WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!!

What a month! Laney's off all her meds, I'm done pumping, she's a year old, AND we are debt free!

I can hardly believe it!! God is so beyond good. We feel crazy blessed right now. We are gearing up to teach our first Financial Peace University (by Dave Ramsey) class this February and hopefully help others find the peace with money that we are finding.

Here's what our journey has looked like :)

We had debt. We knew this was normal. We had some credit cards, some student loans, and a car payment. We just paid our minimums, never had a real budget, and just went through life not worrying. We each would have told you that we maybe had 2K in debt but that was all. We had no idea where all our money was going, we didn't have many goals for our money, etc.

Then we had Landon. I had planned all along I would have him in March and go back to teaching full time the following August. Oh how naive I was!. He was a C-section which we didn't expect, and I was head over heels IN LOVE with him.  We were told then that after insurance we would be expected to pay about $14,000 dollars and we were FLOORED. I could not believe that was our cost after our insurance! As the bills started rolling in I knew I'd have to go back to work. I bawled every day from about May on. I loved this sweet baby and wanted nothing more than to stay home with him and be his mama!

We ran the numbers over and over again and figured something out. If we simply didn't have minimum debt payments we would be totally able to have me not working. Matt's job paid all the bills! That was when we got mad. I was mad at myself for spending more than we made and accruing credit card debt and mad that all that time with double incomes we were just throwing out $ away! We were eating out, buying crap, had super high cell phone bills, etc. We had no idea how much money we spent! Dave always says to be successful and intense you have to get mad and boy did we.

So one day I was whining to my dear friend Beth about this all and how upset I was to have to work. Every day that year that I worked I was miserable. I wanted to me home with my boy! She handed me their Financial Peace books and CDs as we thought it wasn't worth the $100 that the program costs. She assured me it was but would allow me to use their stuff anyway. We started listening and were hooked. He was funny and sarcastic and southern and we loved him! He explained things in a way that I had never heard and I was beginning to understand things in a way I didn't know I even could!

We completed his program and worked our tails off! At the end of that school year we had paid off enough debt that I was able to stay home if I could watch another baby on the side and make some extra money. So we did that from June until the end of November when Laney was born and were so blessed to have Alex in our home and to have Jesus provide for us like he did! Then once Laney was born and was so sick we knew I couldn't work again. I could hardly take care of the one screaming all day long and our almost two year old! Once again, He provided. We were able to pay off Matt's car that next month with Christmas money we had been given. This last year has been hard. It's stressful to live on much less than others do and not be able to keep up. It's hard to not have the $ to go out on awesome dates and buy people great gifts and give to those you love. It sucks to not even be able to eat out on a lazy day or when the kids have been driving me crazy :) But it's been 100% worth it. We've gone without this last year and none of us are the worse for it! I believe we've built character and learned some hard lessons. We've learned to deny ourselves. That's not something that we knew how to do before.

In learning to deny ourselves we've grown strong! We've lost weight from eating healthier (meal planning and not eating out), we've lost our sense of entitlement (ok mostly at least ; ) ) and gained a sense of respect for the hard work it takes to be responsible with what God's given us. We've learned how to go on and enjoy free or $5 and under dates and how to have fun with our kids without spending  money. I think these last two years have been HUGE for us and I'm so thankful for them and for the change that's happened within us! I heard something the other day, "the best thing you can spend on your kids is your time". I really believe this is true and am trying to change my views to reflect this!

These past two years we have paid off $32,700 dollars! That was hospital bills, credit cards, Matt's car, and my student loans. We've cash flowed two cars and all our other unexpected expenses since then and managed to not ever need to touch another credit card! Thank you Jesus, Dave Ramsey, and The Midkiff's for showing us how to accomplish this and helping us set ourselves up for success! Our journey is hardly over. We are now on baby step 3 of 7. But we are excited for this stability and for the planning this program has given us. Can't wait to live like no one else later since we've been living like no one else right now :)