Introduction and background :)

**HJD14** · 02-12-2011, 04:50 PM

Hello!

I'm new here. I live in New England with my husband and our dog.

I've been visiting Frugal Village for a while, but just joined the forums yesterday. My husband and I are trying to get out of debt. We have about 46K between credit cards, car payments and student loans. I have read Dave Ramsey, and have purchased YNAB so both have been very helpful for getting us on track.

We both work full time. Last year we did not acquire any new debt and we paid off 2 credit cards and 1 small student loan. I feel great about the things that we paid off and the fact that we didn't acquire any more debt! However, I know that we could do much better. Most months for example we are spending $800-1,000 for groceries/food for the 2 of us!!! (how embarrassing is that?!) So this year, my focus is on looking at EVERYTHING we spend our money on and find ways to be better, go without and stretch every dollar that we make! Better meal planning, cutting Netflix, looking for a carpool for work (I have a long commute) are just a few of the things on the agenda! In addition we're both finding ways to bring extra income into the house. DH has started doing freelance graphic/web-design and I'll be helping him with things related to that such as marketing and writing out proposals for customers. In addition, I'll be starting an Etsy site selling vintage items.

I thought this forum would be a great resource for helping us learn to stretch our money better. In addition, I often get frustrated that we're not making better progress, so I thought this would be a great support network, as from some of the posts I have read, many people are in the same boat as us.

**HappyMama** · 02-12-2011, 05:30 PM

Hi! Welcome to Frugal Village.

**ilovechocolate** · 02-12-2011, 05:41 PM

Hi and welcome! You'll learn lots at the Village.

**piney** · 02-12-2011, 06:20 PM

Hi and welcome will be looking forward to reading your posts

**druthb00** · 02-12-2011, 07:35 PM

Hey

I'm sure you'll find your way around, but since you specifically mentioned your high grocery bills, don't forget to check out the "challenges" portion of the forum. There's a grocery budget reduction challenge there, and then also plenty of threads pertaining to grocery expense reduction in a few areas of the forum. I have a feeling once you get going on cutting food costs, you'll free up a lot of money for debt reduction

**PATRICE** · 02-12-2011, 07:46 PM

Welcome

**Darlene** · 02-12-2011, 07:56 PM

Welcome to Frugal Village, hope you make yourself at home.

**Ceashels** · 02-12-2011, 08:50 PM

Originally Posted by HJD14

We both work full time. Last year we did not acquire any new debt and we paid off 2 credit cards and 1 small student loan. I feel great about the things that we paid off and the fact that we didn't acquire any more debt!

Wow! Congratulations on all of that.

Welcome to the Village.