Family Friday #1: Family Goal!!

Fridays are dedicated to talking about things that are family topics. This can vary greatly from week to week and include a lot of different components. This can be family activities, family topics, family goals, family updates, etc...

Family Friday topic of the day is the Get out of Debt Plan!

Anthony and I have been through a lot in our short marriage of 5 years. We have lost a child to a late term miscarriage, lost a very lucrative job to the recession, 9 months on unemployment after said loss, moved across the country, and although a HUGE blessing...had a little guy 2 months early that required a month in the NICU. These have all been huge financial hardships and created a mess of debt. Some of it is "good debt" like my student loans and anything that made Max get through being early and other things are "bad debt" like having to let bills go in fear of losing our home during 9 months of unemployment. Through the process, we sought financial counseling. Some of that counsel was wise counsel and some of it really wasn't.

All of that to explain one of our family goals. Anthony and I want to be debt free (except for my student loans) by the end of 2015. Since this is a post about family and that is one of our goals, I thought that once in a while I would update on here how much debt we have eliminated through our plan and give you our plan for getting out of it.

First of all, there is always a plan for us to GIVE more. It's extremely hard to sit and complain about your lot in life when you are giving to people in more need than yourself. It is a great way to get perspective as you are downsizing your own life. The other plan is to use 20% of our income towards paying off our debts. That does not seem like a lot but there are other family expenses that really consume the other 70% and then the 10% that we always want to give from.

Another part of this plan was to downsize our life considerably. This included, but is not limited to, eating ALL of our meals at home, shopping from the Sale ads and budgeting $40/week for Groceries. It's hard but I am almost a genius at this by now. Another thing we did was cut off our cell phones. We were paying $200 a month for our cell phone plan with unlimited data packages. We have since come to the end of our contracts and did not renew them and allowed the phones to be shut off. That was a hard stuff for both us being that we are into our technology! We also are getting rid of our storage unit in California (losing some items is part of this as well) but my mentality is that if we haven't used any of these items in almost 2 years now, we probably don't need it! We also don't have luxuries like cable in our house. We stick with Netflix which is reasonable and unlimited so it allows us to enjoy appropriate tv with no commercials.

We also run a home based business with Scentsy, are considering adding another home based business so that I can work from home, and I take tutoring clients both locally and over the phone from California. These are all sacrifices we are willing to make in order to get ourselves to a healthy place financially.

THE WHY....

Most people would say something like wanting to buy a home, a new car, etc...as the reason they wanted to be out of debt. For Anthony and myself, we have two 12 year old vehicles still running fantastically and they are paid off. If we purchase another vehicle (such as a more roomy SUV) it will be used and we will not be taking on a new loan. We are not planning to buy a home for several more years due to having a place we really love that is VERY reasonable in cost. Our plan for getting out of debt is to teach our son to be a responsible steward and not to purchase things he cannot afford or overextend himself. Also, we want to teach the lesson of giving and enjoying family and experiences over THINGS.

I will be updating on this goal as often as I see fit and the next time I update, I am hoping to have a number of how much debt we have accrued with collections bills, credit cards, and medical bills. It is probably a large number but I believe that God will bless our efforts and soon enough I will be paying much more than 20% on debt and be able to get out of debt by the end of 2015! Please join with us in prayer on this goal. What are some of your family goals?