Batter Up!!!

We knocked another envelope out of the park this week. Our tax refund helped and we are happy to say that we've paid off $2,000 in debt this year we have $33,000 left to pay off. The card on the inside gave us a little spending money to go buy some spring clothes. It was nice to pick up a few things that we've been wanting/needing.

Our apartment lease is up in May and we had to make a decision to stay here or move somewhere cheaper to keep this debt-free game from going into extra innings. So we recently decided to turn in our 60 days notice and we're preparing to move out. We started looking for apartments but every place we called about is ready now...we're not. So we are learning to step out in faith. Yikes! I was using craigslist to soothe my fear of homelessness, but it was only making me more insecure. Chris and I decided that we aren't actually practicing faith...just fear and self-reliance. So craigslist is going to wait until we get closer to the move-out date and we are going to treat our fear of homelessness with a huge dose of prayer.

Envelope #3: $747.09 left to pay off

In 1 Month...

It's been a month since we had to buy Chris a new car. Since then we have been putting all our extra money to build our $1,000 emergency savings back up. In the last month we only made the minimum payment to each of our 3 student loans. As of yesterday, we now have a fully funded emergency fund (yay!!) and we are ready to start paying off debt again. We call this snowballing.

Dave Ramsey's strategy for efficient debt pay-off is to put your debts in order from the smallest amount owed to the largest amount owed. Start working on the smallest one first, making only minimum payments to the rest. As soon as the smallest debt is paid off take all of that money and put it toward debt number 2. It's a snowball effect. When we started paying off debt we didn't have much of a snowball because all of our money was spread out over several debts. Now that we are only down to 3 debts our snowball is huge compared to what we used to snowball!!

The encouragement in the beginning was to be able to pay off small debts quickly and be done with them. Now since we are at our largest debts, they don't go away as quickly, but we see this huge chunk of money that someday will be ours to choose where it goes! We could literally send someone from our church to the Philippines every 2 months with our snowball right now. We can chose to do that someday when our money is ours again!

Oh and that $1,000 envelope hanging on our fridge- it only needs $50.79 to open it. Read about our envelope motivation system to finish our last $35,000 of debt in one of my older posts.

Going on a financial diet!

We are getting very close to opening our first envelope on our final debt-free push. So far this year we have paid $918. Yes!!! In order to get this huge snowball rolling, our finances had to go on a diet! We have correlated our financial journey to a diet so many times it is really starting to click now! We are financially overweight, in order to dig out of this hole, we have to cut our spending (calories) and create good habits (exercise). It takes discipline- everyday! A quote that keeps coming around to us is "Do the next right thing!" That sounds so much easier to do the next right thing than to look at our 35 envelopes and become discouraged.

This past year my husband, Chris, was the master of discipline in his eating habits. In 2011, he lost 90 pounds and since we've been married he's cut 110 pounds. People come up to him and ask him how he did it and he's most frustrated that he doesn't really know what to tell them! He didn't do anything unreal like a fad diet, or find a magic weight-loss food, he didn't exercise hours on end- he just cut calories and kept track of them everyday. If he missed his calories one day, he just picked back up the next day. It might change the way you look at a budget when you think about it related to counting calories. We aren't doing any get rich quick scheme to pay off our debt, we are just doing the next right thing...as boring as that sounds! :)

Chris just started his own weight loss blog- http://chrisbrownweightloss.blogspot.com. So proud of him!

June 2007- The day we got engaged- on top of the Empire State Building! 

November 2011 - Four years of marriage and 110 pounds lighter!

2012 Here We Come...$1,000 at a time!

It's not that nothing exciting has happened in the last 6 months, I've just been too busy enjoying it I forgot to share! We love posting about all Ethan can do, but for the next few months we need  to be motivated to kick our last 3 student loans out of our lives! I was inspired to make an envelope for every $1,000 we are still in debt this week. In each envelope is a note card with an encouraging word, fun activity, or scripture verse. Some of the activities are absolutely free others will cost a little money to do. I figure it will motivate us all the more to keep going. By the time we open some of the envelopes I will probably forget what I wrote, so it's a surprise for me too! We have been paying off debt faithfully for 3 years now and I would love to be completely debt free in 2 more years. Enter the Tortoise and the Hare!! We are so proud to be the tortoise!
In January 2009, we took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University Class and we woke up to the situation we were in and found the tools to do something about it in our 2nd year of marriage. Many of the couples in the class with us were older and change was going to be a huge challenge for them. We weren't set in any financial ways yet. So glad we are now Dave Ramsey poster children and can testify to Biblical finance everyday of the week!

In January 2009, we were in debt $56,000. We thankfully didn't own a house to add to that amount. In the last 3 years we have paid off $24,000. Mathematically, we should only owe $32,000 now right? Nope, interest loves our company so we have $35,000 at least to pay off. We're hoping to change our relationship with interest someday to make it work with us, not against us! Whew- there is a lot of shame with debt, it's hard to share the amount without feeling like I need to justify it. I am not proud of it, that's why it has to go!

Here is where we keep all of the envelopes $2,000-$35,000

We've had this cute little locked box for a few years and we always tell people that it's where we keep Chris' gallbladder, now we have a better story! :)

Here's the first envelope. If you can't see, we have already made a $508.66 payment and we are already halfway to opening it. Are you excited to see what is inside??? So are we! :)

Here's the rest of the gang...coming to a fridge near us! Can't wait to see how many of those get opened this year!

Can't leave this post without showing off Ethan! He got a drum set for Christmas and is in love with it.

Christmas Day at Church with the Walters. Yes, Ethan is very happy to be in the picture!