Well, Stephanie and I made through our first Christmas together. One of the perks of being married is that Christmas is a full day of eating and opening presents. For us, it was different than most people. We had a VERY small budget to buy presents with. We went to used book stores, dollar stores, and Stephanie made a few gifts. We wish we could spend a lot more on our family, but I think they understand. We were even able to get a tree! We went to the tree place and looked for the smallest one they had. I picked up it and the guy sold it for $20. It was SO small it actually fit into Steph's BACKSEAT! It was fun though, I'm sure we will remind each other of that story for a long time.
I think there is a certain advantage to not having a lot of money when you first get married. You learn to enjoy the times you get to go out to dinner. Honestly, we only go out 3 or 4 times a month. Yes, one reason is that I'm a basketball coach, but the main one is that we just don't have the excess in money to drop $50 on a meal every week. Christmas was especially exciting because we were given gift cards so we could go out! We appreciate that a lot more than somebody else might. With that being said, we are looking forward to the day when we will be able to go out on a more regular basis and spend more money on presents. But, that will be a while.
Budgeting is still a tricky thing for us. It seems our bills are changing every month or there is a holiday or someone's birthday. However, we are getting better. Budgeting is NOT easy, don't let anybody tell you otherwise. It's so easy to spend money "because we deserve it!" even though it's not in your budget. You think, for some reason, that because you haven't gone over your budget, you have somehow earned the right to buy something stupid or go out to dinner when you shouldn't. But there is a sense of accomplishment and freedom in putting limits on yourself and keeping within those limits.
For now, we are still in that guest house and were told we can stay there for as long as needed. That was such a huge answer to prayer and we are so very excited about not having to move out in 3 months. Now, we aren't planning on staying there forever, but it's nice to know we can ATTACK our debt and not worry about finding a stupid apartment. We are trying to live off of Stephanie's income and use all of mine towards debt. My job is based largely on commission so hopefully I can start to make more and more the better I get at it.
Those are all the pertinent updates for now. We are making some progress in our debt. We have paid the student loans down to close to $7,000 in the last 6 months (Right now we are at $34,688). Hopefully we can get that TOTAL below $25,000 by June.
Thank you for all of your support and encouragement!
do you really feel that constricting yourself of breathing a normal life is worth the debt payoff?
ReplyDeleteyou say you hate debt, which everyone can agree on. But why take up half of your lifestyle by donating your precious time and work ethic to activities that provide you nothing in return but pride? spend that time getting a non-commission based job and pay off your debt and you'll find yourself not writing this blog, not asking people for guest houses, and not cleaning someone's home for compensation.
Well, Danny, the job I work at now is a job I can grow at and enjoy doing. It allows me to coach basketball and spent time with my wife. It would be great if I could just find a job that I loved and paid me a bunch of money, but that's not possible right now. Right now, we are choosing to make a little less so later we can make more and I can love my job the whole time.
DeleteThanks for the comment.
Danny, I sure you had the best intentions with your comment and I understand where you are coming from...it is important to still enjoy life and not miss out on fun experiences, opportunities, etc. However, saying that someone is paying off debt for pride is hurtful to someone who is dedicated to doing so. As someone who recently paid off a lot of debt, I can tell you that I may have missed a few meals out and a weekend trip to Vegas or the beach, but I am no longer have the worry that I owe x amount of money to a loan or credit card company with a ton of interest added into it. Plus, now I can put what we were putting towards our debt towards doing all those fun things.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy making all those awesome funny memories! They are what you will remember more than any present! Luke and I's first Christmas as a married couple we had 20 members of my family over to the tiny little house we lived in and our dishwasher broke! We washed all the dishes by hand and collapsed into bed at midnight! We tell that story to the boys every year and Colin always cracks up.
ReplyDeleteWell done you guys! Keep on going!