How I became debt free

[KimS]

When I made the decision to get out of debt, I went cold turkey on all unnecessary spending.

I worked triple hard at work in order to get a promotion and raise to increase my income. All extra money went on credit cards.

I brought my lunch to work, ate home every night, and ate cheap, mac and cheese out of a box, and it wasn't the deluxe kind either.

To get out of the house, I would go to Target, walk around the store, put stuff in my cart that I would "like" to buy, then walked back around the store and put all the items in my cart back on the shelf.

It was a good lesson in self discipline as well as a way for me to set goals of things I wanted in the short future.

Was it tough, you bet! Was I perfect at it...no way, but the short term self sacrifice has really paid off. It taught me how to manage money, save money, and better appreciate what I have because it is all paid for rather than dreading a credit card payment every month.

What are some of the things you did to become debt free?

[Russ]

I'm not quite debt free, but have made quite a journey already...

When I was faced with no other choice to get out of debt, I first opened up a business with just enough money to file the paperwork.

Our budget was retooled and did our best to begin focusing on putting as much extra money as we can find onto debt.

I sold my Saturn for $400 to put right towards a credit card, in the grand sceme of things it was a drop in the bucket but it still put us ahead a little bit.

In the midst of working my debt plan, I was stricken by my debt being almost doubled when a business dealing fell through and another company ran with our money.

At this point, I kicked it into overdrive, began selling personal car parts, doing extra side work and cashing out an old mutual fund which was worth about $1600.

Since I suffered such a big loss the year before last, the tax season was very kind and got back quite a bit on my refund which we put towards the business debt to pay customers back for what they were owed.

Last year we had a car payment for a newer Dodge Neon, which I took to Carmax, and bought a car in cash with the money left over from the Carmax sale. That was an extra $190 a month that we put towards the next debt, and that's when the snowball started. One of my other cars that was $500 a month finally got paid off, so that was $690 I began throwing at paying debt off. Now that we've managed to pay off quite a bit of debt, we have an excess of $2000 to battle debt with now using the snowball method. Given a few months, I'll be debt free except for the house.

Still anxiously waiting for the paychecks to keep coming

[KimS]

So do you think the "pain" and hard work is worth it?

[Russ]

Of course! Trust me, I had a lot of pain to contend with!

Now having finances that are more flexible allows me to have more spending power with cash than I ever did with credit. When you live under the credit thumb, you could almost be spending a 1/4-1/2 of your take home pay in frivolous finance fees... easily! This last year, I took a small break from paying off the rest of my debt to take my family on a vacation to DC, Memphis and finance Christmas all with cash. That cash mind you came from what I used to spend in financing fees.

[KimS]

I totally agree.
The freedom of living in control of your money rather than a credit card company "controlling" your money is so worth the small amount of pain in getting there.

And like you said, you still have some fun and took a vacation, so it shows that becoming debt free isn't all blood and sweat as long as you stay focused and have your plan in place.

[twilight_echantress]

you are definitely have a point there KIMS...

[twilight_echantress]

i mean u definitely have a point....
having a credit card is like temptation...it will cause financial worries in the future.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by twilight_echantress

i mean u definitely have a point....
having a credit card is like temptation...it will cause financial worries in the future.

Are you debt free?

[twilight_echantress]

ummm... as far as i no, the this moment of time...I am absolutely debt free...its because i am still single and i think i still have the fighting spirit not to succumb to the temptation of having a credit card..hehehe

[KimS]

Congratulations on being debt free!!!

Keep the fighting spirit against the temptation of getting a credit card. It is your money, once you get a credit card it becomes "their" money.

Is your home paid off as well?

[Russ]

That is very impressive! Very few people can say they are debt free, be proud that you are one of the few

[gatorfan91]

Originally Posted by twilight_echantress

ummm... as far as i no, the this moment of time...I am absolutely debt free...its because i am still single and i think i still have the fighting spirit not to succumb to the temptation of having a credit card..hehehe

I'm jealous!! I'll be there someday.