Money, oh how I hate the constant
requirement of it.
Money for food, money for fuel in our
van, money to pay for the house....UGH!! The list never seems to stop!
** Slight Interruption** Speaking of houses, I would like to
point out that James and I were able to purchase our very first home
together this past March! YAY!!!
That being said, we have also made the
decision to become debt free outside of having a mortgage.
Life has not been fun for us over the
last two (ish) years, however things seem to have finally slowed down
enough for us to be able to collect our thoughts, and choose to fight
to get out of debt.
For us, credit cards are the bane of
our existence. We're really
good at paying them down, then we don't save, hit a major financial
hurdle, and rack the cards up again!
Almost
a year ago, I was kicked by a cow at the farm where I worked and as
life would have it, I am now unable to do the job there and lost my
hours. I still have pain in my left arm that may take years to go
away and the lovely Worker's Compensation Board chose to quit paying
for my physio, nine months in. So, this is potentially my 'issue' for
the next long while.
James and I knew that we could not survive financially if I were to get cut off of my job or Worker's Compensation, so he started looking and was able to find a Saturday job cleaning trucks and whatnot.
I have also started teaching piano and violin lessons again and also hope to do some babysitting to add to the household income. It won't be as much as I was able to make at the farm, but it's something and I am able to be at home with our little man Dexter as well as the girls when they're not in school.
Someone told James and I that we should just 'get
used to having credit cards, a mortgage, and having a car payment.'
Well
no,James and I don't currently have a car payment, and we do not
intend to EVER have one....ever!
Late
last year, I 'discovered' Dave Ramsey and his 7 Baby Steps.
James
and I started paying down some of the bad debt, but didn't really
commit as it wasn't something important enough, I guess. We were
doing awesome until May...then it was birthday month, Mother's Day,
and of course Father's Day. Yeah, we were THOSE people.
I
still can't believe how much money we put on the credit cards in just
that one month alone. CRAZY!
Now
though, we actually cut up our cards, it wasn't enough to freeze them
in water in our freezer. We needed to outright get rid of them, for
good. That was actually really hard for me to do!
I mean, we didn't have a lot of room on them anyway but still....Whoa!!
I
know that this post may seem a bit off from some of my previous, but I believe
that it is quite relevant to what this blog represents.
My Life Unchained
How not to be
chained to debt, not to be indebted to someone else instead of living and
paying for our own things, being able to give back and to help others
who have been in my and/or James' shoes.
Now THAT is part
of what a life unchained SHOULD be like.
This is going to look ugly at times...like today for instance, I thought I had accomplished so much with saving a whopping $60 but I'd forgotten that my driver's license AND vehicle registration was coming out at the end of the month. It's literally a once a year thing but still something that I'd totally gapped!
I can't wait though, to see how God will bless us in our desire to follow after Him in removing our debts to others so that we are able to give and serve God and not man.
That's all for
now, thank you to all of those who keep us in your prayers. We
appreciate them to no end!
Laura
