Debt Free Living

Think debt free living is just a pipe dream? Are you drowning in debt - barely able to keep up with minimum payments?

Living debt free is not out of your reach - all you need is a debt payment plan. With a proper debt payment plan virtually no amount of debt is insurmountable.

Get yourself into a 'debt is your enemy' frame of mind. Be aggressive, conquer your debt, wage war against it! Do nothing or put it off too long and your debt will defeat you.

This approach was pivotal in getting me and my family out of debt. It wasn't easy! It took a long time and we sacrificed alot along the way but debt free living is even better than we imagined it would be.

See our story below and find out how our family got out from under a mountain of debt (34,000 in debt to be exact) and more importantly how you can too.

From nearly bankrupt to debt free living in 2 years

Two years ago, my wife and I were buried in consumer debt. Sound familiar? We were just barely making ends meet, only able to afford minimum payments on all our debts and just one paycheck away from total disaster. As our debt continued to grow each month we saw no way out. We even considered filing for bankruptcy.

As fate would have it, I happened to catch a TV show called Til Debt Do Us Part. The host of the show was financial expert, Gail Vaz-Oxlade. The show was about Gail helping couples consumed by debt (most cases far more debt than ours) get on a budget and develop a plan to get themselves out of debt.

I sat there riveted to the TV yet I was still a bit skeptical that such a simple concept as living on a cash budget like the money jar system could actually work. Later that night, my wife and I talked it over and we decided Gail's money jars were worth a try. We did everything Gail suggested to the couples on TV.

Following Gail's advice from the show we quickly recognized this was a budgeting system that works. In the next few weeks we saw our debt decreasing and we could finally see light at the end of the tunnel. We were invigorated with our progress and we soon came to realize that debt free living was possible after all.

Since my wife's income could cover more of our fixed and variable expenses she filled the jars with money each week while my income was used primarily to pay off our debt. This meant that we could commit a little more than the suggested 15% toward reducing debt.

We paid off all our smallest debts first which freed up more money to pay off the next smallest debt and so on. Using this method (the snowball method) gave us a real psychological boost as each debt got paid one by one. As the momentum grew the debts got paid faster and faster.

 

Debt free living at last!

Just over 2 years later, we finally accomplished our goal of debt free living. I can't quite put into words how exhilerating it is to know you have no debt and most of your money goes to you - not someone else! You simply won't know til you get there yourself. I'm not writing this to boast rather it is meant to give anyone feeling overwhelmed by debt a measure of hope. The money jar system worked for me and my family - it can work for you too. The first step is to create a budget.

^ Back to top of Debt Free Living

> Return to Debt Management Tips page

> Return to Money Saving Ideas Home page