11 years + 2 spoons= 1 very big hole

Are you familiar with an old Bob Segar song, "Tryin' to Live my Life Without You"? I think of that as I write this.

"I used to smoke five packs of cigarettes a day
It was the hardest thing to put them away
I drank four or five bottles of wine
I kept a glass in my hand all the time
Breaking those habits was hard to do
But nothin' compared to the changes that you put me through
Tryin to live my life without you, Babe, is the hardest thing I'll ever do"

So what's that got to do with 11 years or 2 spoons? For the first 11 years of our marriage, my husband and I racked up consumer debt living the "American way", i.e., beyond our means! And to do that, we used credit cards and went out to eat a lot. 11 years. 2 spoons. We started digging a hole.

Sometimes we used a shovel on the hole, like when the car needed tires, or we wanted a new couch.

And other times we used a backhoe, like when we bought a brand new (how stupid were we!) 2004 Mitsubishi Endeavor in the summer of 2003. That car payment was $136 per month more than what we could afford.

So we dug the hole and all the time sank deeper into it. It makes me think of another old song that is sooooooooooooooo befitting to my previous attitude toward our finances:

"La la la la la la live for today!!!!!!"

Ugh. I feel sick about that now.

"Now? Why? Don't you still feel sick?"

Nope! Know why?!? Because now

WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!!

Yeah!! We DID it!!! We got out of debt!!

How big was the hole? 3 years ago, it was over $31,000. We had a little over $12, 000 on a credit card, and that huge (yet 0%) car loan.

I got a part-time job for eleven months to pay off the credit card, which was great, but our spending habits didn't change much. We were still a financial ticking time bomb.

Then a year and a half ago, we took Financial Peace University classes at our church. FPU is the money makeover class taught (via DVD) by Dave Ramsey. This class changed our lives!

Which brings me back to that first old song I sang to you, "Trying to live my life without you"---that's for all the credit cards we closed and cut up! Oh, cutting that Victoria's Secret card actually hurt. But it doesn't compare to the feeling of power I have now in spending cash!


We learned how to live on a budget that helps us control spending, save money for irregular expenses, and build an "emergency" fund so that we don't have to use a credit card to pay for them.

I know what you're thinking: "Budget? No thanks." We used to think that way, too. We thought that way all the way to the bottom of that >$31,000 hole. The average family has, what, $11,000 in credit card debt? A lot of those people have mortgages, too. And car loans. Possibly even student loans. If this is you, and you're still saying that a budget isn't for you, I have two words for you: bonne chance! You're going to need a TON of luck to enjoy retirement. Nah, forget retirement. That much debt hindered my ability to enjoy the present tense, so I didn't even think about the future, I bet you don't either. And that's really sad.

Do yourself a favor: stop reading this and go to www.daveramsey.com, right now. Find the church nearest you that's offering the class and go see what it's about. Or order it online, or take it online and see how fast you can get some financial peace in your life.

Then you'll be able to call his radio show on Fridays and scream it with me (and thousands of other people) "I'M DEBT FREE!!!!!!!"