Debt Free Letter From A Reader

Hi Laurie,  My name is Cathy and I have to thank you so much for your blog.   

My story goes something like this, I was very poor as a child so when I got married I decided that I would not do without to that degree.  So hubby and I proceeded to get ourselves in debt.

If we wanted a new couch and could afford the monthly payments we got it.  We barreled along like that for a few years until we were pretty deep in debt.

Enter the first loan consolidation. 

We continued on this path until 2007 or so. 

I looked at my life and did not like what I saw.  I started researching money saving ideas, frugal hacks, and how to save.

Enter coupons. 

I continued this way on my own for a year or so and then hubby jumped on board.  By this time I had a vision and realized that we could be debt free.  After, five years we were.

We had paid off a little over $55,000.00 for our home, two credit cards and my student loan.  Boy did it feel good.  The only thing is we lost a little bit of our control afterwards and started spending.

We did not get in debt but we spent our whole salaries.  Then last April I lost my job,  but thankfully we had learned how to live frugally.

Now I feel that God is teaching me how to live content in what I have.   It has been a challenge and so far I have had no luck finding a job.

But we can afford to wait. 

It has been blogs like yours, the first one I read every day, which have encouraged me to keep going.  So please keep up the good work.

New to budgeting and don’t know where to begin? Here are a few posts to you get started:

• Top 10 Grocery Budget Busters
• Five Ways To Feed Your Family For Less
• Help! How Do You Save When You’re Eating Out?
• How Cleaning and Organizing Help My Budget
• What My Five Year Old Taught Me About Money
• Don’t Sacrifice What You Really Want For What You Want Right Now
• How Much Should A Family Spend On Groceries?
• Are you on an all cash budget?
• New to couponing? Here’s where to start.
• How Does Your Grocery Budget Look?
• Extreme Coupon Fraud: What You See On TV Isn’t Always Real
• Are You Spending Within Your Budget?
• Save the Way You Can Save: Penny Pinching Is Not A Competition
• Are You Satisfied With Your Penny Pinching?
• You Do Have Time To Coupon (But You Don’t Have To Do Everything. . .)
• Are Coupons For Everyone?
• How To Really Change Your Grocery Budget
• How to Save on Organics