My War On Debt: I’m Out This Week!

9 Jul, 2007 Debt Reduction
Visited 1008 times, 3 so far today

Yes, that’s right. I’ll be out of debt this week! It’s going to take a lot of my savings, but today I’ll be moving money out of my emergency fund and some of the kids savings account to make up the $2,800 that I need in order to say goodbye to the credit card debt.

That means that I’ll be making the gas gauge 0%, removing the chip-in widget, and start moving on to saving for Christmas!

Some things I’ve learned along the way:

Not everyone will understand your desire to get out of debt.
People don’t understand delaying getting something that they think that you can’t live without now.
It’s difficult to budget without spending much on yourself– but once you get in the habit, it’s easier to resist spending money you don’t have. In fact, it makes it seem odd when you spend a lot because you wonder what you could have done cheaper.

That last one happened this weekend. Saturday was VirtuousBlonde and my anniversary. Her mother sent us some money to eat out, so we knew we had the money. We went to Denny’s, and ordered our meal. At the end, when we got the bill, it was over $40 (before tip) and it felt really strange to spend that much for food. We usually keep it under $20 with the five of us (well, the youngest is free). We started to analyze the bill and saw a bunch of places where we could have saved money. We had to say “hey, we have the money, we should live once in a while!” That’s how ingrained saving money has become.

So, a bit of encouragement: It might be hard to budget at first, and sticking to it might seem a pain, but eventually it becomes habit and you’re free– because you aren’t borrowing on your future!

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10 Comments so far »

ann_in_grace said,

Wrote on July 9, 2007 @ 8:17 am Subscribed

Congratulations to You and Your Family!
Nathan said,

Wrote on July 9, 2007 @ 10:08 am Subscribed

That’s a big deal man! Thankfully, I haven’t gotten myself in any tremendous amount of debt (other than student loans), but I too hope to be debt free soon.

Thanks for the encouragement!
MInTheGap said,

Wrote on July 9, 2007 @ 1:10 pm

Thanks Ann and Nathan!

Nathan, any idea what avatar you’d like instead of the pig tailed girl?
Ben said,

Wrote on July 9, 2007 @ 1:50 pm Subscribed

Awesome! We are slowly crawling out of the same hole. No student loans, but some medical and cc are hanging over our heads.

Thanks for the encouragement…
Mary said,

Wrote on July 9, 2007 @ 5:14 pm Subscribed

That’s great news, MIn! Congratulations! and Happy Anniversary too…
Lynnae said,

Wrote on July 11, 2007 @ 12:01 am Subscribed

Congratulations! I’m hoping to be out of debt in the next year, too.

I’ve never left a comment here before, but I’ve been reading your blog for some time. Thank you for all the insightful posts!
MInTheGap said,

Wrote on July 11, 2007 @ 8:17 am

Thank you for your gracious words, Lynnae.

For us, we didn’t want to pay any more interest, and our 0% on the card that we transferred everything to runs out this month– so it was a good motivator. I hope that you are able to be out in a year as well!
Steve "The Debt Settlement Man" B said,

Wrote on August 8, 2007 @ 2:11 pm Subscribed

Congrats, most people do not have what it take to fight the debt battle alone. Good job on getting your situation all cleared up and good luck in the future I hope you learned a lot through this whole experience, which I think you have and kudos on sharing your plight with the blogsphere.
Stephen Kingston said,

Wrote on August 9, 2007 @ 10:37 am Subscribed

Congratulations, Min, on clearing that debt.

All the best,
Stephen
MInTheGap said,

Wrote on August 9, 2007 @ 3:27 pm

Thanks Steve B– it was a long hard road and it feels nice to be out. Now it’s just a matter of getting emergency funds and other things set up so we don’t ever need to go back!

Thanks Stephen– thank you so much for contributing to help us get out.

Hopefully things will slow down so we can get back to our good discussions!