Long ago in 1998 we got hitched and found out that our mixed debt was bigger than either of us had imagined. Between the student loans, credit cards, store cards, truck and automobile loans we had almost $35,000 in debt creating $2500 a month between the two of us. We were poor, living in a rat infested farm house and sitting on a pile of bills. Even though we were broke we had been newlyweds and life was fun. We didn’t have youngsters yet, so our lives were completely about us. We could have squandered our cash purchasing senseo coffee machine and twin bed in a bag to brighten our simple house, but instead we promptly buckled down and started to repay debts. We terminated services we didn’t want, moved all our debt to 0% interest credit cards (our ratings had been good so we could do this) and put every spare dime toward those bills.
I’m fairly great with numbers. It was simple to see that we should pay our higher interest bills 1st, but I knew that the potent high that comes from wiping out an old debt was intoxicating. I wanted that feeling quick. So I paid off the smallest bills and then rolled those payments into the next highest bill, all of the way up to the largest loan. We paid really little interest during this time since the rates had been either zero or very low. I paid on the zero interest notes initial simply because I wanted each and every penny to go toward the actual debt.
In 18 months we had it all cleared. Years afterwards I stumbled across the Dave Ramsey lessons. Right after reading it I realized we had been following his plans the entire time. We now have the money to go out and purchase the latest kids camo bedding but we do not since we make sure everything we buy is truly wanted and necessary. We consider our purchases, and save up prior to we buy anything. It’s a system that has served us well.