Top Five Lessons I've Learned While Becoming Debt Free

This month I will complete my journey to being debt free. I cannot believe I'm here. I thought it would take me ten years to pay off Sallie, but the freedom is just around the corner. The reality sunk in last night when I was talking with my husband. In fact, I was almost giddy with excitement. Anyway, as I talked with Mr. J about the end of our journey, I came up with a top five list of lessons I've learned while becoming debt free. Here they are for you to peruse:

1. Contentment is everything. Before we got serious about becoming debt free, I complained about what I didn't have. The third month into the budget, I realized something very important: I have everything I need. What a novel concept! I have a home, I always have food, and I have clean running water. I know it sounds cliche to say that some people don't have these essentials, but the fact of the matter is that it's true. There are people all over the world who struggle to put food into their mouths everyday. The fact that I don't have a flat screen t.v. in my house pales in comparison to their lack of nutrition.

2. Get busy living your life. The summer of 2009 was a big year for me. I graduated college. I moved back home. I got my first "real" job. I married my honey. Unfortunately, amidst all these wonderful things, I was feeling a little blue. I had no friends. All of my friends from college had gone home, and all of my friends from home had moved away. My husband was working night shift, so I was pretty lonely. I spent a lot of time watching movies, t.v., surfing the internet, and shopping for fun. I was replacing relationships with people by filling my time with escapist activities. The cold hard truth was that at the end of a t.v. episode, I was still alone. So I started inviting people from work out to coffee. I found a church and became involved. I started volunteering in the community. Now my life feels so full that I've had to start practicing the art of saying no. I'm living my life as opposed to escaping it.

3. Stuff is just stuff. Simple living seemed like such a weird concept to me. Why would I want to bake my own bread when I can buy fresh loaves at the store? Why would I want to do without when I can have more? Even though advertisements try to convince us otherwise, stuff can't make us happy. I realized this as I cleaned out my closet for a yard sale. I had more clothes than I could wear in a month, yet I always seemed to wear the same six or seven outfits even though I always complained about having nothing to wear! I simplified my life and cleared out the clutter. I've never felt more organized. I feel like I have power over my house now instead of my house always feeling like it is out of control.

4. Giving is receiving. Money is a piece of paper. I do not want a piece of paper to be the main focus of my life. In order to move away from the widely held belief that money is everything, I needed to start giving some away. I've been focusing lately on giving God my first fruits. Before now, I would give Him my leftovers. Think about that: God, who gave me everything, gets what is left over after I fulfill my every desire. How stinkin' selfish! I've also been trying to volunteer at least once a month. Lately I find working with my hands so gratifying. My new favorite place to volunteer is called the Christmas Store. The store provides low income families gifts for Christmas. I only spent an hour there, but I was so moved by the experience that I know I'll go back.

5. Prioritize your wants. I could probably make a list of all the things I'd like to have over the course of my life, but I have to start with one thing at a time. Instead of buying everything we want on credit, we will start saving in January for one purchase at a time. Once we've paid cash for that purchase, we can start in on something else. I have a limited amount of cash flow, and I've learned throughout this process that I have to pay attention to my outflow. After all, delayed gratification is so rewarding in the end.

So there you have it: five lessons I've learned while becoming DEBT FREE. Isn't it funny that only one is truly money related? This experience was so much more than just getting a handle on my finances. I thought I knew these lessons because I certainly heard my lips saying some of them out loud, but I didn't know squat. The path to becoming debt free has changed my whole perspective on life. What effect could becoming debt free have for you?

Money Successes and Failures For the Month of May

I get paid tomorrow which is a good thing because we have been bleeding money again this month. The problem with this month was my budgeting to zero methodology. My husband gets paid every two weeks. With the first check of the month, I pay all our minor bills like cable, electric, interwebs, etc. With the second check of the month, I pay our mortgage. My check automatically goes to debt repayment.

Spending our checks like this has worked great so far. We've always had extra after each check, and I've been able to send extra to Sallie Mae. Unfortunately (or, actually fortunately), Mr. Wooks and I took a staycation at the beginning of the month. If you didn't know, a staycation is when you take days off of work and hang out at the house. We desperately needed this staycation. We work opposite shifts, and I have seen my husband a total of 30 minutes over the past five weeks. Anyway, he took four days of paid vacation. Now, I know you're asking yourself "well if it was paid vacay, what is the problem?" Well, let me answer that for you. The problem is that my husband only gets paid for eight hours when he takes vacation. When he works, he works 12 hours. Essentially we lost sixteen pay hours while we were watching reruns of Grey's Anatomy.

The first check of the month was big as usual. I paid all of our minor bills and was left with $600. I sent $500 to Sallie Mae and tucked $100 into our checking account in anticipation of a smaller check. I was not anticipating a REALLY small check, and we actually barely squeaked out enough for our mortgage with his second check. Really, this is no big deal because we have my check to fall back on, but we've been living so beautifully on one income that this setback made me feel a bit like a failure.

When I get my check tomorrow, I will take out $100 for gas and groceries next week and send the rest to Sallie Mae. I believe I will still be able to send roughly $2,200 leaving me just over $21,000 in debt. With my summer school pay, I should be debt free by the end of 2010 (literally right after Christmas!)!! I've already started browsing for next summer's vacation because, well, I will be able to afford it. :)

Money Successes and Failures For the Month of April

Well, we've made it to the end of another month and for once I've got more money than month left! My net worth actually GREW in April (I mean, only by like $100, but still). So instead of bogging my blog down with my boring April budget, I thought I'd just highlight my money successes and failures. Let's just go ahead and start with the failures so we can get those out of the way.

Failures:
*We spent $355 on a lawn mower, gas can, and warranty. I tried to convince the hubs we didn't need a warranty, but he would not hear it. To appease him, I bought the three year warranty which pretty much guarantees that on the first day of the fourth year we will be cussing a broken lawnmower. I mean, that's just the way a warranty works.

*I got my hair cut and splurged on fancy pants shampoo to the tune of $36. On the plus side, my hair looks pretty and my scalp will be flake free.

*I spent $75 on spring clothes and birthday presents for my husband.
Spending outside of the budget topped over $400 this month.

Now on to the good stuff!

Successes:
*I sent a whopping $15,000 to Sallie Mae this month bringing my total remaining SL balance to just over $24,000. $12,000 came from a tax return and the other $3,000 came from our personal checks. Take that, you money grubbing heifer! It won't be long until you pack up your bags and leave my guest bedroom forever!

*We didn't tap into savings for the $400 of failure stuff AND we sent extra to Sallie Mae meaning somehow we must have made BANK in terms of income this month. I haven't tallied up our total income for April, but I think it's a personal best.

*I frugally made meals this month and I still have groceries left over meaning May's grocery bill will be small.

*We gave charitably this month. Giving charitably is something I want to start doing more often.