I hate this blog, I really do. We started out the process of
paying off our debt with so much energy and hope! We wanted to pay off all our
debt in about 3 years, if not less. Well, here we are 3 years later and we have
only made a small dent. That is an incredibly discouraging and frustrating
realization as I go through the posts and see the tiny steps we have taken. It
almost make us want to give up and do what every other person does; make the
minimum payment for the next 30 years and just live with it. It’s really hard
to live below your means and use money that you would like to spend on food or
vacations and instead use it to pay down the debt that feels so insurmountable.
Well, last night, we talked to a married couple who made us feel incredibly
guilty about our debt.
We went to a friend’s wedding and, like most weddings the
older you get, we ran into friends who we hadn’t seen or talked to in a while.
That’s the fun thing about weddings, you get to reconnect with people who you
don’t normally see. Well, this particular couple told us they had read this
little blog in the past and went on to tell us how encouraging it was and
helped them pay off their debt. That is NOT what I wanted to hear. I mean, it’s
great that this has helped them pay off their debt, but I felt like such a
hypocrite. Here we are, being lazy in our budget and debt paying, listening to
someone tell us that we helped them pay off their debt. Thanks for the guilt
trip!
I was so excited for these 2 people, who we haven’t seen in
a very long time, tell us that we encouraged them and played a very small part
in their journey to pay off their debt. But I also felt like God was telling
me, “Remember how motivated you guys were to pay off your debt? Well, it’s time
to get back on that”. Steph and I had a long talk about our finances after the
wedding and how we have been so blessed to have the jobs we have now and be in
a situation where we can actually pay off debt.
I was curious though to see exactly how much money we have
spent on eating out and other things we shouldn’t. I almost vomited when I added
everything up. Yes, we have a budget, but we are very good and “forgetting” to
put in certain items so we never really see how much we spend on stuff. We LOVE
food and we live in a part of town that has incredible places to eat within
walking distance. So, instead of making food with stuff we have, we get take
out… a lot. I would tell you how much we have spent in the last month on eating
out, but you would probably hate us and not want to be our friends anymore.
All that to say, we are getting back on the horse, as it
were. We have lived on so little for so long that we went a little crazy when
we started making more money. It’s easy to say you won’t do that, but it’s so
hard to spend less than you make. Eating out and going on a vacation is a lot
more fun than paying off debt. We will be making a large payment on our debt
this week and start that snowball again. It will be incredibly difficult, but
hopefully we can stay this course this time around.
Thank you for reading.
-
Brian
