue that habit. In order for some of my ME goals to happen I had to say “no” to other good things. I also wanted to set goals in my relationship with Ethan; I want to be a better mom, even in the small things. I wrote down goals to improve relationships with my best friend, small group, and the people I see at church.

Financial Goals

Well you know we were all over these! We made specific goals for 2012 and are on target to meet them despite all of the bumps in the road. I’ve learned that for as many set-backs we’ve had financially, we’ve been blessed that much and more. Our financial plan started almost 4 years ago with both of us dreaming about what we could do if we had money. Start by dreaming about where all your money would go if you didn’t pay a penny to debt. For us that was a lot of money 4 years ago. We are a little over a year from that moment…our conversations have been so fun thinking about the freedom that comes with no payments!! Until then, we forge ahead!

Here is a podcast that we have recently listened to that helped us start thinking about financial goals for 2013. Check out the website- http://howtoberich.org/

Spiritual Goals

This is a big one for us too. We desire to be a serving part of our church family. We also want to put a plan in place to grow in our personal relationship with Jesus daily. We’ve learned in all of these areas that discipline grows when we do something even when we don’t feel like it. I’ve lapsed on my discipline in this area some this year and plan on making a better plan for 2013.

Professional Goals

I spend most of my waking hours at work and want those hours to be purposeful too. I chose some areas that align with my passion and pushed myself to do a better job. I teach physical education to K-4^th graders and I get energy from seeing kids get healthier. I have a considerable population of students in the overweight and obese categories and I want to do whatever I can to help those kids learn about the habits to become healthy kids so they will be healthy adults someday too.

YTD Debt Pay-Off: $13,151.90
Total Debt Pay-Off: $37,151.90

$1,000 Pizza!!

2012-11-03T15:26:00.002-05:00

Well...it wasn't exactly a thousand dollar pizza. If you are new to our family blog, we are high-tailing it out of debt and for every thousand dollars we've paid off this year we get a surprise. In January of 2012 we were around $35,000 in debt and I made 35 envelopes with some sort of note of encouragement or little break to keep us motivated to move forward. It has really worked for us. We've kept the course and yesterday we opened the $12,000 envelope making us even closer to our goal. Our last 2 debts are student loans so the card inside the envelope told us to go back to those college days and get a pizza. Our goal is to pay off $14,000 by January 2013. We are right on track to make that happen. Thanks for checking in with us- it's just as encouraging to see people reading my blog as it was to go eat the pizza we earned! :)

Here's our next target---

YTD Debt Pay-off: $12,000

Total Debt Pay-off: $36,000

Say Cheese!

2012-10-21T21:42:00.001-05:00

Fall is the perfect time for this party of three to take some professional pictures together. So we budgeted the cost for a photographer and prints and so far we are under budget! (Love it when that happens!!)

We decided to get one of our pictures blown-up in black and white at the UPS store. We spent $2.50 on the engineer print and then went out in search for a frame. I had this 75% off coupon to Michaels for custom framing and knew it would be our best bet. Our 24x36 inch print wouldn't be cheap to frame, but with 75% off- it should fit right into our budget...so I thought! We were at Michaels for 45 minutes trying to find the best deal for this print. I kept reminding them that I only spent $2.50 on the print so the MOST inexpensive frame is what I want! After they cut out all the bells and whistles and took my 75% off they quoted us $140!! What?! That's when we left empty-handed and went elsewhere!

My husband had a great idea to go to an art and frame store across the street and ask for any clearance frames. He went in to ask while I stayed in the car with Ethan. In about 2 minutes he came out with a huge frame. With the look of shock/horror on my face he told me that the lady in the store gave it to him for free and it was the exact size we needed! Horror turned to joy and excitement really fast! We fixed a few scratches with a black sharpie and it is proudly mounted on our wall!

We paid off another $1,000 on October 19th making this $11,000 for 2012! We couldn't be happier! The next few months might be scary financially for most, but we have a very detailed budget for every dollar even during the holidays. We won't have to wake up on New Years Day with a financial hang-over from the holiday season.

YTD Debt Pay-off: $11,390.72
Total Debt Pay-off: $35,390.72

Here are some of our family pictures- courtesy of Katy Gitto Photography

10,000 and 2

2012-09-10T18:46:00.000-05:00

10,000
It's been a big last few weeks for us! We opened a $10,000 envelope which means we've paid off $10,000 of student loan debt since January 1, 2012. It was a huge milestone for us, we kept looking at our refrigerator and having to remind each other that, we've almost paid off $10,000 this year!! It was a strange but great feeling. The note inside the envelope told us to turn in the change from our change jar and cash it in for a date. Usually that's a pretty good chunk of change...except we recently used some of it to wash both dirty cars! We scraped up around $18 in change and went to see the final Bourne movie in a theater with leather recliners! It was a much needed night out together.

2
Ethan is now a 2 year old! He is also learning about money now that he's so big. Ethan has 5 chores that he can do to learn responsibility in our family and when he completes one of those chores he gets a sticker on a chart. After all 5 chores are complete he gets to put 5 pennies in his bank. We like it because it's a good way to get him to help out the first time asked and he also works on some fine motor skills by putting pennies in a slot. As he gets older these 5 chores will be ones that he will do without pay because he's a part of our family and then do some more challenging chores for a commission. Pennies work great since he has no concept of the value of money, we just want him to get excited about helping out.

YTD Debt Pay-off: $10,027.33

Total Debt Pay-off: $34,027.33

Just Say No!

2012-08-14T21:37:00.000-05:00

Say goodbye to the $9,000 envelope. We didn't get too attached because it was only on our fridge for 10 days. HELLO $10,000 envelope! It's wild to see that huge number hanging on our fridge in a short 8 months. We are on our way to pay off $10,000 of debt this year. Read more about our envelope system to pay off debt here.

We are going to celebrate our son's 2nd birthday at the end of the month. One of the words he loves to say (like most 2 year olds) is "NO!" He learned it from us. We know that our success is due to saying "NO" to lots of things. Saying "NO" these last 8 months was hard at times, but in all actuality, the progress we've made in such a short time made all of those NOs worth it. I don't even know what we wanted to say yes to over the last 8 months, but I'm sure if we would have said "YES" instead, we would have nothing to show for it now.

Check out my budgeting tips and make your money mind. After you decide where you want your money to go, say "NO" to everything else. You will be amazed at what you can do with a little NO therapy!

YTD Debt Pay-off: $9,000
Total Debt Pay-off: $33,000

Budgeting Tips

2012-08-02T15:08:00.000-05:00

It's been enjoyable watching the Olympics these last few days. The teamwork, athleticism, coaching, victories, near loses, and world records make me want to soak in every second of the coverage. I especially love the commentators and post-event interviews. *thick sarcasm* If I hear the word "catastrophic" one more time...anyway, the negative comments remind me of the disdain we have heard from people around us about our search for victory. Not everyone sees the road we are taking as a good thing. In a world where having stuff is a measure of success, we look very unsuccessful. We look stingy, poor, like tight-wads...sounds fun, huh?!

"The Lord doesn't see things they way you see them. People judge by the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7

We are intently training for our debt-free victory just like the athletes did. The secret to our success is the budget. It is the workout plan, it's the measure of our discipline. We budget every dollar that comes in on paper before we spend it in real life. I know that sounds too easy to really work, but month in and month out for three and a half years we have lived on this kind of budget. The best part is that we get to decide where our money goes. It's not restricting like we first thought it would be, it's very freeing. Our money is planned out so when we spend money, it's guilt-free. Right now we chose to put all our excess money toward student loans. We could certainly take that money and go on a vacation because it is still our money, but we are sticking to the plan.

"Children do what feels good, while adults devise a plan and follow it." ~Dave Ramsey

Quick Budgeting Tips

1. I use excel (paper and pencil work too) and write down our payday and income for the month.

2. We start by taking our tithe out first (10% of our income we give to our church)

3. Next we take out living expenses (rent, water, trash, gas, and electricity)

4. We now budget food/toiletries

5. Deduct money for transportation (insurance, gas, and oil changes)
6. We take out daycare expenses next
7. We pay minimum payments on all our debts (the smallest debt gets special attention at the end of this list)

*Now that we have the "necessities" taken care of we can budget for things that are nice but not mandatory
8. We pay for 2 cell phones and wireless Internet
9. We each get spending money each month for things we want. We call it BAM!
10. We also budget date night money each month
11. For miscellaneous expenses we budget a different amount each month for haircuts, gifts, or whatever we have planned for that particular month
12. Finally, we pile all the remaining money onto the smallest debt we owe. (More here about the debt snowball)

Our latest small victory is paying off another $1,000 of debt this week. We opened the $8,000 envelope and it told us to enjoy a KC sporting event. We, however, decided to go to the zoo instead! It felt like a sporting event walking to Africa and back!

Don't worry...that lion is behind glass! She looks pretty ferocious!

Rawr!!

YTD Debt Pay-off: $8,720.36

Total Debt Pay-off: $32,720.36

Summer Fun

2012-07-10T21:34:00.000-05:00

This summer I decided to teach summer school. It's not how I want to be spending my highly anticipated time off, but it boosts our income and helps our debt-free plan. We found out that opening one envelope is fun...but opening two envelopes in 4 days is even more fun!! Speaking of fun...we do have it! We just plan for our fun in advance rather than pay for it afterwards. This makes the fun stuff guilt-free and regret-free. BONUS!!

Here's some of the fun we've been having.

The Color Run KC-
We found out about this crazy 5k run that throws a colored powder on you every kilometer. Chris and I ran with our best friends Ryland and Lauren and plan on doing this 5k next year too!

July 4th-

Chris and I were both off on the same day and this rarely happens. So we planned a fun day as a family. It was over 100 degrees outside so we had to be creative. We spent the morning at an indoor toddler playground called Little Monkey Business and Ethan played so hard! We ate lunch at one of our favs...Culvers and then went to a afternoon movie. Ethan has never been to the theater and we weren't sure how he would do. We watched Brave and he watched it for about an hour and then...not so much! After that we spent the evening with ~~some~~ 100+ people from church for dinner and fireworks. Great day off!

Say "french fries!"

Our next planned fun: we're going to Branson, MO to visit Silver Dollar City and during that trip we will get to spend some time with my parents too.

YTD Debt Pay-off: $7,238.53 FUN!!

Total Debt Pay-off: $31,238.53 (over halfway to the finish line!!)

Stretchin' Our Dollars

2012-06-26T22:22:00.000-05:00

We opened another envelope on June 15th! We have now paid off $5,108.58 since January 1, 2012. This is a big milestone in our debt-free journey. The note inside was encouraging. It reminded us that this process is slow, but worth every step. There are 5,280 feet in a mile, so if every dollar we paid off was equal to 1 foot, we are just about 1 mile out of debt. Our debt balance at the beginning of the year puts us at a little over "6.5 miles" in the hole! We're climbing out, and every dollar counts!

Here are some ways we save a few dollars here and there to make our income go farther:

1. We make our own breakfast, lunch, and dinner instead of eating out. We budget a few meals to eat out and they become even more exciting now that we rarely eat out. (I'm talking 2-3 times a month)

We also meal plan so we are only buying food we need for the meals we are going to cook. I like "roll-over" meals, because left-overs aren't always very exciting. For example: If I cook a roast in the crock-pot, the next night I can do beef and noodles or bbq beef sandwiches and make a totally different meal. My best friend Lauren rolls over spaghetti and meatballs to meatball subs another night. Genius! (less cooking too, by the way!!)

2. We grocery shop at Aldi for about 60% of our food- our staples (milk, eggs, pasta, baking mix, cake mix, seasonings, dressing, condiments, etc), some fruits and veggies, and low-cal popcorn and fudge bars come from here.

3. We price match at Walmart- we only price match things we normally buy, we don't buy things just because they are on sale!! These usually include boneless skinless chicken breast, chips, toilet paper, laundry detergent, and fruit. So for these items I bring in another store's ad for the week and show the cashier that the same item is cheaper and Walmart matches the competitors prices. Then I don't have to go to 4 different stores to get the best deals.

4. We buy store brand items on almost everything- diapers and wipes included. Even our son is in on this adventure!! :) Bonus: since my husband works at Target we get an extra 15% off!

5. We pay cash for groceries, dinners out, and special occasions. This helps us have a firm stopping point when we spend in these areas. We realistically look at each month and budget accordingly. Every month is different and we learned early on that we had to build in life to fit each month. Some months we are out of town several days and our grocery bill is smaller. Other months we add to it because we are having people over for dinner or need to make a side or dessert for a party and we need to make sure we have enough.

YTD pay-off: $5,108.58
Total Debt Pay-off: $29,108.58

What a week...

2012-05-19T13:05:00.000-05:00

We moved to our new apartment one week ago. One week ago, we left our nice, comfy, air conditioned apartment. We left that nice, comfy, air conditioned apartment to live in an apartment that didn't have working A/C. This apartment didn't have working A/C until today...one week later! It's been a long, 85 degree week. I'm glad I waited until today to post about the move. Otherwise this post would look alot different!!

Through all of this, Chris and I had to daily remind ourselves why on earth we moved. Seeing the goal, dialed in the purpose of living in a older, cheaper apartment for us.

Here's the list:
(I need this handy when people look at us like we are crazy and say "why???" when we tell them we moved here)

1. Increase Margin- our income is maxed out at this time so we need to reduce expenses...$300 to be exact!

2. Decrease Risk - if one of us loses our job or something happens medically, we are more likely able to pay bills, food, utilities, and rent here than the other place

3. Increase Intensity- we were comfortable at our other apt. Living here will give us motivation to pay off debt quicker and save for a house sooner.

4. Further from Normal- 70% of people live paycheck to paycheck, so broke is normal! We haven't lived that way for over 3 years and don't plan on going back now!

5. Learn Contentment- we are learning already that we can make do with little. I want this same attitude when we look for a house someday, we want to make do with little then too.

6. Our Desire to Give- we are filthy rich compared to most of the world, even at this apartment. Why do I deserve this extravagance when others have nothing? I'm ready to give like no one else!!

Debt Pay-off Update: paid off another $1,000 and opened another envelope on May 4th!

YTD Pay-Off: $4,228.60
Total Debt Pay-off: $28,228.60

One Down...Two to Go!

2012-04-30T22:43:00.001-05:00

Chris and I celebrated a milestone this past week, we paid off one of our student loans. We have slowly knocked off debt after debt to get us to this point. We have followed the snowball principle and only paid minumum payments to all of our debts except the smallest one on the list. We attack the smallest loan and then roll on to the next one. Because we have lined-up our debts in order of amount, naturally these last two are going to take awhile to finish off, they are our largest amounts. We will be even more happy to pay them off since they have been along for the ride these last few years.

With all of the talk about student loan forgiveness going on right now, it makes me want to take care of my own mess even more, I don't want tax payers to pay for my loans. Chris and I signed paperwork declaring that we understood that the money we use for college we will pay back. It's hard to hear all of the college grads who think because college was expensive they shouldn't have to pay for it. I agree, college is expensive, but I chose to go and now I pay for that choice. I also learned along the way that I hate debt and because I learned that lesson the hard way, I don't plan on getting any more student loans to finish my masters degree.

Total debt pay-off: $27,847.52
YTD debt pay-off: $3,847.52

There's an App for that!

2012-04-03T22:40:00.001-05:00

We opened another envelope this week! Yay for another thousand bucks paid off!! The card inside this envelope told us to go on a well deserved date night! So we decided to head to the plaza and enjoy some KC BBQ and eat dinner at Jack Stack. The weather was so amazing that we ate on the patio...in MARCH!! After dinner we had cheesecake at THE Cheesecake Factory. It was fun to spend some time just the two of us and celebrate our hard work. We are only a few hundred dollars away from paying off our smallest student loan!! Can't wait to only make 2 debt payments a month!

A teacher at school told me about the perfect iphone app for tracking our progress. It's called Debt Payoff (right next to my NCAA app!!). When I got the app it was free, but it's $0.99 now! Sorry! On this app I can see the interest we are saving by paying hundreds off each month rather than just paying minimum payments. Here's some scary info- if we only make minimum payments from this day forward we will be debt-free in 20 years and 6 months and pay $23,000 in interest! Yikes!

Other features: I can make a pay-off plan (lowest balance first is the same thing as our snowball idea), calculate what our payments will be someday when we get a house, and there are pie charts!!! It's nice to see the interest we pay each month go down because we are knocking the principal down so much.

Envelope #4: $935.92 left to pay-off