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

DOMAIN RENEWAL NOTIFICATION: Your domain Climbingout.net is going to expire!

Wow — already?!

I can hardly believe it has been a year since we started on the road to financial peace. First, a thank you to all of you who follow our journey and offer encouragement. To those of you doing it with us, HIGH FIVE!

So how are we doing? It’s been 12 months since we started this journey and this blog.

For 12 months we have …continue reading

Several months ago we hit that frustratingly expensive time in a man’s hygenic cycle: it was time to buy razor blades. Ugh.

I’ve been using Gillette Fusion blades since they came out and the Mach 3s before that. Why? Because they sent me a free handle, unsolicited, when they first produced the dang things.

I think they came with one or two cartridges too. However, at $25 per refill package they had become a painful slice of the weekly budget. I was done. …continue reading

If it were tangible, is this what momentum would feel like? In my soul 2010 already tastes like a great year.

It’s hard to put my finger on why, but after starting 2009 at the bottom and watching our lives turn around, 2010 seems to stretch ahead of us full of promise and I’m excited. …continue reading

Isn’t it interesting how we attach significance to some numbers? Turning 40 is over the hill. $99 is a much better deal than $100. 5 miles over the speed limit is okay.

As this decade ends today I find myself weighed down with the importance of looking back ten years at where I was, what I did and, maybe more importantly, what I didn’t know.

Certainly nothing makes this ten year span more important than any other, but what the heck. …continue reading

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

I have tried to find the tone for this post for a week now, but have to admit it is hard to land squarely on the side of happiness or condemnation.

You know how some things just make you cock your head to the side in a gooey blend of disbelief, empathy and mild-confusion? Not in a superior manner — instead, you want to be happy for someone, but can’t see around the enormous elephant in the room. …continue reading