Mario and I used the last six months of our pregnancy to get rid of as much debt as possible in anticipation of me staying at home if/when I chose to. Since I had totaled my car in an accident two months before I was due, the car ended up being paid off and instead of going back into another car payment we chose to pay cash for one instead. We also bought Mario a more reliable car using cash as well since we knew a baby wouldn’t be safe in his previous one.
We tackled any credit card debt that we had (or should I say, I had) and any miscellaneous bills (i.e. medical, etc.) so that all we would have to pay for would be the mortgage and what I call the lifelong necessity bills (i.e. lights, water, gas, phone).
We knew that living on one income would be hard and boy have we been faced with some challenges. From having to buy a new furnace to replacing the alternator in my car three, yes THREE times among other things.
With me working again the goal is for us to continue to live as if we only have one income! Seriously, I believe one of the main lessons we were meant to take from our journey over those 18 months was to learn the true meaning of a budget and how to live below our means. But don’t think that sticking to that has been easy. Discipline is hard, very hard!
Now, we did rack up more credit card debt when some of those things I mentioned above broke down on us so our plan is to attack that debt now. Then the mortgage, then the student loans. And for those who love the snowball effect (from Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace) we are doing that with everything but the last two (Mortgage and Student Loans). Instead of paying off our student loans first and then attacking our mortgage we’re doing it in reverse. I’m sorry, but my family and I can’t live in our student loans (hopefully, you get what I’m trying to say there).
I am still working through our debt payoff plan (I have been working on it since I started work in August) trying to find more ways to reduce expenses so that we can throw chunks of money at debt to pay things down quicker. I’m not at a place where I’m ready to share what we have and what we’re doing exactly to get rid of it but I’m tracking it all in hopes that one day I’ll have the courage to share where we were and how we overcame it all! Let’s hope that’s sooner than later!
Awesome. Student loan debt seems to never go away. Ugghh.
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That's awesome! Debt is a terrible thing because having it eats up all your money and makes you feel like you will never get ahead. It's great you are tackling it. My husband and I aren't into debt. We have our mortgage and he has his car and that's it. I cannot even imagine paying off the mortgage-I think it's great that it's something you are actively trying to accomplish.
We're paying off higher interest cards first instead of the debt snowball. It will save us about $500 in the long run to do it this way. We're also driving our cars until we absolutelt have to get a new one since they're paid off.
I've had my share of financial trouble… One of the bigger things that I think a lot of people don't want to spend money on is health insurance. But speaking firsthand, if someone doesn't have *good* health insurance, they might end up filing for bankruptcy.
Great, I just made up in my mind that I'm going to do the snowball effect starting this month. I have been putting more money on all my bills but when I looked at it, I realized I could have paid one of my credit cards of with all the extra money I was putting on other bills. So…that's step number one! As well as continuing to save. Whenever I get close to paying something off I'll use some of my savings to make it official.