My Story

My husband and I were married in 2008 and we started a family shortly after and I decided to stay at home with our daughter. At the time we got married I had several thousand dollars of debt and my husband had over $20,000 of.debt. My husband and I scrimped and saved and put every extra penny towards paying of the debt we started with. In August 2010 we paid off the debt we started with and 2 "new" used cars we purchased. From August 2010 to March 2011 we set aside a small amount for an emergency savings account. 


In March 2011 we decided that our house was too small since we had added another child to our family. A two bedroom one bathroom house was not enough space for 4 people, 2 dogs, 4 cats, a guinea pig, and a goldfish. So we found the house of our dreams in a neighborhood that we previously said we would love to live in. We found it on foreclosure and decided then and there we would buy it since it was priced right. We hoped that we would be able to sell our cute little house for a decent price- late hoping to just sell it. We moved into our new house in April 2011 and our old house sat on the market until December 2011. During that time we had 2 house payments and utilities payments. - Needless to say we didn't save any money but we also didn't go into debt. Every last penny was accounted for in our budget. 


So fast forward to now... we decided to rent out our old house. We found a great couple to rent it. We still have   house payments but the rent offsets our old house payments. We are finally making ends meat paying more than interest on our new house and paying off our credit card. Our goal for the next few years is to live life more simply and appreciate what we have. We are going cut back where we can to find more money in our budget to pay off our houses and to to use what we have before buying more stuff. 


It is funny to think when we bought our new house I said "We'll have to buy so much more for our new house" Not only was that not true I am now trying to declutter our house. Its amazing how much "junk" my small children accumulate through holidays, birthdays and hand me downs. My new rule is if something new is coming into the house it either has to something we need or replaces something we already have. It if it doesn't fit those rules something will have to be donated to charity to make room. We are trying to use up as much of the stuff in our house as possible before having to purchase anything new. 


So follow along with me as my family and I set out of a journey to live life more simply financially and environmentally.