One more debt gone...

I just paid off a medical bill!  Woohoo!
I just paid off a medical bill!  Woohoo!
I just paid off a medical bill!  Woohoo!

(Picture me dancing around and singing those words at the top of my lungs..because that's what I'm doing.)

Since I've shared some of our debt situation with you guys, I knew you'd want to know that I just paid off a medical bill! Let me tell you why I'm so happy...

After The Great Meningitis Outbreak of 2014, we received 14 medical bills in the months that followed.

14! Holy cow, that's a lot of bills!

I had just gotten over this horrible illness (and had a "traumatic brain injury" as I'm told), so to say I was overwhelmed was an understatement.

I called them all, made arrangements to pay what I could, and prayed.  Insurance ended up covering a few of them and one actually wrote off the balance I owed.  Fast forward to 2017.  After way too many payments, we're down to 3 bills.

And today, I paid one of them off!!

This has been a long road and hasn't been easy.  Paying off debt SUCKS!

It's one thing to pay off debt that you acquired because you bought too many purses. But having to pay bills because you start having convulsions in your living room floor, go into a comatose state and end up in the ICU is a whole other ball game.

I pouted for a bit.

I had a pity party because "Why did I have to get Meningitis?".

I cried A LOT.

Then, I decided to be a grown up.  Things do not go as planned.  Life happens.  And sometimes it sucks and we just have to accept it.  

So, I added them to my list of debts and started paying.  A few were small enough they went away quickly.  But these last 3 have been hanging on for dear life.

Thus my happiness today.

Debt is the worst.  

If you think you MUST have a brand new, fancy car or you can't live without that designer couch...don't do it!  It's not worth it.  Take if from someone who learned the hard way.  Since we paid off our "BIG DEBT" (as we not-so-lovingly called it), we still owe on a few things. BUT not having that big payment looming over us every month is the most amazing feeling ever.  

I am still not always perfect on my budget.

I sometimes spend money when I shouldn't and have to swap things around to cover it.

I sometimes have an urge to charge something because I just want it soooo badly.

But I'm trying.  Every single day.  And Charles and I are daily making the conscious decision to NEVER go back to where we were. 

Happy Sunday, y'all!

Cheryl

Why Budget?

A few weeks ago, I posted about budgeting.  After staying on budget, our first money goal is to get out of debt.  We still have some medical bills and things to pay off, so we're several months away from being totally debt free....but we're much closer than we were!

I belong to several Facebook groups, one of them being a Dave Ramsey Budgeting group. In this group, folks ask questions and share their struggles and victories with money.  There are several people in the group who have paid off all debt, have several months expenses in savings and are working on the rest of the steps in Dave's plan.

The other day, someone in my group posted about something that happened to her and she gave us permission to share as long as she remained anonymous.  Here's her story...

"Lunch today at Steak n Shake is a reason I'm thankful for DR. I saw a mom with 3 kids, she looked to be down on her luck they were splitting one meal, and she looked to be in a bad way. I sat next to her with my little one in tow, and asked if she was ok, she balled her eyes out that they are on the brink of being evicted if they didn't get the rent money and struggling financially. Her little one is in remission from cancer and she was scared they would be in a shelter. My little one was very sick when she was born, so I felt her pain. I called my hubby and we got their rent paid for the next three months and filled their fridge with food. They aren't even in much debt but medical bills have drowned them, I asked her to meet with me next week so I could help her and her husband get out of the hole they are, she agreed and has already called me 2x to confirm what she needed to bring. My husband even got her husband an interview at a friends trucking company for Monday. DR put us in a position to live like no one else so we can live and give like no one else. I'm so happy we were able to help."

I sat at my desk bawling like a baby when I read this.  This is what it's all about, people! How exciting would it be to look at someone who is struggling and know you can change their situation because you were smart with your money? I CANNOT wait until we are at this point.  We give to a missionary that comes to our church, we donate if there's a family in need and we give to our church - but I've never been in the spot to pay rent for several months and fill up someone's fridge.  

Someday soon, I will.  Someday, I will bless someone with a car. Someday, I'll buy a needy family a TON of groceries. Someday, I'll experience the joy of changing someone's situation when they think all hope is lost.  Jesus said to do it.  That's reason enough for me.

Money!!!

It's almost July!  And July is officially my favorite month of 2017.  Not because of Independence Day (although it is one of my faves), not because it's summer (I HATE to be hot) but for a reason you'll probably never guess.

On July 7th, I will make the last payment on a debt we've been paying on for 5 years.  A BIG debt with a BIG monthly payment.  I won't get into specifics on it - I'll just say some if it was our fault and stupidity and some of it was due to other things in my past.  That doesn't matter now.  What matters now is I get to start over, in a way.  I am so excited because I'm going to actually make a budget.

Who gets excited to make a budget? This girl!  (And her mother...)

For the entire time we've been paying on this loan, we had a monthly bill list I would follow.  See, a budget is telling your money where to go while planning for current and future expenses.  Because this payment (and a few medical bills) was so large, we haven't been able to budget in that sense of the word.  All I really did was decide which bill was paid with our first paycheck and which was paid with the second each month.  We would have a small amount left for food and that was it.  Anytime something extra came up, I would have to finagle bills around to try to make it work.  And living that way stinks!

So, July begins the rest of my life of FREEDOM!  As the scripture above says, when you owe money to someone, you are a slave to them or to that debt.  It keeps you in chains and weighs on you.  It is always there and breaking free is hard.  Really hard.  Through the process of paying off this debt, we had months where we would think "If we'd just filed bankruptcy, this would have gone away" or "Poor me...blah, blah, blah".  But those days are gone, people!  We paid what we owed, didn't ruin our credit in the process and we survived.

I'm not sure if you all live on a budget.  If you do, stay on it!  If you don't, why not?  Budgeting takes discipline, effort, and commitment.  It's not always easy to say no when something screams "BUY ME!".  But, you can do it. And so can I.  I'm so excited to sit down this weekend and tell my money where to go and not the other way around.  

You may not agree with him on everything, but Dave Ramsey has great budgeting advice.  He suggests using an envelope system and using cash only.  We haven't done that all the time in the past, but we have been trying to stick with that lately.  It works!  It's much harder to hand over a hundred dollar bill than it is to hand over a debit card.  You don't feel the loss of your money with plastic in hand.  I am currently working on a new envelope system for my wallet and I'll share pics of that when I'm done.

If you're new to budgeting or your money is out of control, educate yourself!  I would suggest this book:

One final thing.... Just imagine what you can do when you have money and aren't struggling!  Check out this article where folks are telling their money what to do... and it's fun!

My Budget Said I Could!

Alright, I'm off my soapbox for today, folks.  I am far from perfect in the budgeting department, but I'm learning and getting better as I go.  I want you to come on this journey with me.  Let's get rich together, ok?