My Debt Free Journey Tips

Some of you might know that we have been working towards paying off our debts for the past couple of years. It hasn't been easy, nor has it always been fun, but it is so worth it! I wanted to share some tips that I’ve learned along the way.

My first tip would be to write down (or create a spreadsheet if you’re more tech savvy than I am!) of all of your current debts.  Include interest rates, total amount owed and original total of debt. I like to start with the lowest total at the top and go down from there.  Many of you may have heard of Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball approach.  He suggests you pay off the smallest amount first regardless of interest rate.  This accomplishes smaller wins so you stay motivated to keep going. Once you pay off one debt, you take what you were paying to that debt and “snowball” it into your next focused debt. As you pay things off, you will free up more money to put towards your next debt.

My next tip and something that really helped me was writing out all of our bills, debts and income in a calendar each month. My husband gets paid weekly so I could see how much our bills were that week and could put any extra towards debt. Most of our bills come out automatically so this also helped me to visualize when each bill was actually coming out of our bank.

We have had to sacrifice a lot of “extras” but it really hasn’t been too bad. We cut the cable, we downsized to one car, we stick to a budget when it comes to groceries, spending money and eating out. Such small changes have led to big results for our family and I am excited to continue on this journey!