by Tricia
A few people have commented to me a while ago that if I was serious about reducing my debt I would do more. I should cut out the cable and I should spend as little as possible and sell most of our possessions. I’ll add that you could go ever farther and live out of a truck as this man has been doing. Now that’s an extreme way to get rid of your debt.
But while I am trying to pay off our debt as quickly as possible, I’m trying to live our lives in a way that will not lead to major splurges once our debt is paid off. One could say that I am trying to establish life long spending habits for our family. There is always a fear that we could end up back in trouble down the road if we do not work on what got us in debt in the first place.
And the biggest thing that got us into so much debt was spending more than we earned. It’s amazing how one little phrase can sum it all up, but it’s true. That is the base of our problem and that’s what I am working on correcting by living within our means.
I like to think of it as finding that happy place where we are spending less than we earn, yet still having some things that we enjoy. With the three of us, we do want to enjoy life but we are learning how to do it for less and we make our dollars stretch as far as they can.
I think with each passing month, we are getting closer to that happy place. That’s where I want to be while paying off our debt because I think it will be a great way to live once we are debt-free.