DEBT BEAT DOWN

Alrighty, the DEBT BEAT DOWN is back, and its taken a few hits over the past year in our favor!!! Its been since January of 2010 that I've revisited this sector of our lives, and I'm telling you without holding back that its difficult! The "emergency fund" is still in the making if that gives you any idea of how life can throw some interesting blows at you. We have been able to take a significant chunk out of the debt, and obviously, school loans are still the front runner in our financial hole that we have been digging out of, and when I say hole, its not that its bad, its just what we've had to do to make life work!

So, to get to the dirt in our finances, here we go! Since our last update, we've actually been able to cut nearly all of our debt down to school loans...which is unreal! Its still the heaviest financial burden we carry, but we have been able to pay off 3 medical bills, in the next month or so we will probably be able to pay off Sara's car, and my car, well, its somewhere on the East Coast I assume being enjoyed by someone other than me! I purchased a "PROJECT" and we'll leave it at that! So, out of the 7 bills that we had at the start, we have consolidated all of my school loans into one loan...(look into it if you have major school loan debt, it can save you HUGE, call me)...and outside of that, we have the credit card still but its being used as an emergency fund for the time being and we are using it to pay bills, in turn saving money on our insurance(another cool thing to look into). So by the end of August, our debt will be down to less than 17,000 which is almost half of what we started with on this journey just under 2 years ago!

We are now back in Arkansas, we've moved 3 times, live in the wonderful town of Siloam Springs, AR, and I'm going back to school at JBU for my Grad. in Counseling this fall....YEA...MORE SCHOOL LOANS(this has been looked into very deeply, trust me)!!! Oh by the way, did I mention we have an Emery now? Our little boy is going to get to reap the benefits of our struggles to get out of debt over the past couple years! By the way, HE'S AWESOME!!!

Post any comments you may have or questions, we have resources, experiences, frustrations, etc... we are willing to share if you need help or are just needing a sounding board to see what you need to do about your finances!!!

Debt Beat Down UPDATE

So, we're pretty pumped to say that we have payed two of the seven bills off as of this month!!! Two of the smaller medical bills are now in the past and we were also able to save nearly $80 by paying one off early. I would like to add that no matter what anyone says, always ask, because you never know what someone will say when you tell them you have cash and can pay X amount up front! So, now we have decided to simultaneously start saving back an emergency fund that will give us two months of living expenses just in case of...obviously....an emergency and also paying on some of the other bills. Once we have our emergency fund we will be able to focus all of our attention on saving and paying off the rest of our bills. The next bill payoff may be some time away, but we are in an interesting season right now and look forward to bringing everyone up to speed on that soon! We have been stretched and growing in ways that I can't even explain lately, and really are excited to see what God has in store just around the corner!

DEBT BEAT DOWN!!!

When I graduated from school, I knew that I had a ton of debt that was going to be dropped on us within 6 months and I wasn't to happy about it then. Being nearly a year and a half since I finished school, it has been the biggest hit to our finances since. We have a few other debt items that are holding us back from really being able to live the way we feel like God has called us to. Sara got out of school with no debt, we have a small credit debt from making it through the past couple of months during our move, and a few medical bills, and we will have a car payment coming here in the next two months from an extremely generous gift that was given to Sara by her parents. I'm going to be extremely transparent so that others can hold us accountable to this and also see that no matter what hole you are in, you can make it out. We are currently in a position that we have right now just over $33,500 in debt(and remember, that's about 70% school loans) and those are split into 7 different bills. With the budget that we have set up, we will be able to pay off with just our income 3 and possibly 4 of those bills in the next year. Getting the snowball rolling as Joe Sangl says! The other bills that we have will be payed off through time, the last being obviously my school loans. Financially, God has finally blessed us with the stable income to make the decisions to we have to get out of this debt we have. I am also planning on selling my car, getting something cheaper, using that money to put down on the debt, and then also putting nearly every bit of our next income tax return on the debt outside of creating an emergency account. So, be praying for us, because I'm sick of this debt that feels like a weight on our shoulders and I want to get rid of it ASAP!!!