A huge goal, ACCOMPLISHED!

When I worked at Cingular, a guy that worked close by my desk told me about this radio show that I might be interested in. He said the guy is a financial whiz and has a Christian based approach to money. In addition to being informative, his radio show was entertaining because the guy told people the truth and he didn't beat around the bush about it. The radio show was The Dave Ramsey show, and it changed my life.

When Bill and I got married, we had quite a bit of debt between us. Not exactly the way we wanted our marriage to start, but it was within our power to change it. A few days after we came back from our honeymoon, we cut up any and all credit cards that we had. We started throwing as much money as possible into our savings account and put ourselves on a budget. Now I will be the first to tell you, this wasn't easy for me. Before I met Bill, I spent my money as fast as I earned it. I didn't inherit that "frugal-money-saving" gene that he did, and I was a little doubtful that we could ever actually be without any debt. Yes, I loved listening to Dave and I loved his ideas, but actually putting them into action was another thing.

I bought his Total Money Makeover book and decided that the envelope system was something I would like to try. So after we made our budget, I would go to the bank on the first of every month to withdraw our cash. That cash paid for everything except monthly bills and gas at the pump. We tried to pay for our gasoline with cash, once, but when we were in a hurry to get to Hot Springs on a camping trip, and it took about twenty minutes waiting in line at the gas station to pay them. We decided that just wasn't worth it. So from then on it was pay-at-the-pump with the good ol' check card.

The first major thing that we paid off was my fourwheeler, that was about June of 2006. And I will never forget how good that felt. Then month after month we were making huge dents in our debt and saving money at the same time. Anybody who tells you that you can't live good while paying off debt is crazy, either that or they ain't doin' it right!

Two and a half years later we still use the envelope system, I doubt we will ever stop, because I prefer it. We paid off our home last week, and sent our check to Ford the other day to pay off the truck. Thank you God for helping us out of this mess!

So in less than three years we made our dream happen. I can finally say the three words I have always longed to shout to the world.

WE'RE DEBT FREE !!!!