When my husband and I were newly married we lived in an area where we had a very difficult time finding opportunities to help us make ends meet. In addition, with us being young (and immature) we allowed ourselves to be woo'd by the credit card applications that were sent to us. We initially saw these as ways to pay for things with the intentions of paying off the cards in full each month. The problem we found is that there are times in life that if you don't prepare and build a financial foundation, your world can come crumbling beneath you. We had never learned about budgeting and how it was important. We also were barely making ends meet and had take home of about $20K during that time. Looking back, I'm not sure how we got by...oh yes, those credit cards! We found ourselves falling behind about $50-$100 a month so we broke out the beautiful shiny card and covered the rest that way. Then the credit card bills were due and we paid just over the minimum only to find that we were in the hole the next month so the cycle continued.
But oh, it didn't stop there! Then we thought we "needed" an outdoor patio set...and what patio set can be complete without a grill. We discussed, between ourselves oh, this can be paid off in X amount of months and we "need" this! So of course, we pulled out that trusty pretty, shiny credit card...again. Needless to say, several years of making very little income with small children this was not a good thing. We eventually found our way into not only not being able to make ends meet but also now having debt hanging over our heads.
Then we found out about a man by the name of Dave Ramsey who had a plan to help people like us! We read his book called Financial Peace Revisited (and later read Total Money Makeover which gives additional testimonies for those needing additional motivation) and began following his baby steps. It wasn't easy and we made some HUGE sacrifices along the way. I remember the first thing that got paid off was our car. I put that paid for receipt and hung it on the refrigerator for at least a month or more...I was so excited!!
Through time we did eventually get everything paid off and for now the only thing we owe is the mortgage on our house. We do have an automatic extra amount added each month toward the principle so hopefully we will have it paid off sooner. Life issues, when it comes to money, still isn't easy. I do not have the habit for reviewing and editing my budget like I should but I also don't have lingering debt over my shoulder. I still have to watch everything I purchase like a hawk. My children still do not get to go on every expensive school field trip that comes up, but we are debt free and that feels good!
In coming posts I will talk more about how we save money and the trials we run into. I also hope to get more in the habit of the budgeting as this is a critical part to staying out of debt and will share my experiences. Still working on baby steps and sometimes we take a step back but it is important to stay focused on moving forward!
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