Hush Hush

There has been something on my mind and on my heart every single day for the last few months.  Its something that weighs on us and has been a huge stresser.  It almost makes me sick to even blog about.....  don't worry..... its nothing AWFUL..... but the "unknowing" things of life just gets me down sometimes and I just wish- this once- life could just go smoothly and perfectly and we'd have a happy ending!  But in true Lu style, nothing comes easy for us, especially at the end of a difficult road.

The difficult road I am blogging about it is the road paved with debt.  The path towards being debt free is blogged about a lot, but here lately, I haven't wanted to even TALK about.  I was almost so paranoid that I was afraid that if I wished for a happy outcome, something horrible would happen to someone and our goal just wouldn't be completed.  I know it sounds silly and it sounds even sillier that I'm actually admitting to it.  But I think when you eat, sleep and breathe the "being debt free" dream, its all you focus on.  I even asked Hubbie one night if he felt like our lives had somehow stopped during this almost 5 year process.  Of course, he reassured me that it didn't, but I do feel like in a way, if you're doing it the Dave Ramsey way, your "life" does stop and all you're focused on is that debt snowball......  What are you gonna pay off next?  How are we gonna pay these "daily bills" and still afford to continue plugging away towards debt free-ness.  Now, I do have to be truthful here.  We weren't gung-ho 24/7. We did take a few mini trips here and there, but it was always planned and saved for over a long period of time.  We still continued to pay off things in the process.... just not as quickly if we had used that money towards the debt.  We always did the trips or excursions as cheaply as possible and I don't think, even for a few days at the beach last summer, did we ever spend more than $300 for anything.  It just wasn't in the budget.  We also decided that it was best for me to be in the home instead of working full time, which definitely delayed our paying off process.

Y'all might remember me griping about Hubbie working a contract job at the beginning of the summer.  The job that was suppose to take a week or two MAX ended up taking 6-8 weeks to complete.  Our lives stopped and I did all I could to hang on to my sanity while taking care of 3 kids all.day.long.  Hubbie woke up, ate, went to work, came home, ate, got the kids ready for bed, worked, ran and slept.  That was our life for weeks and it was hard.... BUT looking back I do see the hand of God.  This "simple" job was offered to my husband and a friend and the friend decided he didn't have enough time to devote to it.  1. Hand of God  Also, this simple task should have just been a drop in the bucket and not the amount that it ended up being.  2. Hand of God  We anticipated that this would be a drop in the bucket but that we would be at least a few more months away from paying off the remainder of our debt.  3.  Hand of God

WE ARE NOW OFFICIALLY DEBT FREE! 

Did you hear the screaming?  If not, let me tell you one more time...... We are debt free.  We owe no one any money and its weird, surreal, amazing and a total God moment.  Never in a million years dream that we would be here 4 yrs 10 months later.  Never in this journey was it easy or fun.  Hubbie and I had a lot of "down" moments where we looked at each other and wanted to say "What the heck are we doing?!  And why are we so concerned with this when no one else is?!"  It was always a blessing when one of us was down, the other one was upbeat and encouraging.  My husband has ALWAYS been confident that we could do this though and I thank him from the bottom of my heart.  The majority of the time he was much stronger than I was.

What started off for us as a thing of necessity because we just aren't gonna make it- turned into a life for us and a goal that brought our family together and made us stronger.  We still have a long road to financial freedom, our next goal is to save up 3 mos of living expenses for our emergency fund.  This will ensure that we CAN afford buying a home.  And then the saving 20% down payment on a house.  Miss Debbie-downer over here is just SURE that she won't own a home before I am 35 but if thats the case, I know that the house will be a blessing and not a burden and I truly believe that.  No matter how much I whine!

So, to everyone that prayed for us, encouraged us, patted our back and just walked along side of us through this journey, thank you!  We appreciate your support!  We didn't get support from everyone....even if people didn't say anything, we got lots of weird looks!  :o)

God truly does get the glory in this success.  Without Him, we wouldn't be here today.  Hubbie and I wouldn't be married.  Hubbie and I wouldn't have 3 little boys, who are completely OBLIVIOUS to why their Momma is crying tears of joy!  Hubbie and I wouldn't be debt free.......  God took a simple thing like us taking Financial Peace and the rest is history!  God blessed us in so many ways along the journey and we never faltered from our duty of paying tithe.  Along the way, He sent us encouragement and even a cruise to help our weary soul continue on this path!

We began with $50,000 in debt- a nice chunk of the change was our stupid car purchase, a lot of credit card debt and of course, Hubbie's school loans.  During the last 5 years our income ranged from an income of $45,000 to $65,000 and with sometimes one person working 2 or 3 jobs or 2 people working 2 jobs or one person working 1 job.

Do some math here- median income was $55,000.  Debt was $50,000.  We began paying off debt in January 2006.  4 years and 9 months ago.  So on average we paid off over $10,000 a year.  A lot of that time, it was tight and we just made minimum payments and had little to no wiggle room after paying normal bills, debt payments and LIFE!

Of course, it went up and down a few times over the years depending on circumstances.....  The last year has been difficult with a pay cut and the additional of Buggy, but we were committed to a goal of being debt free by January.

We are debt free and we are so very thankful to our Savior for allow us to have an awesome testimony of His love, forgiveness and faithfulness.

Next stop?!  The beach for a week long family vacation!  Hopefully we can work it into the busy schedule!