All Consumer Debt Paid!

It has finally happened, we have paid back 100% of our debt. That's over $30,000 paid back in 18 months. It has been a tough and long 18 months, but we did it! We still have a mortgage, but no more car loans, student loans, or credit card bills! On March 1st, after getting our end of March paychecks, I was able to pay all of the bills and have enough left over to clear out the student loan! It is such an amazing feeling to finally be out from under all of that debt!

I can't even begin to describe the feeling, other than "wonderful"! I have to say thank you to all of the fellow personal finance bloggers out there. I read the Carnival of Debt and Carnival of Personal Finance frequently. Those stories helped to keep me motivated and to teach me more ways to save and it was very encouraging to read what other people were doing. The Dave Ramsey and Larry Winget books also put me on the right track. My husband and daughter were also great during this whole process, working together to stay within the budget.

After dinner, my husband and I were discussing how we're finally out of debt. My daugther replied, "Now we can be rich!" I told her we're not rich, but we will be able to save up money now, and hopefully not have to worry about it sometime in the future. She then took out her markers and drew the cutest picture. It is of my daughter holding lots of green money in her hands, with a big smile on her face!

Next month will be different, we'll be putting our money into savings rather than paying back loans! We will also finally "splurge" on a few important things we've been holding off on until we have the debt paid off. The plan is no more credit card use or loans, we'll save up for what we want and pay for it that way! The next step is to get 6 months worth of expenses into a savings account. After that, we'll be working on retirement savings and college savings. This is so exciting, I cannot believe that debt is gone!

Another Credit Card Paid Off!

I'm sorry that I really haven't been keeping up with this blog. We've been slowly saving money and paying back the debt. We had a frugal holiday season, and in January we were able to spend even less, staying under-budget and having just enough to pay off the other credit card.

On January 30th, we paid the credit card bill online in full. For the first time in 5 years, we have absolutely no credit card debt. This is such a great feeling. We only used credit cards a few times in 2008, and then immediately paid back whatever we'd charged. This really helped us to work at lowering the balance.

We were able to pay off such a large chunk of debt because of my husband's holiday bonus and raise, and also because he got 3 paychecks in January (being paid once every 2 weeks). That third check went entirely to the credit card payment.

In 2008, we paid back $24k in debt. I can't believe we have come this far. The remaining debt is college loans. Given that my husband and I haven't been to college in 9 years, this is our longest outstanding debt. If all goes well, we should have the college loan paid off by April.

I'm so happy we're finally making progress, and we'll be able to save for the future soon!

Personally, I never want to use a credit card again. I hope I never HAVE to use a credit card again. I haven't done the math, but I know that we've spent thousands on interest alone.