How we paid off $30,000+ in a year

We started with $92,506.43 of debt (not including our home) on April 21, 2015.

That is when we finally got serious and intentional about our money and where it was going.

That number included a credit card (the US Bank listed), a loan on some land that my husband purchased shortly out of high school (Bank of Advance listed), my husbands student loans (Nelnet), my vehicle (2011 GMC Acadia), my husbands truck (2011 Ford F-350), and money that we owed to my mom and to Bruce (who we purchased our home from).

Crazy amount of money to owe. Almost $100,000. It was an eye opener.

A LITTLE BACKSTORY

We had our oldest daughter in 2013 and prior to (and after) having her we were overspending (hence the $5,800+ credit card bill AND the $3,078.54 owed to my mom that we used to pay off another credit card.)

In November 2012 I got a promotion with work to an assistant manager position which helped us tremendously with our income (went from $11.70 to $15 per hour) and I was not driving as far (was 50 miles one way to 37 miles one way) so I wasn’t using as much in fuel.

January 2013 my uncle moved overseas to Switzerland and was going to be gone at least three years and so they were selling their vehicles (both Volvo’s – one an SUV and one a car). I had always wanted an SUV so here was our chance to get one where we could afford. Although I owned a 2007 Saturn Aura we reached an agreement for us to purchase the 2006 Volvo and we would sell the car.

We did close on our home in April 2013, shortly before our daughter was born in June 2013 so we had a change in expenses there – from $400 in rent to a $750 house payment.

Two days before I was induced with our daughter due to complications we signed the title and took payment for the sale of my car. That took away the $325 a month car payment and we were just left with a $160 car payment on the Volvo. This was a God-send as I was on maternity leave for 8 weeks with only 80% of my pay.

We were able to pay for all of our monthly expenses while I was on maternity leave, thankfully, as my husband worked quite a bit and we had some money saved back – just in case.

While on maternity leave though the hospital bills started coming in from the birth of our daughter. The hospital did offer payment arrangements so we did set those up to be able to afford everything else until I went back to work. The total cost from having our daughter was around $8-10,000. I can’t remember completely (and remember, this was before I cared about how much things cost/we owed).

In August 2013, four days after returning from maternity leave, I got yet another promotion at work from an assistant manager to a branch manager. Pay was more and I was even closer (15 miles one way) so less fuel costs again.

In September 2013 Garrett got a promotion at work as well to a salesman and increased our income pretty drastically- he also got a company truck in the position as well.

We were seeing money signs everywhere. Life was going to be easier.

We were making more so we wouldn’t be so stressed about money. It was great.

Shortly after my husbands promotion, in October because he joked it was my anniversary gift, we went and purchased different vehicles for both of us.

He traded in his extended cab 2000 Ford F-250 for a four door 2002 Ford F-350, after all, we did have a kid now.

I traded in my 2006 Volvo SUV for a 2013 Ford Edge. I got a 2013 IN 2013! I was so excited!

In 2014 we really didn’t do much anything that was notable on our expenses other than we did take a 10 day trip in November to Switzerland to see my uncle and Ed. We did make a point to have the money saved up and pay cash as we were becoming more aware of our finances at that time.

On December 31, 2014 we did trade my 2013 Ford Edge in for a 2011 GMC Acadia as I wanted a vehicle with more room as I thought our Edge was just too small.

A CLASS STARTED THE CHANGE …

Ever since we were in college I loved listening to Dave Ramsey. My husband did too. I could never get him on board and to commit to doing a budget, etcetera until January 2015. In January 2015 we hosted the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University course at our church. We purchased the kit. We were the coordinators.

We had two individuals and one married couple that attended. By the middle of the 13 week course the two individuals and ourselves were the only ones still coming.

My husband was enjoying it and loved what Dave had to say. My husband finally took the time to know how much our monthly payments were and was ready to get rid of debt.

The only problem, his truck was giving some transmission issues and we farmed so we had to have a large truck to pull farm equipment, etcetera. So, in April 2015, right before the FPU course was completed we went and traded in his 2002 Ford F-350 for a 2011 Ford F-350 four door Lariat. We spent over $40,000 on a truck … 😳

So, as of April 21, 2015, our monthly payments were over $1,200 a month – not including our credit card or house payments or any other monthly costs (our tithes, auto insurance, fuel, food, electric, cell phones, internet, TV, etcetera).

We had gotten to the point we were sick & tired of everyone else getting our money. We wanted to keep some of it. We didn’t want to feel like we were living month-to-month, every month.

With the Dave Ramsey fire under us we did some drastic changes.

My husband sold his boat and motor for a couple thousand dollars to pay down on debt. We stopped spending money as much as we could. We did pantry/freezer challenges where we didn’t buy any food other than what we HAD to (bread, veggies, milk, etc) and ate out of what we had in our pantry and freezers. Every month we did that we saved around $400-500 a month. We added that to our snowball to paying down debt.

We were slashing debt. I would get quarter bonuses occasionally and I would use all of it to pay down debt (minus tithes) and we had each and every paycheck budgeted out.

Payday was exciting to see how much we were getting to pay down with our snowball.

We did take a slightly different take on Dave’s snowball. We saved everything back for the month and then made one big payment at the end of the month.

We were paying off thousands a month some months.

We had someone that had moved back to the area and wanted to buy some of the land my husband purchased right out of high school so he could build a house since it was across from his dads house. So we sold a few acres. Enough to pay off the land loan remaining loan amount and a little bit more.

We paid off the credit card that we owed $5,867.36 on, we paid off the land loan of $8,597.03, we finished paying my mom the $3,078.54 that we owed her, and we paid off the two lowest balance student loans that we had of my husbands.

We had two student loans, the vehicles, and Bruce left. We removed such a large burden and it became fun to see our balances decreasing.

We literally were constantly looking for things to sell, stuff/work to do to get paid for, etcetera.

We yearned to watch that number get smaller and smaller.

*DUE TO MANY REQUESTS – A COPY OF THIS EXCEL SPREADSHEET (ABOVE) CAN BE FOUND/DOWNLOADED HERE.

SINCE APRIL 2016

Since April 26, 2016 we have paid off the other remaining student loans of Garrett’s, Bruce, and the 2011 GMC Acadia.

We have also taken our kids to FL on vacation and other small trips here and there.

I took a leap of faith with my employment to be able to work from home and have more flexibility. Noy only that but Garrett quit his FT salesman position in April to farm full-time as his job was affecting our farming operation.

We are left with just the house and the Ford F-350 in our personal debt but it is a much slower go to debt reduction these days.

The farm debt, now THAT is another story.

OUR BUDGET

We set up our budget probably differently than most people would set up theirs.

I set our budget up so every paycheck was broken down on what it would pay, how much we would save back, and every time we got that ‘extra’ third paycheck (we both got paid every two weeks) twice a year we paid our tithes and then the rest went straight into debt reduction because all of our monthly bills were paid out of our other paychecks for the month.

This has consistently worked wonderful for us and has always given us so much wiggle room (unexpected expenses pop up – we have the money in savings) like when the alternator went out of my Acadia in October 2017, etcetera

How do you budget? Do you have questions about what we do? Let me know – I would be more than happy to answer any questions or concerns!

HELPING OTHERS

Since I enjoy the numbers and finance aspects so much I have helped a couple of my friends with getting their finances on a better path (past dues, stretched thin, etc) via Facebook and text message.

I have been told that I should start a service for helping others with getting their finances on track, figuring out a plan of action for them, helping them to get a budget in place, or just to help them see where to cut back or what to pay down first.

I haven’t really pursued it as of yet but my background with a Bachelors degree in Finance and then working in banking for 7+ years I think I could be an asset to anyone and everyone.

If this is something that you need help with feel free to reach out – I would be more than happy to help anyone!