Climbing Out One Family’s Adventure in Becoming Debt-free

While I truly hope you all had as lovely a Christmas as I did, I cannot imagine that’s possible. My condolences.

It has been a stunningly wonderful holiday season. And not only was it all done with cash, we even paid down another thousand dollars of our debt.

At The Wife’s insistence we had a Christmas sinking fund and spent it on the kids; $100 each. That may not seem like much, but it was enough and generous grandparents from both sides of the aisle made for lots of love and plenty of presents to unwrap. …continue reading

It was one year ago last week that I was laid off and our financial tail-spin began in earnest. We came financially unraveled so quickly my memories of last November are more vague feelings of swimming in a fog than actual images.

One year ago I was tearing down Halloween, pretending to care about Christmas and sinking into a sense of hopelessness about money and finances.

We had no emergency fund, did not budget our income, had nearly $50,000 of unsecured debt, owed $30k more on our house than it was worth, had a small fortune in medical bills from The Wife’s fight with 400 pounds of falling building materials, and were in a leased 2008 Mazda CX-7. …continue reading

Do you have one of those months each year? A month that simply outsmarts you? I do.

For some reason our lives gravitated to October as though it were the only month of the year. Financially October is my speed bump and I am growing to accept it.

There was a time in my youth when October was just the month that had Halloween. It was the month that began the holiday season. The month when the air got crisp and chilly. The best time of the year. …continue reading

This Summer we got more serious about our backyard garden than ever before. Most everything we planted actually grew too.

Peppers, tomatoes, pumpkins, cantaloupe, basil, rosemary, chives, blackberries and holy-crap-it’s-trying-to-take-over-the-world mint. That stuff sends out runners and pops up everywhere!

The best part was watching the kids experience the joy of planting, watering, watching. Seeing those first little leaves poke out of the ground. Finally eating the harvest.

For their fifth birthday we planted a few new seeds of our own. Like it or not, our kids are along for the debt-free ride. …continue reading

There is an FPU class on negotiating. I should take it again.

I’m not very good at negotiating, getting the deal or walking away. That last one you would think would be easier for me. If you don’t have the money then walk away. The problem is I don’t use the power of walking away when the monetary difference seems manageable.

Today I signed the kids up for gymnastics class. I told the Dad that the classes would be $70 a month. When I went to sign the papers, I was surprised by the $35 per child registration fee! That was double what I expected to pay. That was double what we had budgeted for. Eek!

I should not have written the check, but I did. …continue reading

Money never seemed to be much of an issue growing up even though we didn’t have much of it. My mother was a single parent and we were on welfare for a while, but I never knew about it. I have no memories of going without or being poor.

What I do remember are the empowering things she taught me. One of her favorite sayings is “Do you know how to eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

The youngest memory I have that proved to be most life-changing is from the day I wanted a chocolate chip cookie …continue reading