I love the quote by Oprah Winfrey: “If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.” Throughout our married life, my husband and I have tried to live by that principle. But, sometimes things come up that we do not expect. We have 4 beautiful children. One of our children has faced multiple surgeries and hospital stays. While we had always lived within our means and prepared for a rainy day, we never expected to face huge amounts of medical debt. Before insurance, the amount of medical bills reached $1.2 million after 15 surgeries. Thank heaven we had insurance, but we still had a mountain of medical debt that never seemed to go away. We decided to take it head on and pay our debt off completely and as quickly as possible.
First we researched everything we could on getting out of debt. Next, we decided to take what we had learned and make our own plan—one that worked for our family. We tracked our expenses for a month and created a budget! We had envelopes for every expense. Food, Entertainment, Lunch Money, and so on. Once a week we cashed a check and put the specified money in to each envelope. Doing this weekly helped us to keep better track of our money. Once the envelope was empty we were done with that category for the week. No using credit cards. We learned by experience to be very careful. Our children were wonderful with the idea and also became very creative with looking for cheaper ways to do things. We would only use our credit card if it was an emergency. I know this seems drastic but it worked for us! We were a CASH ONLY family and we loved it. I will share in another blog post the ways we stretched our money, but one thing was for sure we NEVER bought anything we could not afford. The money we saved during the 7 years we did this was OUT OF THIS WORLD. We paid off all our debts in full and had a savings account.
While we were paying off debt we went without Cable TV. Looking back it really was not a sacrifice. We loved our time together. We loved reading and playing games. We loved playing basketball outside and going to the park with our kids. Our children did not get cell phones until they were 18 and could pay for their own. Our children thank us to this day for that decision. We drove reliable used cars that got us from point A to point B. We did not buy new cars. That one decision has saved us a ton of money.
In order to feel success and keep moving toward our goal, we would pay off our smallest debt first. This gave us a sense of accomplishment. I know the experts say to pay off the highest interest debt first, but for us it was more rewarding to check debts off as paid. Once we paid off a debt we would use that money towards the next debt and so on.
We also decided to pay off all debt before starting to save and that worked well for us. I do encourage an emergency savings account that you save for monthly. This will help with things that come up that is out of the ordinary. Our savings account has blessed our family tremendously. In the past 5 years we have changed out our air conditioner, water heater, furnace, bought new carpet, remodeled, bought new furniture, experienced a family trip to England, and so much more. All of these purchases were paid for in cash. All of this was done while we were paying cash for our two kids to go to college. (We pay for the first year of college for each of our kids and then they do the rest.) It is amazing what you can do once you are debt free. Saving money is like a snowball coming down the hill—the more you save, the more you want to save.
We learned that LESS REALLY IS MORE! Our family treasured birthdays, celebrations, and being together. Living on less brings you peace and gives your life a sense of order. No longer are you bogged down by debt. We slept better and had opportunities come up for our family like never before. We loved serving others and wanted others to feel that same peace and comfort.
I know that everyone’s situation is different. And, what works for one family may not work for another family. But, the same rule applies. We must learn to live within our means. We need to learn how to control our money and spending habits. I will share more of our secrets in future posts. But, the best secret I can tell you now is that getting out of debt is WORTH IT!! It is worth the work and effort. I know you can do it!
Now for our Best Kept Secret Recipes!!
Best Caramel Popcorn Ever! $3.14
Bring to a boil, stirring constantly:
2 cups brown sugar
1 square butter
1 cup white corn syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk
Boil 3 minutes and pour over huge mixing bowl of popped popcorn. Mix thoroughly. Wait for 10 minutes and ENJOY!!
Heavenly Caramels $3.58
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups sugar
Combine all together-stir constantly until boiling. Boil until soft ball stage. Pour in to buttered 9 by 11 pan. Cool and cut.
Easy Christmas Pie $7.48
2 softened 8 oz. packages of cream cheese
2/3 cups sugar
8 ounce Cool Whip
2 packaged graham cracker crumb crust
1 can cherry pie filling
Beat cheese and sugar until creamy. Mix in Cool Whip. Spoon into crusts. Chill for 2 hours and top with cherry pie filling.
Barbecued Ribs $9.23
Brown 6 boneless pork ribs until done (I cut them into smaller pieces)
Add to skillet after ribs are cooked:
1 tsp. mustard
8 Tablespoons lemon juice
4 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup Ketchup
1 cup chopped onion
Simmer for 15 minutes
Sour Cream Potato Casserole $9.69
2 pound bag frozen hash browns (cubed)—Southwestern
1 cube butter
2 cans Cream of Chicken soup
1 -16 ounce sour cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 medium chopped onion
2 cups grated cheese
Melt butter and saute onions. Combine all ingredients but potatoes in a big bowl. (Leave 1 cup cheese to sprinkle on top.)
In 9 by 11 pan spread potatoes on bottom layer and then pour mixed ingredients over the top. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until potatoes are cooked.
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