Wellllllllll.....it has been 3 years today, since the Derting's began the debt free journey...
Many of you read my story of my secret life with credit cards a couple of years ago and the ridiculous amount of debt I was carrying in my expensive Coach bag....somewhere like $33,000++!!!
3 years ago my husband forced us to make a change once he realized how awful my secret was....and we still live by the rules he set that day....
We are on a budget: monthly, weekly, daily.....every penny we earn, work for, find, etc has a place to go and it is NOT on credit cards.....
{Disclaimer: we do have a credit card that we use for our purchases and bills to earn Disney points (this earned us $300 to spend while at Disney) HOWEVER this card is paid OFF every other day if not daily, it never has a revolving balance, so yes, we have a credit card, that has a $0 balance!}
On this day our life CHANGED...no going out to eat whenever we were hungry, no shopping just because, no things we don't need at the store~for me it meant no more fun....but that philosophy changed {it has taken some time to change, but it has been a good change}.....
We still budget for EVERYTHING: the house payment, the 1 car payment (which we recently upgraded the pilot for less of a payment monthly, brooks is the negotiator everyone needs at the car dealership), the cell bill, the cable bill, the insurance bill, the electric bill and the water bill...NOTICE no other bills that we don't need to live!! We budget weekly for groceries: $100 and I strive to go below....this includes cooking at home usually 4 if not 5 times a week, with breakfast and lunches included (it is possible when you PLAN)....We budget weekly for gas: $100 and with gas prices that savings has been amazing....We budget weekly for Britan's sitter, her preschool is paid at the beginning of the year (thanks to my husbands "squirrel" fund)....We budget weekly for going out to eat: $30 a week...so we either get a really good meal or a couple cheaper meals......We budget weekly for our allowance: $60 a month for each of us...this money is for whatever we want....it is not needed for anything we need to live.....AND We budget weekly for savings.....
There is this thing Brooks calls the "squirrel fund", often this animal gets on my nerves, but this animal has bought Carowinds passes for the summer, random trips, or outings that we don't have to take money from our allotted "budget" to do.......
We have the philosophy that we don't need "things" to be happy and live a full life....our kids don't get toys unless there is a special, special occasion....toys create clutter, memories are forever...we would rather go somewhere and do something fun, have friends over for play dates and sleepovers, sneak out for ice cream right before bedtime every now and then, have birthday celebrations with family and friends.....
I write about this topic, again, because I hear radio and TV people talking often about how it is "okay" to hide debt and money from your husband/wife and although it worked for me for a really, really long time, it is so much easier knowing we don't have to worry about paying the bills, what we are going to eat tomorrow, paying for preschool, etc....It was fun and I guess somewhat easy to spend money that we didn't have, whenever and wherever we wanted....but now we spend money that we have and when we actually need things instead of just "wanting" them....and honestly its NOT okay to hide things that could ruin everything you have!!!
This has not been an easy journey, there have been times we have not been able to do things that we really wanted to do because it was not in our budget.....but in the end the result has been worth it!!
Much Love, Alysha
