My Journey Through Life, One Baby Step At A Time

**DebtFreeFTW** · 08-29-2011, 12:18 AM

Good evening everyone!

I'm very happy to be here and this is my first post. I've been listening to DR since July of 2009 and been hooked ever since! I started out with over $100,000 of debt. This includes $80,000 in student loan debt, $22,000 for my brand new car loan, and over $5,000 in credit card debt. My annual income at the time was about $40k.

I married my DW in April of 2010 and that added another $6,000 car loan and $1,500 credit card debt to our overall debt. We listened to the TMMO audio book over 50 times while driving back and forth between states (at the time, she lived in MD and I live in PA). Our annual household income was $100,000.

- We cut up, paid off, and closed all of our credit card accounts.

- We paid off all of our car loans.

- My student loan debt is down to $71,000 now.

My DW took a year leave to permanently live with me in PA (she was a school teacher in MD and the one year leave is so that we have options in the future in case something goes wrong, and it can be extended to an additional year if need be). So we're down to my income only now, which gives us about $45,000 a year. We also want to have a baby so we're increasing our EF as a buffer against murphy and the expenses of having a baby. We have $2,390 in our EF right now which will grow to about $4,200 by the end of next month.

Our goal is to have $10,000 in the EF before we start attacking the student loan debt. My DW is getting her PA certifications and Praxis done this year so that she can try to find a job in PA next year. After our first baby, we plan on taking a year break and having one more afterwards. I've always thought two was the perfect number, but whatever God will give us, we'll be happy nonetheless.

We also got our 20-year Term Life Insurance in place now, Renter's Insurance, and Health & Dental Insurance for the both of us. We got rid of the DW's T-Mobile phone that was stealing $67/mo and replaced it with an iPhone 3GS (used, but in very good condition) with no contract and a AT&T Go Phone sim card which gives us the option of a pre-paid 1000 minute annual plan. That costs a one time fee of $100 and lasts up to a year, and the DW still has about 970 minutes left to use since she uses our home phone most of the time which has free long distance.

We also changed Car Insurance companies which saved us $402.12/yr. We stopped eating out so much and started eating at home a lot more which also saved a ton of money. My DW loves Food Network so she's cooking a lot of delicious new meals every day. And also since I'm not driving to MD every weekend anymore, we're saving about $400/mo in gas and saving money from having to change the oil so often.

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So that's my life in a nutshell for the past two years. See anything I should be doing differently? Got any money saving tips that I could implement?

Nice to finally meet everyone and I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

God bless,

**Palooka** · 08-29-2011, 12:36 AM

Just want to say welcome to FV and WTG!!

**Sophiasmama** · 08-29-2011, 07:13 AM

Welcome...it sounds as if you are doing all the right things...you guys will tweak it as you go too. Congrats on everything!

**piney** · 08-29-2011, 08:54 AM

sound like you all have made a good start to beign debt free.

**Mojjo** · 08-29-2011, 10:13 AM

Welcome.

Sounds great so far. Do you and DW have a written budget? I see you are renting. Is there a plan to buy a house?

**DebtFreeFTW** · 08-29-2011, 10:53 AM

Thanks everyone! I really like the positive energy this community emits. Gives us hope that the future is bright for all of us, we can resolve the mistakes we made in the past, and to never give up because there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Thank you.

Mojjo: I customized an Excel spreadsheet for our monthly budget and keep it updated every day. Our plan is to be debt free first, then save at least 20%+ for a down payment on a house. Once our future children are old enough to need their own bedrooms, then it's time to go house hunting. And then to increase the EF to $20k to keep the house murphies away.