Guest Post – 2 Adults, 4 Kids, 2 Bedrooms and Nearly Consumer Debt Free!

This guest post is from reader Carrie.  I’ve been following her story of getting out of debt and saving for a home for about a year now.  I’ve been very inspired by her determination and creativity and I hope that you are too!

I have always had the mentality that debt was bad. I had saved up
enough money in high school to pay for my college education once I was
done. My husband
and I were married in August, 2011.  Somewhere from point A to point B things got ugly, and instead of paying off my student
loan debt I bought us nice furniture. If I could take it back, I
would. I finished college that December and began working like crazy to
get rid of the massive amounts of debt, credit and student, my husband
had accumulated along with my student loans. I don’t mean to point
fingers, but he wasn’t taught how to use a credit card. For example,
putting your tuition on a credit card is NOT a smart idea. I wanted to
be a stay-at-home mom once we were blessed with children. I wish I had
written down how much debt we had, but I didn’t. I know it
was more than twice our yearly income. 

March 30, 2004
we sent the last payment to the last credit card.  It was also the day
our son, Derrick was born.  We now only had student loans to pay off. 
We didn’t have rent or a mortgage, as we were managers for a housing
building and it was part of our pay.  However, we didn’t change our
spending habits.  We were still spending like we did while my husband
had 2 jobs and I had 3.  So, within two years, we were back to Square
One.  Plus we welcomed our daughter, Eve, during that time. 

In
January, 2008 I went back to work and we were ever so slowly getting
our heads above the water.  In May we found out we were expecting our
third child.  No problem – we have 8 more months to get rid of debt. 
Then my husband’s job was outsourced in August.  I WAS FIVE MONTHS
PREGNANT.   What are we going
to do?  My husband was able to get his same job back with the new
company, but with a large pay cut – 1/3 less pay per hour.  Plus our
insurance was dropped.  It was not good.  Thankfully, my husband found a
new job within two weeks that not only gave him a better schedule – no
more working overnights – but also a HUGE pay increase.  I was so
thankful.  We also started following Dave Ramsey more faithfully, and so
we got out or envelopes.  I loved watching money fill the categories,
even if it was just a few dollars at a time.  The only thing we didn’t
do was put an emergency fund into effect.  Bad idea. 

Four
weeks before Victor was born, my husband basically got laid off.  Can
anything else seriously go wrong?  I’m Christian, so I know God has a
plan for us, but I couldn’t see why.  All I saw was bills bills and more
bills that are coming up with the birth of
a new child, on top of our debt.  I was only able to stay home with
Victor for 6 weeks since I was the only one with a job.  Well, Ryan
still had a job, but his hours were cut to 6 per week…..

Check back next week to see how Carrie’s family gets out of this financial pickle.