Wouldn’t you love to be debt free? You would no longer have to pay for medical bills, credit cards, retail bills, student loans, car payments, or a mortgage.
In January, my husband and I have decided to make a goal to live debt free. It may seem impossible, but over time we are going to do it. Our goal in the next year or two is to have most of our debt paid off.
We started off by watching few of the Financial Peace University videos to help us in the process. Dave Ramsey has many steps to go through to get to your goal.
We are also watching Andy Stanley’s series titled ‘Ask it.’ The series talk about what is the wise thing to do in your situation right now.
I had already had a budget set up, but we weren’t following it as well as we should have. We were eating out way too much. We decided to go cold turkey on that. We really haven’t missed it. It’s amazing how much money you can save by not eating out.
So after all the main bills are subtracted away from our income for a month, the remaining amount is for groceries, gas, and any other items we need. We now have a limit each week when we go shopping.
We are first working at putting money towards an emergency fund. We will be putting it in a money market account, so we are less likely to touch it. The money is meant for an emergency not a splurge purchase.
We made several financial goals that we want to save up for, such as, house repairs, vacation, birthdays/anniversary, and Christmas. Each month we are putting money into our saving for each goal. By the time we need the money for each goal, we will have it. We won’t feel stressed out during that time since we are saving up for it.
Next we will be paying off our debt by the lowest bill amount first. When that bill is paid off, we will take that minimum payment amount and add it to the next bill needed to be paid. Then when the second one is paid off, we will add the first and second minimum payment amount and add it to the next. It is called the snowball effect. The debt will be paid off faster since we will be paying more than the minimum.
I challenge you to make the goal with me to live debt free. I know you can do it. Will you take the challenge?
heartloveshome.com 
Isn’t Dave Ramsey awesome? We took FPU 4 years ago and it was the best thing we ever did. We did a refresher course, because once you go through it you can go for free for life after that. We’re still working on our debt snowball, at least we haven’t given up on it.
He is! We’re so excited to get our debt paid off!
Good Luck! We are not totally debt free – we have one car and an affordable mortgage payment but it would be awesome to not have those either. Stopping by from THE SITS Girls.
Our mortgage payment will be our last too. I’m excited to get to that point.
Good luck with your goal to be debt free! We followed that approach with our debt and now only have one truck payment left and our mortgage. We just recommitted ourselves to eating out less often and it’s been a good move for our wallet AND our waistline!
Eating out so much isn’t good anyway. Plus you know what you are putting in your food when you cook.
Great goal! Going from a 2 income household to 1, I have been working on a budget for our family. With 2 incomes, we didn’t really think about our purchases or how often we went out to eat. We don’t have any credit card debt or car payments to pay off, so my goal with budgeting is to try to save a little money each month to put into our savings. Some months it is super easy, and others more difficult…especially during the holidays! Good luck with your goal! -visiting from the SITS girls
I know what you mean. We mostly rely on my husband’s income since I only work part time.
Just discovered your blog – nice to have found you. Getting out of debt is our goal too. We’re working on it.
http://zagleft.com/
Welcome! Getting out of debt can be a process, but it can be done.
This sounds like a great goal! Good luck 🙂
Thanks!
GOOD LUCK! I want to look into the Dave Ramsey series. It certainly would be nice to live debt-free. We aren’t in trouble, but three kids headed to college soon… Would be nice to be totally in control! Julia
My husband and I love the series and glad we did it.
Good luck! This is one of our goals for this year too…to take back our life and get everything back on track.
It will be a whole lot easier to enjoy life without debt.
We had no debt until last year, and we are going to do our best to get back to that state ASAP. I am so much more stressed with debt piled up around us. We are following the Dave Ramsey structure, too. Good luck!!
Without any debt, there will be less bills to pay each month.