My Life Was More Fun Before We Started Paying off Debt

Did you look at the title and think, “Well, duh”? Yeah. Duh. I just wanted to talk about a big reason why people turn the other cheek to their finances, especially if they don’t make a lot of money. Life might be more fun when you’re charging everything on credit cards and making minimum payments on your student loans, but the consequences will catch up to you sooner than later.

55+ hour work weeks, strict budget, eating only at home, never buying any wants, never going out, never going to any events…it sounds boring, AF right? Well…right. This is the first time in my entire life that I have ever exuded any semblance of self control. And I don’t want to say that we jumped into this suddenly, because we had steady climb to getting our shit together. It started in 2016 when I realized I had a severe problem with credit cards.

I had refinanced credit cars to personal loans to reduce interest rates probably 5 times at this point. I looked at my balances in the summer of 2016 and thought…”why am I like this? this is awful. something’s gotta give”. So my first thought was how can I get these payments down? That’s when I found a debt consolidation company that negotiates interest rates with your creditors and lowers your monthly payment and cancels all of your accounts so that you can’t spend anymore. I joined that program and vowed to never open another credit card again. But I didn’t keep my promise to myself. I racked up another two credit cards and ended up adding them to the program.

Moral of this story, you cannot shuffle debt around and expect progress. You need to address the issue and the behavior, which I hadn’t addressed once since I was 21 and started using credit cards irresponsibly. For this reason, I will never have another credit card again, no matter how many perks you can get. Perks don’t build wealth. And if you have a history of shopping and spending like I do, credit cards need to become your worst enemy.

One reason people do not want to address their spending habits, finances, and credit card debt is because all the fun credit cards allow them to have. If I didn’t have enough money in my account to go out to eat, I just charged it. If I didn’t have any cash to go shopping, I just charged it. (the store is having a huge sale, can’t miss out!) Really sore and needing a two hour massage? Definitely swiped the plastic for it. My favorite band is coming to town and who knows if their singer will be dead next year, YOLO, charge it.

I completely understand not wanting to give this lifestyle up. I have never made that much money and was working retail when all this credit card mess was happening. If I wanted to anything fun that costed more than going to a movie, I really couldn’t afford it. so I deserve to just have fun anyway right? Haha, no. I did not and do not deserve anything. I am not entitled to fun and entertainment. I am not entitled to, nor do I need new clothes or shoes every week.

The problem with living this way is it’s damaging your future. The choices I made when I was 21-27 limited the success I could have in my 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. The choices I made in my early twenties completely derailed us from having children. If I hadn’t racked up all the debt I did from college up until now, we might have enough space in our budget for daycare. Considering our income is slow, children have to wait. We aren’t mentally ready yet, but if our finances were in a better place maybe my mindset would be different. Neither Nick or I have any long term investments and are just now starting to learn smart spending habits and budgeting. You can invest $2,000 a month from age 19-26, never put another dime in, and it would grow to $2.2 million by age 65, while someone age 27-65 could invest the same amount for all of those years and never catch up to the 19 year old; their investments totaling only $1.5 million. . Insane right? Coulda, shoulda, woulda. But all of those choices impact your future self.

You don’t want to be working until you’re 70! You want to enjoy life and have enough money in investments to live off of, never run out, never be a burden to your children, and have enough to pay for rising health care prices. And who the hell wants to retire with a MORTGAGE? Imagine what you can do with your money if you pay your mortgage off in 5-7 years! The further you delay saving for your future the further you risk not having enough money when you’re older.

I have never lived on a budget until now. Nick and I had a lose budget of how much we needed at what dates to pay the bills, but we never had a hard and fast “STICK TO IT” budget until now. This is new for me. On one hand, I feel very in control. I know what money is coming in, and what money needs to go out. There is sense of peace and security that a budget provides, which is way more important than “fun”. You become more appreciative of things that bring you safety and security as you get older. On another hand, like I said before, this is the first time we have lived on a strict, pretty bare bones, budget. Every excess penny is going to debt, we have a small fun budget and eating out budget, and no wants are included in our budget. I bought new underwear last month and almost cried because it was so fun to spend money and get something NEW.

I’m still adjusting to not buying what I want, let alone being strict about the amount of food and types of food we buy. We are about three months in to strict “gazelle intensity” and I understand why some people don’t finish this journey or give up and lazily pay down their debts and end up getting nowhere. We are paying THOUSANDS of dollars per month towards debt. We are doing absolutely nothing fun or exciting with that money, and that’s hard to wrap your head around the fact that we could have gone to Europe with that money. We are working 110+ hours a week combined, an when our heads hit the pillows, we are out.

But the fact of the matter is, it comes down to the faster you pay off debt, the more likely you are to pay it off for good. I refuse to take the gas off of gazelle intensity, no matter how tired I get, physically or mentally. With the lack of fun and excitement in our lives, comes the freedom from debts as we pay them off, and the exciting ability to cash flow everything that happens along the way. We also get the endorphins and quick wins of paying off debts in full.

We do have a small fun budget of around $90 a month, and we haven’t even used it in November. We took a trip to North Dakota to see my family for my birthday and deer opener, and that was our extent of fun. I am using the remainder of the fun budget to book a room in Vegas with my friend who I promised I would meet up with before gazelle intensity. Yes, I know broke people shouldn’t be going on vacations but trust me, I am keeping it as cheap as possible. We will probably just lay by the pool and catch up because we haven’t seen each other in years and catch a few good meals. It the cheapest place to fly to and we are staying at a cheap hotel. There will be absolutely no trips or vacations after that until we are debt free, besides going home to ND.

Other things I’ve been trying to do to keep life interesting is diving into Disney+, which I get free for a year with Verizon. Oh, the nostalgia! We also have a restaurant budget that allows up to eat out once a month with no alcohol in the bill. Sometimes we split that up and get a burger one weekend, then take out pizza the next. We try to spend as much time with family as possible. Both sides of our family usually take care of us well when we are hanging out with them, and they are happy to see us. Family is priceless and the time with them means more than any shopping trip or vacation I could ever take. I’d love to get into playing card or games more with each other rather than just staring at a TV, haha.

I don’t write out all of this to complain, by ANY MEANS. I’m just acknowledging the shock in lifestyle change. I used to buy so much useless crap I didn’t need. Especially clothes and shoes. Most of which I don’t even have anymore. I could have gone to college debt free if I would have used the money I earned on tuition. I thought college debt was an arbitrary number that didn’t really matter. I was borrowing a lifestyle I couldn’t afford.

So no, my life isn’t fun anymore, lol. But what I have given up will end up being the greatest gift and decision I could have ever made. No more eating out, no more excess in clothing, no more junk into our house, no more concerts or sporting events I can’t afford, everything paid for in cash, in order to live debt free and continue on to build wealth. Freedom from stuff, freedom from debt. Eliminating victim mentality and poor mindset. Freedom to make different career choices and pursue our true passions. The Freedom to have a family of our own, with a completely changed family tree. Maybe I haven’t given up fun after all. Maybe fun just has a new meaning; a new name. I call it freedom.

Live like no one else, so later you can live and give like no one.
Dave Ramsey

Sources:

https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/how-teens-can-become-millionaires

We paid off $3,000 of debt above minimum payments in one month, living paycheck to paycheck

It wasn’t long ago when I was celebrating when my credit card balance dropped below $1,000. Don’t get me wrong, that’s an amazing achievement if you’re working on getting out of debt. But I am just mind blown at how far we’ve come together in our journey. Now, in a single month, living paycheck to paycheck, we are paying off hundreds of dollars at once and cutting payments over $1,000 at one time. I thought I would NEVER be able to do that, let alone get out of debt at all. It’s more than just having the money. It has to do a lot with your mindset and determination. Here is how we did it.

Living on a Budget

Budget is such a gross word. But financial goals don’t work without one. PERIODT. I kid you not that we are still living paycheck to paycheck. Not ALL of our income is going to payments anymore, but it’s close. Now I have budgeted for some giving, miscellaneous items that we may need, and personal care (we lived over budget to buy these things before). Now we can also afford life insurance. Our mortgage and car insurance went up, and we aren’t panicking. But I still consider this paycheck to paycheck, because all these things are necessities.

If we don’t live on a budget, we have no idea where our money is going. An Amazon purchase here, a case of beer there, some new leggings, a night out….$150 bucks that could have gone to debt, saving, or investing (we follow the Ramsey baby steps so no saving or investing right now) If it’s not in the budget, we don’t buy it. When the food cash is gone, we are eating out of the cupboards. When the restaurant cash is gone, we are making sandwiches. (about one sit down meal a month is in our budget…or 2 trips to little ceasars when I don’t wanna cook!)

All of our debts are current and minimum payments are able to be made on time every single month. We have the four walls taken care of: House, Food, Utilities, and Transportation and they’re all current. We can breathe so much easier now that we aren’t strapped as bad as we once were. It feels GOOD! This is all paid with our regular full time job incomes. If we want to get out our butts out of debt, we need to do more.

Since we are doing the 9 week Financial Peace class, included in the membership is the premium version of Everydollar budgeting tool. It’s a website and app where you can budget down to the very cent and link your bank account to match up transactions to lines in your budget. It’s super simple and easy to use. It’s also free for the non-premium version, so you can manually enter all your line items and transactions. Highly recommend checking it out! Otherwise, start with a good old fashioned pen and paper or an excel spreadsheet. Make sure all of your income minus expense equals zero at the end of the month.

Cutting Back and Cutting Down

In my last post I mentioned all the things we’d given up to help us get out of debt. Here are some awesome ways I save money on average monthly expenses.

Cheap food! We only shop at Aldi. I save hundreds shopping here, I’m sure of it. Considering I deliver groceries as a side hustle, I am aware of the prices at other grocery stores and a lot of times it’s ridiculous how much more expensive it is. If you don’t have an Aldi near you, make sure you only buy store brand and on sale.
Dollar Store! Cleaning supplies and some personal care items are really cheap at the dollar store. Carpet cleaner, tooth paste, body wash (NOT shampoo!), razors, deodorant (we can go natural when we are out of debt) and even some food items are a great deal at the dollar store.
Pay off your devices. Most people have a phone payment. That’s technically a debt. If you have two phone payments of $30 a month, that’s $60 you could free up towards other debts, or to help you breathe easier during the month.
Drink less. Drinking at home is way cheaper, but Nick has cut back significantly, freeing up some beer money. You’ll just feel better when you drink less.
Using our crock pot. Crock pot is easy and makes your meals last a lot longer. We usually have leftovers when using a crockpot which saves us from eating out for lunch. Or instantpot, whatever. We aren’t that fancy yet!

Luck

No, I’m not talking about winning the lottery. You have a better chance of being struck by lightning six times on your way to the grocery store than you do winning the lottery, so stop buying tickets.

I feel like I need to upfront- We got married. We got a few cards with money in them. We also stock piled our plasma donation money for our honeymoon and didn’t end up using Nick’s portion, so we had extra donation money this month. But it didn’t even top $1,000.

Hard. Work.

Second job. Side hustle. Overtime. There’s a great place to go when you’re broke. TO WORK. As I mentioned, our full time income goes to the four walls + minimum payments on debts. If we want to dig ourselves out, we needed a bigger shovel.

Nick has the opportunity to do 2 hours of overtime a day for awhile, and he took full advantage. Over the course of a month, this can add up to $1,000! Nick also delivers for UberEats, and he aims for about $100 a week doing that.

I already worked two jobs, but my second job teaching fitness classes is included in our necessary income, not accessory. So I had to kick back into delivering groceries for shipt. Shipt is super busy right now due to football season, so I was able to snag $257 in one day!

We both donate plasma. We are both lucky enough that we are medically eligible to keep this up. You can’t have any medical diagnosis or any new piercings or tattoos. If you manage to get 8 donations in a month, you also receive a bonus. If we get the 8 donations in, it ends up being approximately $30 an hour! You can only donate two times in a seven day period, and your first donation you receive $25 and second you receive $44-$49 depending on your weight. They usually incentivize the last three donations of the money. Make sure you’re eating a lot of foods with iron if you want to do this, because I got deferred last week for low iron. I tend to eat a lot of chicken and eggs for protein, but I needed to switch to turkey or lean beef and add more leafy greens to keep my iron up.

If you don’t live in an area with convenient side hustle options like Uber or grocery delivering, play to your strengths. What are you good at? Can you do calligraphy or carpentry? If you’re good at something, there’s usually a way to monetize it! Maybe refurbish some furniture pieces, mow lawns, shovel snow, or babysit. Maybe work 4 hours on Saturday at a gas station or local grocery store.

Belief in Ourselves and Staying Motivated

You can’t accomplish anything financially if you remain a victim. Are wages stagnant and rent prices high? Sure, maybe. But what are you going to do about it? Sit around, do nothing, and wait for the government to save you? When has that ever happened? No president or congress person is going to save you from being in debt or having a bad financial situation. That’s all on you, my friend.

Sitting around and whining about it will get you nowhere, and student loan forgiveness is a hoax. The government will not forgive student loans. If your job promises student loan forgiveness after 10 years, it’s a farce. 99% of people are denied student loan forgiveness, it’s a fact. Look it up. I’m so sorry if this is the first time you’re hearing that, but do you really want to have Sallie Mae sleeping in your second bedroom for ten years? NO MA’AM, no thank you!

As Dave Ramsey says, there just comes a point in your life where you have to say “THAT’S IT, I’VE HAD IT! I am not living like this ANYMORE!”and yes, he says it in shouty capitals. We had that moment, when we realized we make well over the average household income in America yet we are still BROKE and there’s more month left at the end of the money!

When I started listening to the Dave Ramsey Show on podcasts daily and watching a ton of debt-free screams on Youtube, that’s where most of my motivation came from. I realized that people like us, making less money than us, were able to pay off their debt in two years or less by working their asses off. That really fired me up. It showed me that I can do it too. Listening to the podcasts, I have also learned so much about personal finance that it makes money not so scary anymore. The more knowledge you have the more empowered you become.

As Zig Ziglar once said, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing, that’s why we recommend it daily.” I make sure that I consume some sort of Debt Free material daily. It keeps my fire burning. I look at and adjust my budget daily on Everydollar. I look at my debt balances daily and count down the days until we can pay the next one off. We had some quick wins by paying off a couple small debts fast, so I have already proven to myself that I can do it. I just have to keep going and working hard.

Personal finance is 80% behavior and only 20% math/head knowledge. You can’t think you “know better” than the plan or adjust the plan to your liking. You have to be ALL IN if you’re a Dave Ramsey Baby Stepper. His plan has worked for millions of people AS IS. Some of the notions feel like they don’t make sense, like stopping saving and investing, or paying down smaller balances vs. higher interest rates. But this is about BEHAVIOR and motivation. Getting out of debt takes intense intention. Once we fully submitted to the plan, things started happening and we got intense. It just doesn’t work if you’re piddling a little bit of money in 401k, then a little bit into savings, then paying minimum payments and hoping for the best. When you follow the Dave plan and get out of debt, you’ll be investing and saving far more money than the average person. If you follow Dave’s plan and you’re under 30, you will be a millionaire when you retire. There’s no way around it! You can still be a millionaire if you’re over 30 too, you will learn how to do it if you become a follower. (Lol, that sounds culty. It’s a cult. Join us. Drink the kool-aid!)

Read a lot. Listen to a lot of podcasts. Plug into Youtube videos of success stories. Work really hard. You can do this too! If I can do it, the person that was addicted to spending and never lived on a budget, then anyone can. I fully believe it!

What We’ve Given Up to Gain a Better Future – Consumerism and “Keeping up with the Joneses”

Just a heads up, I get really rant-y in this post. A lot of these words belong to Dave Ramsey, not myself. I have done ALL of these stupid things that I am ranting about, so don’t think I’m being a judgmental asshole. Literally, I have done, said, and thought all of the idiocy I’m about to talk about. You can’t do better until you know better. So buckle up, kids.

I’ve always had an affinity for “stuff” and for name brands. I don’t know where this fondness blossomed from; perhaps it was the fact that I grew up middle class and watched all the rich kids coming to school wearing Limited Too, American Eagle, Abercrombie, and Hollister, while we put our new school clothes on layaway at Kmart.

My relationship with “stuff” and school clothes as a child is very interesting to me. I was always so excited to get something new, even if it wasn’t name brand. New, new, new. We didn’t often shop Goodwill or garage sales, but when we did, I was on the hunt for those name brands. I had an odd obsession for logos to be plastered all over my clothing. I have no idea why! Probably because it was what everyone else was wearing. Name brands cost more money, and if you (or your family) had more “money” then you were cooler. We all want to fit in, want to wear what the cool kids are wearing, and avoid being made fun of for wearing used clothes.

My parents did a great job and I don’t blame my obsession on them. The fact that I didn’t get everything I ever wanted was really good for me, and kids don’t need all that name brand garbage. That didn’t stop be from wanting it all and being a little twerp! They put food on the table and clothes (new clothes! even if they were from Kmart) on our backs. We had a roof over our heads and the lights or water were never shut off. My mom went to college to follow her passion and increase our household income. My parents were the BEST you could get. My mom tried to put us in those name brand clothes here and there and I was still a little brat and always wanted more, newer, better brands. I blame nothing on my parents, because they did a great job.

As I got older, I started “saving” my money to blow on new clothes from Abercrombie, expensive sunglasses, and just random material garbage I just had to have. I created this weird obsession with stuff from trying to fit in with kids at school that I was never going to be as well off or as “cool” as them.

It’s no surprise that all of this translated into my attitudes as a young adult. I started working retail and blowing everything I ever earned on clothes in the stores I worked at. I had to have my Starbucks when I went to the mall, loved the feeling of swiping my card, and there was no happier place for me than a place I could spend all my money on flashy pocket Miss Me jeans and Victoria’s Secret yoga pants.

This obsession with wearing cool brands and fitting in gave me an addiction to shopping and spending. Spending money made me feel so, so good. If I was sad, I wanted to go shopping. If I was happy, I wanted to go shopping. I always had to have the newest and best of everything. Every two years I had to get the newest, latest, and best iPhone.

Watching the newest Apple launch event on YouTube gave me the idea for this blog post, actually. They’re already on iPhone 11, can you believe it? Basically from iPhone 8 up, they can’t get that much greater. They’re all amazing phones and do amazing things. But why do we need the newest one every time one launches? If your phone is working, why do you need to keep spending money to get a new one every single year or sooner? A brand new phone releases and it drops the price of perfectly good phones by hundreds of dollars, but oh no, we will not buy the cheaper model , we will buy the best. When iPhone 8 came out, I bought the iPhone 7 on sale and got a great deal on it, but I still made payments on it for two years.

I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with buying the things we want. But when it becomes a problem is when we are too busy looking as our neighbors, friends, family, and strangers we don’t even know. We are trying to impress people that really don’t give a shit. We buy expensive cars with payments we can’t afford to impress some idiot at the stoplight that we will never meet. We buy newer smartphones to impress other idiots whose faces are buried in their own smartphones so they don’t even see anything else around them, let alone the phone you’re using or the shoes you’re wearing.

As well as impressing other people or keeping up with them, buying all the junk we want becomes a problem when we simply cannot afford it. Charging all this stuff to credit cards, thinking we “deserve” big vacations, financing cars for years upon years to have a lower payment and always trading up, or leasing a new car every 3 years because we just can’t stand to drive an older vehicle.

“Deserve” is a dirty word. “well I work hard I deserve a nice new truck” do you know how childish you sound? I want it and I want it now! Says the red-faced toddler banging its fists onto the floor in a tantrum *insert eye roll emoji* …you are entitled to NOTHING. You deserve what you work hard for, save for, and pay for in cash.

When you can’t afford something but you buy it anyway, you rob yourself of your future. It’s costing you so much more than face value. Credit card interest is out of control. Most cards are over 20%. 67% of people don’t pay off their credit card every month. Even if you do, swiping plastic makes you spend more money because you don’t feel the pain of handing over cash or writing a check.

If you want to buy something, here’s a crazy concept: you save up and pay for it in cash. Then you pay no interest on it. You have a budget, and you give yourself permission to save and spend money on the things you want, without guilt, and making sure you truly want or need them by taking the time to save.

Car loans for young 20 somethings are usually upwards of 5%+ in interest. On a $18,000 vehicle, that is A LOT of interest. When we are young and broke, we have no business driving new cars. A $5,000 car will tote you around just fine, and if you have an emergency fund and a car fund, you can afford the maintenance on it. You can also afford to set money aside for a newer, used vehicle if you have no car payments. But over half of Americans don’t even have $1,000 cash to afford an emergency. Because they’re too busy making HUGE PAYMENTS on their cars they can’t afford! Does anyone else see how backwards this is?

It all comes down to we just can’t stand being behind everyone else and driving something that isn’t new, shiny, comfortable, and full of technology. We are too scared to have to take a car to the shop. A $5,000 2011 car will not leave you stranded on the road. For god sake, get AAA if you’re so scared of your car breaking down.

I could argue about cars for about two decades, but my point is we are just too busy looking into someone else’s life instead of doing what is best for us and our families. We are too busy believing the ingrained lies in society that we need to go to school that looks pretty and come out with 100k in student loans, we need a new car every three years, credit cards are okay to use to get what you want, and we need the cutest home decor and clothes for our kids.

Well, I’m done with that shit. I realized stuff doesn’t make me happy. If my car runs and I keep up on the maintenance, it’s a fine car. If my phone still does what I need it to do, I don’t need a new phone. If I have debt to pay off, I have no business buying new clothes unless every pair of underwear I own has holes. If I don’t have a fully funded emergency fund of 3-6 months worth of expenses, I have no business buying a pumpkin spice latte or shiny pumpkin decorations from TJ Maxx. My ass has no business stepping inside a TJ Maxx AT ALL, lol.

I think I’d rather live off the return on my big fat nest egg at 60 years and leave my kids millions of dollars. Because even making less than 40k a year, I will get to do that with no payments. Yes, we are going to be millionaires when we retire because we’ve decided to stop being normal. When it comes to finance, look at what normal people are doing and RUN THE OTHER WAY. As FAST as you can! That is how you will win!

Because you see, all the payments in my life that I have are because I was trying to impress someone or thinking I deserve something that I truly didn’t need. Also, I have these payments because it was considered normal to spend that way, and because I straight up had a shopping addiction. They’re robbing me of my retirement savings, my healthcare savings, my ability to have a child and afford his/her needs, the ability to save for that child to go to college, and the ability to save money for anything, basically.

What makes us truly and deeply happy is the people and relationships we have in our lives. What makes us happy is being able to spend quality time with those people, no matter the setting. (Hopefully not in a bar blowing $200 on a Saturday night) What makes us happy is feeling secure and knowing that we can take care of ourselves and our family. The fact of the matter is, we can’t have that security with payments. Too many Americans are one paycheck away from being behind on their bills. We can’t have that comfortable, warm, fuzzy feeling of security if the bank owns our car and we have nothing in savings for an emergency. We can’t feel the satisfaction of a payday when it comes in and goes right back out. Happiness is money in the bank, not a pile of useless items in your garage that you’ve grown tired of.

Stuff just also clutters our life. When’s the last time you went through your closet and noted the last time you wore each piece? Yet somehow, we still have nothing to wear. The beauty industry is exploding and makeup companies keep coming out with new eye shadow palettes every single day, yet we still have 12 different shades of brown eye shadow from last year’s palettes. Our drawers are overfilling with bottles and creams we haven’t touched in months. Every spare closet is stuffed with boots and winter coats we don’t wear anymore, bags of shoes from college, Christmas boxes and wrapping paper, and other random miscellaneous junk that’s collecting dust. We just ignore it all because it’s overwhelming. But off we go to TJ Maxx to buy another candle and throw pillow! Because buying feels good and Kelly just re-did her living room for fall so I need to, too!

Enough.

What We’ve Given Up

As promised in the title, here is what we have given up and how we have parred down our budget to be able to pay down our debt and stop filling our house with stuff (our house is 800 sq. feet we really don’t have the room for anything else anyway!)that we don’t need.

Food. We only shop at Aldi and we don’t eat out. We can eat out when we aren’t broke people.
Fun money. Fun? What is fun? We don’t go to bars, get coffee, or go on big expensive vacations or getaways every single weekend. We have a small budget set aside to do maybe one restaurant a month, or random activities Nick enjoys like Softball and Fantasy Football.
Clothes. Our clothes are fine, and will last us two years until we are out of debt. No clothes. No shoes.
Hair, nails, beauty, etc. I buy my nice shampoo that I need for my hair loss, but other than that, no makeup, hair products, hair coloring, nothing. I don’t do that stuff anymore. I can get nice haircuts when I am debt free.
Subscription boxes. The only ones we had ourselves were meal kits, like HelloFresh. But talk about a money drain and a cluster fuck of products you don’t need.
We only have netflix and hulu, otherwise no cable.
Gym Memberships. I have never paid for a gym membership because I am a fitness instructor, haha that’s kind of cheating. But if you’re looking for a side hustle and you love going to the gym, consider working at the gym. Nick goes to a snap fitness and is on a family plan with his mom’s family.
New phones and new cars if ours work just fine (I’ve made that obvious) we pay off our devices and vehicles early (now, in cash) and run them to the ground. We can’t wait to be debt free and start saving for Nick’s truck!
TJ Maxx, Marshall’s, or other discount stores. Oh these are fun. A funnnnnking money suck. I don’t need anymore candles or home decor. I do not need to change my decor every single season beyond what I already own.
Yard care. Oh my god, the ants. It’s pointless to fight the ants and weeds. We just mow the grass and call it a day! It’s covered with snow 6 months of the year anyway.
Anything for my dog other than food and medicine and vet care. She gets the standard treats, food, medicine, and care a dog needs. She has plenty of toys, doesn’t need a new collar every month, or silly clothes that she’s uncomfortable in.
Buying anything basically except food, shelter, utilities, and transportation. If we don’t need it to survive, we really try not to buy it.
Starting a family. We do want kids, this we would probably have held off regardless of our money situation because we just aren’t ready. But we are living paycheck to paycheck as it is, we don’t want bringing a baby into the world to put us in more medical debt or otherwise. We are trying our best to not let that happen. Things happen, but we are making the conscious decision to not try for children until we are debt free.

I know what you’re thinking, that’s no life. No, it’s not. But it’s going to last us two years of our lives. We are in debt, so our hair is on fire, the world is ending, and we need to clean this mess UP. Like, yesterday. So we are working overtime, working weekends, giving up shit, so we can STOP this living paycheck to paycheck MADNESS.

In the wise, wise words of Uncle Dave Ramsey: “We are living like NO ONE ELSE, so later we can LIVE and GIVE like no one else”!

Links:

http://www.daveramsey.com

*I acknowledge that many of these words are not uniquely mine. My references include the Total Money Makeover and The Dave Ramsey Show*

Our Debt Free Wedding

Disclaimer: I want everyone to know that I don’t judge anyone for getting married anyway they want to. I hope that however anyone gets married, it’s absolutely perfect and beautiful and it’s everything they ever dreamed of. I don’t care how you paid for your wedding, I want you to be happy! We had to do what was right for us.

Weddings have to cost an arm and a leg, right? Wrong. You probably have to go into debt to have the wedding of your dreams, right? Wrong. Everyone and their mother will be pissed if they don’t get invited to your wedding, right? …Well, that’s up for debate depending on who you are. We did not want to go into debt for a wedding and just didn’t have the cash flow to take the traditional route. I’m also super introverted, hate attention, and really don’t like dancing. Here is how we pulled off a debt free, beautiful private ceremony on the shore of Gunflint Lake, north of Grand Marais, MN.

The Inspiration

I would say about two years ago, I started thinking about our wedding. I got really sad. I was 25 years old, in a pile of debt, making really crap money, and saw no way that we could get married and have the wedding we wanted with our income. The venue I wanted was some crazy number in the thousands, dresses were hundreds of dollars, photography was thousands… I just couldn’t stomach it. Whenever I thought about getting married to the man I loved, I got sad because we could never afford it. That is not how the thought of marriage should make you feel.

One day, I was scrolling through Instagram and saw one of the girls I followed had eloped with her husband in the woods. The pictures were some of the most dreamy images I had ever seen. She wore a beautiful dress, he wore a suit, she had stunning flowers and perfectly done hair. The atmosphere seemed serene and tranquil. No wedding party, no family, no big dinner, …no stress.

I was inspired. I thought, “Well, I bet that didn’t cost that much…” I started searching for elopement packages in Minnesota. I came across an all inclusive package at Gunflint Lodge on the Canadian border. All meals, two massages, a bunch of fun lake activities, a ceremony and witnesses, all included?! I was ready to sign on the dotted line!

I wanted to tell my parents my plan and make sure my family was okay with not doing the “big wedding thing”. They were totally all for it, but they really wanted to be there. I decided, of course, parents can be there, but we will have to stop there so we don’t have too many people feeling left out. We plan to celebrate with everyone in the spring when everyone’s schedules have cooled off. That’s what people come for anyway, right? The food and the drinks! They missed the boring stuff.

The Location

Gunflint Lodge is located on Gunflint Lake which lies across the Canadian Border, about an hour away from Grand Marais, MN. We arrived on a Friday afternoon and had our ceremony Sunday evening. Some photographers will have cheaper rates for Sundays rather than Saturdays, so it’s worth looking into getting married on a Sunday to save some money on the pictures. Eloping will always make your pictures cheaper, but not any less beautiful. We had our photographer for three hours and captured all of our amazing, special moments.

The elopement package was all inclusive, and for 3 nights we relaxed in a quiet, cozy cabin near the lake. It had a full kitchen, washer and dryer, and spa hot tub! Nick enjoyed fishing with my Dad every morning, my mom and I enjoyed a kayak paddle on a glassy lake Saturday morning. We fed the ducks that come back every year; they eat straight from your hands! We enjoyed all meals at the lodge, included in our package. The food was amazing! Sunday night for our wedding, we had their amazing barbecue spread that was probably the best “wedding food” I’d ever tasted.

The set up a beautiful clothed table with candles in a quiet room with a fireplace where we enjoyed champagne, dinner, and drinks by the fire place. It was a an absolute dream!

Gunflint Lodge has plenty to offer for any outdoor lover; wildlife, ziplining, fishing, hiking, kayaking, pontoon rentals, lakeside massages, bonfires, and so much more! We took advantage of one of the hiking trails to find a beautiful location for our after ceremony photos. We were “backwoods uber-ed” up the trail to capture some dreamy, rainy day shots. Thankfully, it didn’t rain for our ceremony but afterward we got quite wet! The weather the rest of the time we were up there was beautiful otherwise, go figure.

The Clothes, Hair, Shoes, Etc…

You can totally make all this stuff cost $10,000 without even trying that hard. Nick had purchased a suit for someone else’s wedding that I really liked, and only ended up costing him around $250, and his shoes were a gift for being in the wedding which worked out really well for us. I decided to design the rest of my little wedding around the colors of that suit.

My dad had a grey suit with blue shirt and tie, which was the opposite of nick’s colors, so I had the dads dress in grey and the moms in navy. I bought flowers from Michael’s and my mom, aunt and I made me a bouquet and boutonnieres for the parents. We didn’t have the option for fresh flowers since the wedding was on a Sunday. We saved a lot using plastic flowers and making them oursselves.

My dress was from David’s Bridal and I bought it during a 25% off sale. You can honestly go even cheaper and just wear whatever the heck you want, or a cute white dress from any online website. I still wanted that bridal feel, without being too overdone. I was able to find a style that suited the location pretty well and didn’t cost TOO much. I bought my shoes on clearance at an end of season sale. They were like $12, haha. I know David’s Bridal is a huge chain corporation but I was only going to be wearing the dang thing once, and I can’t justify spending over $1,000 on a dress, no matter whose money was paying for it. You can check bridal consignment shops and used wedding dress websites after going and trying on dresses to find your style!

Alterations for the dress were a little shocking in price, but looking back I’m glad I did pay for the dress to get bustles because it was really nice being bustled after pictures were done and we were walking around drinking and eating, even though we didn’t have a dance.

I got my earrings and necklace buy one get one half off at Claire’s, as well as a hair clip from Amazon, and someone came from Grand Marais to do my hair. Having a professional do my hair was 100% worth it because I am completely inept at styling my hair and she did a fantastic job! Thankfully, I have been watching YouTube makeup videos since 2016 so I had a lot of practice doing my own makeup. I tried to let go of perfection, and even forgot my most important tool, my makeup sponge! It turned out just fine.

The Cost

I’m sure everyone is dying to know how much all of this cost and how we managed to get hitched and have a honeymoon debt free. As far as specific costs go, some of that information can be found on Gunflint’s website. To be honest, I don’t know what other people are shelling out for weddings. I did very little research on traditional weddings before I decided this was what I wanted to do. At best guess, I’m going to say this cost a little less than 1/6-1/8 the cost of a traditional wedding.

I know that some people are not so lucky, but we do have very generous parents that were able to help us out with costs. They were grateful that this is the route we chose to take. We all had a fantastic time. I do not want to leave the rest of my family and friends out of celebrating our weddings, so we do have two casual parties planned (most likely backyard BBQ style) next spring, so you can probably guess the cost on food and kegs there.

Fact of the matter is, we are trying really hard to accommodate those we love so that they can celebrate with us and not spend too much money. Since I have a lot of family in North Dakota, we didn’t want them all to have to travel and a get a hotel for a wedding, so we are having a party there and at our home in Minneapolis. I also didn’t want ANYONE buying a new outfit because they had “nothing to wear” to another wedding! I didn’t want our day to take away from your summer plans. I’m such an empathe, so I am uber-aware of what other people go through when it comes to being a guest or being in a big event like this. It’s stressful for not just us, but everyone involved or invited to some extent. I just want to eliminate all that and keep it really casual!

As for our honeymoon, we stayed three nights at Gunflint Lodge and enjoyed a lot of alone and special time there, but we wanted to extend the trip so we decided to book a couple extra nights at a VRBO on the shore of Lake Superior. It was the most stunning, adorable cottage! We paid for our extended vacation solely with money from donating our plasma. We took cash from our pre-paid plasma cards and paid for all of our souvenirs and meals in cash. Nick paid for our VRBO with his plasma card. Again, we are lucky, because not every person can handle donating plasma, and not everyone is eligible to donate plasma. I can write an entire post about donating plasma, if anyone is interested. The cost of our wedding did not touch or full time income.

We are Dave Ramsey people, so this wedding had to be completely cash flowed. We don’t own a single credit card anymore and taking on debt or loans of any kind is not a thing we consider in our household. Now we are back home, plugging away at our debt as normal and super happy that we didn’t create anymore while we enjoyed ourselves on the North Shore.

It’s definitely possible to do a traditional wedding at a lower cost too. I hear a lot of people on the Dave Ramsey show cash flowing 10-20k weddings and Dave is totally in agreement with that. (Yes, I’m a slave to Dave and only do what Dave says it okay lol) We just didn’t even look into it once I found Gunflint online.

I know a lot of people think a couple nights in an Air B + B is not a real honeymoon, but frankly I don’t care, lol. It was wonderful, relaxing, beautiful, and everything I could ever ask of a vacation. I would take a relaxing cabin on the lake over a bungalow in the Mediterranean twenty times over. I could not have pictured it to be any more perfect.

The Speculation

I want everyone to know that I don’t judge anyone for getting married anyway they want to. I hope that however anyone gets married, it’s absolutely perfect and beautiful and it’s everything they ever dreamed of. I don’t care how you paid for your wedding, I want you to be happy! We had to do what was right for us. I am shy, introverted, don’t like attention, and have always tried to have an unorthodox train of thought. (some people just think I’m weird, maybe they’re right) I just don’t think a big wedding would have fit my personality and I don’t think I would have had that much fun. Like I said, I thought of a wedding and got sad, (because it seemed expensive and stressful) and that’s not how getting married should make you feel.

Nick and I love the outdoors so this style of getting married blended our ceremony into our honeymoon perfectly. We just straight up don’t have the money to feed people at $25 a plate or pay for an unlimited bar. If anyone thinks this is selfish, well, I’m sorry (but not sorry?) you feel that way. We plan to celebrate with everyone in a casual environment, which is much more style, and provide food and kegs which you would get at a traditional wedding anyway.

I just wanted my ceremony to be private and special and share one of the most intimate moments of my life with the person that matters the most in this equation, and that is my husband.

and finally, no, I’m not pregnant.

We have had this trip planned for about a year now, we booked it out exactly one year before the date!

Final Thoughts

Would I do it all again? Do I feel like I’m missing out from not doing the big wedding?

YES and NO!

We saved so much freaking money, it’s insane. And we had the absolute BEST time of our lives. It is the most amazing trip I’ve ever taken, and I came home with the absolute best souvenir I could have ever imagined; a loving, caring, kind, thoughtful, generous, and 99.9% perfect husband. I can’t say 100% or y’all would think we are even more weird. He chews a little loud sometimes I guess…..?

Please look out for save the dates later this year! We can’t wait to celebrate with our close friends and family.

Links

http://www.daveramsey.com

Romantic

http://www.gunflint.com/romantic

http://www.rebelrabbitphotography.com

Find me on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/seier10

Find me on Instagram:

katiejohnson_mpls

Payments are Eating Us Alive – How we plan to tackle our Debt

In my last post, I mentioned we make over $80,000 a year and have only $100 left at the end of the month after doing a rough budget of all our payments and monthly expenses. That hardly seems like money that’s going to help us tackle our debt in two years, which is our plan.

Nope, it definitely isn’t enough. So how are we going to be getting out of debt in two years? Here is the plan:

It starts with being intentional and actually having a plan. If you don’t focus on the outcome you’re hoping for, you’re just shooting into the wind.

A plan includes knowing how much debt you have and a written budget. You have to face your debt head on. If you don’t know exactly how much you’ve got and what the minimum payments are, you can’t form your detailed plan. I did a rough draft of a budget and found out the ugly truth of how those minimum payments were eating up our income. Here is some better news: a lot of people do a written budget and feel like they’ve gotten a raise. Because they realize how much money they’ve been spending on crap. We didn’t have the money to waste, but somehow we still seemed to be wasting it. Hence why I had credit card debt, because I didn’t have cash so I paid for the things I wanted with cards. Things I didn’t need and things I definitely didn’t deserve.

Next, we had to cut the budget. I had to look at how much we had set aside for “fun money” and food money in particular. We are in debt, we created a big mess. We had our fun. Now it’s time to cut down on the fun and eating out, and get intentional about what we are trying to do. Once the fun and food money is gone, it’s gone. No overspending. We shop at only aldi for our food, and if not, we only buy store brands or food that’s on sale. Maintaining my health is important to me, so I made sure I buy vegetables and fruits that are in season and on sale. I refuse to only eat ramen noodles and rice and beans to get out of debt, because feeling good is worth the price to me and honestly it can be done in an affordable way. As my uncle Dave Ramsey says, “Live like no one else so later you can live and give like no one else.”

Since after doing an intentional budget we only have $100 left, that means we need to get serious about creating more income. Thankfully, Nick’s job offers two hours of overtime per day for a few months at the end of the year. If your job offers overtime, TAKE IT!! TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN! It will help advance your career too, and make you look good for future promotions and raises. On top of that, I already work full time and have a second job as a fitness instructor. The five classes I teach a week are included in my income because it’s so low. I needed another job! I decided to start shopping and delivering groceries for Shipt. I can make about $200 a week by shopping on Saturday and Sunday. Nick also decided to drive for UberEats, and that makes about the same in the same amount of time. All of our extra income is going to allow us to put $2,000 extra per month towards our debt, at least while Nick is doing overtime.

All extra income goes toward debt. If we get a gift, a bonus, a cash tip… it goes to debt. If we don’t need it to pay bills, it goes to debt. If we have stuff we aren’t using and we sell it, it goes to debt. That’s another great tip; so many of us have junk sitting around we don’t need. Sell it for cash!

While intentionally is definitely the first key for us, getting out of the “payments are normal” mindset is essential for anyone taking this journey. Yeah, payments are normal. Normal SUCKS! The sooner we get out of debt, the less payments and interest we will pay! And that includes sacrifice. Adults devise a plan and follow it, children do what feels good. If we delay gratification now, we can have what we want down the line. And even better than that, we will be able to be generous and leave a legacy for our family. Giving makes you feel good.

We also need to maintain belief in ourselves that we can do this. Just like anything, there is a proven plan (and hats the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps) and if you follow it, you will reap the benefits and get the results you want. But we have to stay motivated and keep ourselves focused on WHY we are doing this. If you don’t have a strong “why”, you will struggle to stay on plan. If you don’t have a REALLY strong why, you will not be motivated to work that overtime or go out and work on the weekends. It’s short term pain for a GREAT long term gain!

My blog is intended to document our journey. But I hope if you read, you get some inspiration, motivation, or little nuggets of information that you might take into your own life. I never want to come off as judgmental, because that would be incredibly hypocritical, considering the big debt mess we are in. I want people to stop believing the lies they’ve been told: that debt is good, that debt is a tool, that credit cards are beneficial, that student loan payments until you’re 50 are normal, and that the little man can’t get ahead. They’re all LIES! You can make an amazing future for yourself even on a minimal income. Yes, it requires hard work, less sleep, a little more stress, and a lot less fun. But it will all be worth it in the end.

We are following the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps. Please visit http://www.daveramsey.com to get started.

Why we are choosing a Debt Free Lifestyle

No more credit cards. (No, not even for “points”, cash back, or miles). No more car loans. No more payment plans. No more student loans.

Cash Flowing everything sounds CRAZY because who delays gratification? Just get a loan and get what you want now! Just make $50/month payments on that iPhone XyZR10! Cash Flowing everything sounds like a pipe dream, but only if you continue to believe the lies society is pushing about personal finance.

Our finances never got into a catastrophic mess, we don’t have anything in collections, no creditors calling our house, our wages have never been garnished, we’ve never had a car repossessed, and our house isn’t in foreclosure. Most of society isn’t. For some people, it takes getting to that point to have their “I’VE HAD IT!” moment. But we were in that dangerous spot. That “normal” place where charging emergencies on a credit card is considered a good practice, 60+ month car loans are a-okay, student loans are a way of life, and interest was our roommate. We were normal, and normal is dangerous.

We have an annual household income of over $80,000. That’s above the national average, which is approximately $50,000. But when I sat down and wrote out all of our payments and income, I was shocked to find we only have about $100 left at the end of the month. That includes gas, food, and a little fun money each month. We aren’t putting money in savings. We aren’t saving for retirement. How do we make $80k a year and literally have no money left at the end of the month for any of this stuff?

Payments. Payments are eating us ALIVE. We are living paycheck to paycheck and are not able to save for our future because we are essentially paying for someone else’s future with interest on all of our PAYMENTS. 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. We are so normal. So very average. I thought if we are ever going to have a family or have any savings for retirement, something needs to change. We need to stop being normal.

You see, I thought I was a victim. I’m a victim of high cost of living. I’m a victim of high housing costs. I’m a victim of student loan debt. It was everybody else’s fault but mine. But if we look at it all on paper, if we didn’t have these payments (credit cards, cars, personal loans, student loans, furniture) …we would be just fine. We’d have over half of our income to ourselves. And who was the one who racked up all that debt? It wasn’t the government, it wasn’t society, it was us. We made the purchases that we didn’t need, we made the mistakes.

“But everyone has student loans! You can’t go to college without them!” False. I came out of college with about 10,000 in debt. I earned a Bachelor’s Degree in 3 years. I worked those three years. I could have cash flowed school, but I used my income to buy stupid shit, like clothes, shoes, and designer sunglasses. I went to a school close to home, took dual credit classes for cheap, and lived at home. There are ways to get a degree without student loan payments robbing you of your income for years, but I digress.

The only thing I am a victim of when it comes to personal finance is my own stupid choices. We have $100 in our bank accounts at the end of the month because of the ridiculous purchases I made and that I’m paying for now. You guys, charging up credit cards is ruining your life and your future. The average car payment in America is $500. You are driving around your kids’ college fund.

Writing out that first rough draft budge was my “I’VE HAD IT!” moment. We cannot continue to live like this. People say you can have kids whenever you want, you’ll never be ready. On a scale of “not ready” to “sort of ready” for starting a family, we are negative 10 million “not ready”‘s. Put our kids in daycare with what money? That $100 at the end of the month will pay for exactly one minute of one day in daycare per month.

We want to start a family some day. We want to have a boat and enjoy the Minnesota summers. We want to have a lake cabin someday. We can’t do that with $100 a month. We can’t retire on $0. We cannot BE NORMAL ANYMORE! We are done! We’ve HAD IT!

So far in 2019, we have paid off four credit cards and our couch. I feel somewhat uncomfortable talking about my mistakes, but I listen to the Dave Ramsey show everyday and many, many people have over 10,000 in credit card debt alone. I’ve never had that much, but it just goes to show how normal it is to use credit cards and use them poorly.

We now save up and pay cash for everything. From here on out, even any future cars we purchase will be paid for in cash. We will start a college fund for our children, and they will go to school debt free. When we are out of debt, we will be able to invest 15% of our income into retirement. At my salary investing that much, starting at 30 years old, I will retire with over $3 million. And I do not make that much money, y’all. That doesn’t include Nick’s retirement. It sounds CRAZY. Because it isn’t normal. Being normal is being in debt your whole life and having a mortgage payment forever. Oh yeah, we are going to pay our house off too, like crazy people. It starts with belief, that you CAN do it, and that you CAN win with money. Ditch that victim mentality. If I can do it with my small income, you can too.

I beg you, if you’re reading this and thinking, “Oh shit. I’m normal.” start following Dave Ramsey. Start by reading “The Total Money Makeover” and get yourself on a written budget. Start listening to his Podcast. Get motivated. Because the shortest path to wealth is staying out of debt, and we are not victims. We can win with money. We can overcome our mistakes and build a future we are proud of.

Sources for this post come from the Dave Ramsey show. It’s all information I have heard Dave and the Ramsey personalities cite over and over again on the show.
https://www.daveramsey.com/