On May 1, my dear husband tweeted this in response to another tweeter:

Sacrifice now in ways people won’t, to live a life later, that people can’t. We have, but paid 30k debt in 3.5 yrs. #debtfree

— Gaitan PT (@GaitanPT) May 2, 2013

I’m not going to lie, I was a little “upset” that he posted the actual amount of debt we had. I was all for saying, “yay! We’re out of debt!” But didn’t think we really needed to share HOW MUCH. But, then I thought about it some more…especially after having a few friends make comments about it…saying things like, “you want advice on getting out of debt? Ask Jen and Bret!” I realized, we do have valuable information on the topic.

Here are some of the ways we did this:

• Trusting in God. I know it sounds like a “warm and fuzzy” thing, but it is THE ultimate reason why we are now out of debt.
• “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.” – Anonymous i.e. Making big sacrifices.
• We didn’t buy birthday, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc. gifts. This was SUPER awkward at first!
• We didn’t buy new clothes, unless it was absolutely necessary. I went about 5 years in between jeans. The line was when EVERY pair of jeans had a hole.
• We moved back in with my parents.
• We didn’t go out to eat as much as we would have liked. One of the hardest things is having to say no again and again….AND AGAIN to hanging out with friends.
• Eating generic food.
• Cancelling gym memberships.
• Downgrading our insurance.
• Checking books out of the library instead of buying them.
• Selling things we didn’t use.
• Saying no, even when it’s painful. i.e. Not visiting Bret’s family for Christmas last year. This was such a big deal because it’s the only time of the year we can see them.
• Extra money went towards paying down the debt, no questions asked.

It’s painful, it’s sacrifice, but it can be done!

I thought this was an appropriate post today, because we actually had a shopping spree! It was probably the first time we went out, bought things we needed and didn’t say things like “oh, man, we can’t afford that.” A bonus for this shopping trip is that we can write off pretty much all of it! The clothes we bought can and will be worn at weddings/personal training sessions/networking/etc.

The highlight of my purchases? Oh these sparkly heels of course! I’m all about the sparkly!

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