Discipline is Great? Being Debt Free.

Biceps and I have been on the path to becoming completely debt free. We aren’t credit card users and we have always bought our cars cash, but we do still owe on my student loans, our rentals and our personal home.


Using Dave Ramsey’s mortgage calculator, we trimmed our budget in order to accelerate our payoff schedules on each debt that we have (student loans, rent houses and our personal home).

 


Trimming our budget means opting for picnics instead of fancy dinners, watching limited basic cable on our 27″ ginormous old-school t.v. …

 


…sharing one car instead of buying a second dream car,

 


…me biking almost everywhere on this cheapo deapo bike…

 


…and finding cheaper ways to live (making my own face wash, facial moisturizer, lip balm etc).

 


This also means any improvement that I do on our home (i.e. redoing our living and dining rooms with these awesome colors), must be paid for by extra income or selling something in the house we no longer need.

 

2

Lord willing, we will have my student loans paid off in two years…

 

4

our rental houses paid off in four years…

 

6

and our home paid off in six years.

 


This means that by the time we have one of these hooligans-our only bills will be electricity, water and cell phones. Which I am trying to figure out a way to get around paying for these, too.

 


I think I could live off of candle power, roof water and a tin can for a phone. Not sure about Biceps, though. He’s pretty pampered.

The reason that I’m telling you our financial goals is to help me maintain my motivation when I want to splurge on something. I will feel accountable to you and remind myself that it’s not part of The Plan.

I don’t really ever need another new shirt, a fancy bottle of wine or more camera equipment. What I need-truly needis:
to “owe no man anything” and
to have ability to serve others with my time by becoming free from the enslavement of working to own something.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we will be completely debt free in 2018.

Discipline is tough when I want to spend but am the only one that can close the wallet. It’s sometimes embarrassing when everyone else wants to order drinks and we ask for water. However, the sacrifice and the discipline will be more than worth it when I write that last check to our bank.

And on the memo line of that last check, I will write-“It’s been interesting.”

 

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for the entire world. Deal with it.
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9 Responses to "Discipline is Great? Being Debt Free."

  1. Gwen says:

    Dang girl! That’s incredible! We use cashola, too, but since we moved and bought our fist house, it’s been really hard to save… It’s like we are just floating along and getting nowhere…. I’m impressed and so proud out you!

    Reply
    • Rebekah says:

      Thanks, Gwen! Keep me accountable, too. I’ve never been a spendy girl, but sometimes I’d like a new pair of shoes or shorts….and that’s when I need you to sing me a soothing lullaby about a penny being saved, etc….

      Reply
  2. Leigh Ann says:

    Are you going to scream “We’re debt free!”? I have a friend who is close to being debt free and they’re going to drive to Tennessee and do it. When we became debt free we didn’t call Dave because we were never very deep in debt.

    Reply
  3. Stacy says:

    We’re on a path similar to yours, and I can’t wait till we’re free. Our latest move to Alaska, set us back a little, but we have a better chance of getting out now. Seems weird to say that, but it’s true with the better job hubby took.

    I love all your posts about homemade things for living cheep. I do a similar thing with food. I make a lot of my own seasoning mixes and the like.

    Here’s to being debt free!

    Reply
  4. Allie McLeod says:

    Good for you guys 🙂 sounds like a great plan ! We don’t have any cc debit nor a credit card, but student loans are killing us!! Jordan never finished school so we just have his $40,000 debt without the degree or job to pay it off. I’m currently I’m school….the cheap route ha

    Good luck! and good luck when you guys decide to have a baby 🙂

    Reply
  5. Potholes & Pantyhose | My Current Obsession-Liquid Stevia says:

    […] Biceps and I are on the path to paying off my student loans, our rental houses and our personal home. (You can read about that here.) […]

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  6. Christina says:

    awesome!!! so get you with the ordering water thing. seems so silly, but it’s true! it definitely does pay off over time, though! we spent this wInter in Costa Rica while our friends were enjoying their fancy drinks back in the snow 😉

    Reply
  7. Potholes & Pantyhose | Simple Sunday Love says:

    […] a frugal lifestyle in order to achieve long-term goals. And, I’ve talked about our plans to pay off our rental houses and our home in less than six […]

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