Debt is not fun

In another month, Allen and I will pay off two more debts that we have, bringing the total to 5 things we have paid off since Corbin was born.

Four of those things were credit cards.

Allen and I have made a lot of bad financial decisions since we have been married. We had our excuses and reasons but ultimately, the reasons are dumb.

As I've mentioned before, Allen has had issues with keeping a job, pretty much since we got married. Most of the jobs he's had has resulted in being laid off. He's the last one that was hired so he's the first one to go. That's just the way things are in the fields he's worked in. But nonetheless, it's left me trying to support us and well, I work for a newspaper. It hasn't been easy.

To survive in the early years, I got credit cards. That's how we survived. Eventually they became maxed out and then, we began paying the minimum payments on all of them. I kept telling myself, well Allen will find another job and we'll pay it off and it'll be okay. But the cycle continued over and over again and before we knew it, we had too many credit cards and we couldn't afford to pay them back. It's been a nightmare really but it has taught both of us a very important lesson. Credit cards are evil!

Last year, we decided we were tired of debt. We would rather not have anything than to live where every paycheck goes towards paying a stupid credit card whose balance really doesn't go anywhere unless you pay significantly more than the minimum. We started listening to Dave Ramsey and thought we aren't doing his program, we have been taking his advice.

When Corbin was born we did something that could be considered dumb; we bought a van. We had to finance it of course, but after months and months of looking for something in our price range with no luck, we felt almost forced into doing it. I don't regret buying the van, but it's another debt we've taken on and we've never bought a new car before. We always bought used cars and for the most part, paid cash.

Buying the van, plus taking on the expenses of a new baby, have been very overwhelming. For the most part, I am still the main breadwinner in the family. Allen is working part-time and he's doing some odd jobs. His main job, we agreed, for now would be to stay at home with Corbin. It was important for us to not put him in daycare so we've made sacrifices to keep one of us home with him.

Anyway, somehow, even with all the extra expenses we've taken on, plus the giant chunk I lost out of my paycheck because of Corbin's health insurance, we've managed to work our butts off and pay off 4 credit cards and one private loan. Actually, we still have one more big payment on one credit card and one big payment on the private loan so it's not gone yet. But by the end of March, it will be. Until then, we've still paid off 3 things.

I find that pretty exciting!!!

I wish I could say that's the end but even after this, we still have 3 more credit cards and school loans to deal with. But we're going to keep trucking!

I'm not sure how we've done it. We've been fortunate that the credit card companies have somewhat worked with us to get things paid off but the bottom line of our finances is, we have more going out than coming in (that's usually the case anyway isn't it?).

We've had to skip paying other things to do this. It's not been easy. But it's important so we've done what was necessary to make it work. We've sold stuff, Allen's worked a ton of extra jobs for side money and we've done what we had to do to make it happen. And for once in my life, I stopped worrying about money and put it in God's hands. That seemed to be a smart move because look at us now!

The light at the end of the tunnel still seems far away. We still have a lot of debt but compared to others, maybe it's not so bad, especially when you include our house with our debt. We don't have a fancy, $100,000 or more house. We have a really cheap, fixer upper house. All the work that we are doing, the money is coming from our pockets. That's why it is taking so long! But in the end, we'll have a $100,000 house, hopefully more than that, with only like a $50,000 loan. And that is something that one day, we could pay off too, once we take care of everything else. How awesome is that?

Allen and I have learned a lot of lessons through our financial struggles. We've learned that no matter how bad things are, you can live within your means and be fine. We had to eat a lot of peanut butter sandwiches and turn a lot of invitations to go out to dinner down but we've managed. And the few times we couldn't get through, we've never had to worry because we have a great family that was always there to help.

Even with Allen's business, he's went into it with a determination that he will not get any loans to make this happen. We're doing it out of our pocket at first and then using the income he makes from classes to move forward.

We've truly been blessed. I look back at things and wonder how in the world we survived. But God has always provided for us and I know He will always continue to do so.