Halejuah! We are debt free!! This may seem misleading but to be more specific, We are *Consumer Debt Free!! This means no more vehicle payments, credit card payments, student loan payments….get it? We are free from all debt that is consumable and does not appreciate. It wasn’t as easy get out of this debt as it was to just swipe and sign away to get in it, but with diligence towards a common goal we did it and YOU can too! There are some realizations and steps to take to make it work though. Keep reading to see how we paid off $46,474.05 in 11 months!
What we owed when we decided to pay everything off: -CBR 600 $3,146.97, 2012 CBR 250R $1,721.09, 2010 rs Camaro $2,396.13, 2011 Kia Soul ! $279.12, Grad Loan A $10,601.29, Grad Loan B $24,214.74, Best Buy Credit Card $569.44, Fairwinds Credit Card $1,460.22. A total of $44,389! 44 thousand dollars is an overwhelming number. I was working part-time, interning part-time and fresh out of grad school for Public Administration. We were going on our second year living in our new home and finishing up our first year of marriage. How in the hay were we going to pay all of that off?! First, Cody offered to sell his car and use that money against the smaller debts. I was totally against it at first, but I began to understand he was working toward our future. A future where he can by ANY Camaro his heart disired. I saw the passion he had to dig ourselves out of this thing and I absolutely had to support him! – What We Planned: Our plan was to pay everything within 12 months and we ended up making that goal in a little over 11. We kept $1K in a savings account and depleted EVERYTHING we had in the bank. This amounted to $4,760.14. Dude, between the both of us we didn’t even have $5K in the bank. WOW. Looking back at that number is so sad. He worked full time and paid every bill, filled up our gas tanks and paid for groceries. There was NO WAY we should’ve only had $4,700 between the both of us. So after our cars and the credit cards were paid, we went to work with a written plan we followed explicitly. Between February 1st and April 20th, we cut our cable and grocery bill. Cody stopped driving his camaro and was strictly on the motorcycle. We ended up saving enough to pay off both motorcycles in that time frame. $4,907.29.