It's true. We are officially debt free.
This past year has been Such a testimony of God's faithfulness in ALL areas of our lives, but specifically for this story -- His providence in our financial lives.
I'm sure I wont do justice to convey how blessed we were this year.
But I will try anyway.
When we got married, Willie had -$11,500 worth of school debt. We then added another -$1,500 toward that with a few online classes he still needed.
So thats -$13,000 in school debt.
Then, since neither of us had a car , we bought this car for -$2,200
(not a bad price if you ask me!)
Don't let the angle of the picture fool you... this car is tiny. I'm pretty sure Willie's head touches the ceiling when he sits down..... and his legs are to long to sit in the passenger side if we have the carseat behind it.
BUT
It has GREAT gas mileage
AND
The car insurance on it is very cheap
AND
It has never given us any problems, even with driving in the snow.
SO, that puts us at -$15,200 as of November 13, 2010 (our anniversary)
It was not a good feeling to have so much debt. We really felt tied down, and not free. We decided that we wanted to make paying off this debt a priority in our marriage. So we budgeted to pay $500 a month to get rid of it as soon as we could.
Willie was working full time at a packaging company making $10/hr when we got married.
He got a raise in January to $13/hr. And another raise around the time we had Owen, bringing him to his current $15/hr.
I was working part time at a coffee shop making a whopping $7.50/hr plus tips.
I worked here (Copper Rock Coffee) until September when I had our wonderful son Owen.
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You may be wondering why I'm giving so much detail about how much we owed and how much we make. Money tends to be something people don't like talking about. But I sincerely believe that we can learn A LOT if we just share our stories. And, I love talking about money. Budgeting. Math. It's very exciting to me -- and it sure aint because we have a lot of it!
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Honestly I am thankful, SO SO thankful that we started our lives together with debt.
BECAUSE through paying a large sum toward our debt each month it opened our eyes to:
How little we can really live on
How much we truly have
How completely wrong the worlds idea about money is
How much God has blessed us, and this country
How great our responsibility is for what we do with "our" money
How truly thankful we are.
We would often say to each other,
"Wow, the world says we are poor and yet look how much we have!... and we aren't even using all the money we have because we are putting so much of it toward paying off debt. What would we even do with that money each month if it wasn't tied up in that?!"
We were responsible, but we weren't pinching pennies by any means. We ate so good. We went out with friends. We learned a lot about Tithing and giving gifts to others. We saved the total amount it would cost us to pay for Owen's birth. We handled our money in such a way that when I came home to be with Owen, the only thing we changed in our budget was how much we would pay toward debt. It went at that point from $500 to $300 per month.
IF YOU LIKE NUMBERS - HERE THEY ARE.
{IF NOT SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM :D}
$35,418.00 our total income this year.
-$15,200.00 Debt
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$20,218.00 What our family of 2... and now 3 people lived QUITE comfortably on
average 1,685.00 a month.
MONTHLY BILLS
-rent about 570
-food 200-300
-tithe
-health insurance 180
-car insurance 30
-cell phones 90
-internet 35
-electricity/gas bill average 70
-gas for car ?100
RANDOM BILLS
-eye exam/ new glasses
-contacts every couple months
-dentist visit
-super random collection i found on my credit score $300! ouch
- Owen's birth bill $2,000 ish
- new brake things for car (rotors?)
- new car, new car insurance $60/month?
-"matriculation" fee for school $350
- income tax $33.00 lol <-- this cracks me up. Seriously, thats what our tax was for living in the USA this year. I'm not sure what people are so upset about? We've spent more than that on dinner.
- $500 holding deposit on a secured credit card we got to build credit
FUN STUFF!
-bought a boat $400
-golf clubs and outings $150?
- P90X and weights! o yea :) $100?
-Coffee :) :) probably more than I want to figure out how much :P
-Recently got another car $300!! :P thanks Andy
-fancy smart phone $200?
-Plane tickets to visit family in SC $600 (see yall soon!!)
-I was in a wedding :D and will soon be in another! Congratulations Adrienne and Regina. Love being a bridesmaid!
THINGS WE DID CHEAP!!!
-Cloth diapers (it's really not that bad!)
-Breast feeding FREE --- formula is EXPENSIVE (i know, we had to buy a couple cans
when Owen got off to a rough start gaining weight)
-Midwife instead of Hospital --- it was at least %50 cheaper and the route we wanted for
other reasons as well.
-One car for our first year of marriage. Gas was probably higher but not having the cost
of buying a second car and car insurance was a big plus... but I'm glad we have 2 now!
-Homemade laundry detergent :) yes we're those people. I made 10 gallons of it in
August for $1.60. I'll probably never go back to the store kind.
-We make most of our meals at home. $10 for Taco Bell goes a lot further at the grocery
store. Meal planing, grocery shopping, and cooking will save TONS of money. You
can always adjust what you eat to help balance a budget.
{OK, STOP SCROLLING}
Anyway, I know this is long... but I think it's worth it
The point of all of this is to TESTIFY to God's providence in our lives.
Getting out of debt has allowed us to now return to Washington for Willie to finish Flight School.
It is something God has used to change how we think about money - for His glory.
A year ago we worried about how we would pay for all the things we wanted/needed to do.
But the Bible says,
" do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For those who don't trust in God run after all these things
but your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
So, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
God has grown our faith in Him through this experience.
This story isn't meant to boast about how "we got out of debt". If God hadn't showed us a new way, WE probably would have kept piling the debt on. Our hope is to encourage YOU that if you are in debt - you can get out.
The Bible says
Do not worry about ANYTHING
instead
PRAY about EVERYTHING
If your finances are worrying you like they were us, Pray about it. If you sincerely turn your life, including your finances, over to God - He will make all things new.
I look forward to sharing with you how God continues to provide in our lives. The next chapter will sound something like ....
I look forward to sharing with you how God continues to provide in our lives. The next chapter will sound something like ....
"2 poor college students and a baby - how great is our God!"
