My Financial Story

If you’ve been following my blog then I hope you’ve gotten to know me a little bit. Yesterday I told you a little more about me. What I’d like to do today is tell you my financial story. I’d like to help you get to know me a little better, so when you read my blog each day you know a little more about the girl behind it and why she writes what she writes.

So here it is; my abbreviated, humbling story … so far.

David and I were married young, while we were still in college, in fact. Captured by young love and all of the wonderful things that should (we thought) come with marriage we immediately incurred a decent amount of debt. We lived in a city suburb and everything we wanted was right at our fingertips. I couldn’t cook well at all, so we ordered out a lot. If we wanted things we purchased them. We went out on slightly-pricey dates frequently because we were newlyweds. We did not keep a budget and paid our bills at leisure. To be truly honest, we did not live extravagantly, but we did live outside our means. Understand – we were still students.

Credit card debt is normal, right?

Car loans are normal, right?

Store credit is useful, isn’t it?

We ignored the reality of our situation. The end of the summer arrived and a haunting realization shadowed us. We couldn’t stay in school. We’d purchased a full-time job lifestyle that two full-time students could never afford. We made the choice to drop out of school, move closer to family and get things back in order. I’d like to tell you that the story ends here but it doesn’t. At this point we’d been married not even a year and we’d only begun our downward financial spiral.

We moved to the northeast, near my family, without lining up work for either of us. We got an apartment and began job hunting. I found a job about six weeks later and my husband found one about two weeks after me. Being out of work for two months was devastating to our finances and the jobs that we were able to get didn’t keep our heads above water. Bills got behind and we continued to ignore the reality of our finances. Because we are private people, we kept our problems to ourselves as much as possible.

Over the next 2-1/2 years we moved two more times, still in the same area. We bought a second car. I switched jobs twice and my husband, thankfully, stuck with his. Not much changed. We matured a little and started to make slightly better decisions with our money but it was too little, too late. After being married 3-1/2 years, in 2006 our daughter was born. At the time we lived in a one-bedroom apartment that was clearly too small for the 3 of us. So, we bought our first home. Our life was good, very good. We slowly attempted to get back on track and were even able to get our heads above water for a while. Were we not so awash in consumerism and the belief that debt is completely normal, we might have gotten out of this thing.

In 2008 I became a stay-at-home mom. It was my dream. I didn’t know it was my dream until I had Chloe but as soon as I held her I knew I wouldn’t be ok dropping her off every day. I was right. I worked until she was 1-1/2. The Lord had really begun to move in our hearts and challenge us in a big way. We began to turn over our financial troubles to God and have faith that He’d help us dig our way out. We learned a lot that year, about budgeting and cutting back as much as possible. It was such a growing year for us. We grew in our faith and we grew as a family. My husband started going back to school, and other than student loans, we incurred no new debt that year.

In autumn 2008 we were camping and my husband had checked out a few books from the library to bring with us. One of them was Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. He read it quickly and handed it to me. He asked me to read it and tell him when I was finished. I read it quickly also. We needed that book. Our eyes were opened and we knew we had to change our thinking about money, and the change had to be drastic. So we did.

A couple months after that I began writing this blog. I write to share ideas and tips for frugal living and family life, stressing that the most important things don’t cost anything but also, I want people to know that there’s a way out. I can’t give you the 10 best investment tips and I can’t explain to you a single thing about why we’re in a recession right now, but I can give you hope. All you have to do is make the choice to change, to be different. We’ve been married a little over six years now and they have not been easy but our marriage is rock-solid and our commitment is stronger than ever. We’re going to get out.

I know that most people reading my blog are in a better spot than I am financially. I’m ok with that. That’s why I read your blogs. I hope you read mine because you care about responsible living and you find that you’re able to identify with me in some small way.

I thank you so very much for sharing with me and supporting me as I stand tall and unashamedly declare, “I screwed up big time, but I’m on my way out.”

Why I do what I do ~ because even with all that foolishness I have the most blissful, wonderful life. I wouldn’t trade it for anything … debt and all.

 

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Tagged as: Money Trouble, Personal Growth