We took a lot of trips, we saw a lot of things, we started a lot of goals, and wrapped up the year with completing some of them. RJ is 11. She's almost 5'4 believe it or not. I'm proud of her growth and maturity but we have a long way to go entering high school shortly down the line.
Darlene and I have done some traveling this year. We played in a WPT event in Florida, where I made it to Day 2 and got to bag up chips with the pros. We have really done a lot. We took lots of weekend trips and short getaways to de-stress, and I had a lot of people asking how we did it. It is hard out here for a PIMP!
It's just really hard to maintain your money and also pay off old debt. I have to tell you though, it is 100% possible to do. In just 3 short years Darlene and I have diligently paid off more than $75,000 in debt and that's including our wedding costs. When we first were engaged, I had a serious discussion about not having our family support us in any financial way. I didn't want to burden either set of parents with a bill for something we wanted to do. We worked really hard and I picked up a few tricks along the way that really made it easy to do the things that we wanted to without breaking the bank. Here are a few of them.
- Plan. - I know that sounds silly, but plan. If you KNOW that you're attending a dinner, lunch, function, party, or planning any of the above, plan it for crying out loud.
- Attending a lunch/dinner? - Find out the restaurant and visit their website. In most cases they offer coupons right off of their webpage. Embarrassed to use a coupon? Get over it. This day and age, no one is laughing when you use a coupon.
- Attending a birthday party? Find out what they like, and look on eBay and Amazon. I find deals with them all the time that cut the cost of the item that the kid is looking for.
- Planning a birthday party for your kid? Use your resources! Know someone with a pool? Big yard for a slip and slide? Church with a field for open play? Skating rink? Gymnasium? Don't pay for 15 bratty kids to run around Dave&Busters. It's literally over $500 to do that and it's not including cake and a gift for your child. Even a splash pad in your city can be rented out very cheaply. Bring the bbq and serve up hotdogs and cake. There's a party for under $100.
- For all items listed above, use your rewards credit card. Getting 1-5% back on purchased that you are already going to make, really makes sense. Not to mention, I can use these rewards to get gift cards to places that I could spend on other things.
- Example: I put ALL of our monthly bills that can be paid on the Credit Card, on there. Why? Because I get 1-5% cash back. I ALWAYS pay the credit card off LONGGGG before the interest can hit, and the bonus? I can select 1-3 ($25) gift cards monthly. Anything from gas cards, to restaurants, to Walmart. Most times it's Walmart for us. I don't like them, but they have an app that you can upload your receipts to, and if they find a cheaper price on something you purchased, they credit your Walmart account.
- Did you catch that? I take FREE gift cards that I get from my CC company and spend them at Walmart who ALSO reimburses me for items that are found cheaper elsewhere. It is literally a dream come true.
- Flights and Travel?
- Glad you asked! Fly out on Tuesdays. It stinks. However, catch the red eye on Tuesday, stay until Friday and Saturday. The reason you'll thank me? Several reasons. It's wayyy cheaper to fly on Tuesday. Your hotel stay will be based on Midweek rates which is sometimes HALF of what you would pay on the weekend. Also, if you're off on Saturday and Sunday, now you'll have a day or two to get back to normal, do laundry, catch up on what happened at your house while you were gone, etc.
- Use Reward systems. You heard me! Sign up for Airline rewards (not necessarily their CC, but their frequent flier registration). Get the miles from them. You may be able to redeem them later for drink tickets, or cheaper flights. Use your Credit Card to purchase the flight. Get that 1-5% back on something you are already going to buy! Same goes for hotels. Use Hotels.com. Buy 10 nights, get one free. Who passes up on FREE?
Planning really helps. And that goes for everything. Planning your finances down to the dollar can really help you pay off some hefty debt and quickly. We lived off of $100 for every 2 weeks between the 3 of us. That may sound like a lot, but it isn't. Between needing shoes, calculators, books, lunch, coffee, and whatever, the money goes fast. However, sticking to that allowed my wife and I to be 90% debt free. We have less than $10,000 in debt remaining between the 2 of us, and that is NOTHING in comparison to most folks. We own everything and I'm very proud of that. Keep in mind, it takes a TON of sacrifice and a TON of practice and patience to get your specific formula just right.
The one thing I want to say, is....DO it. Don't wait until retirement to try to pay things off. Get it done now and live much easier now and when you get older. If it takes 2-3 years sacrifice of $200 a month, do it. It is totally worth it.
Pray about it. Ask for support, and get everyone in your house on the same page. Don't forget to tithe either. I thought money going out would stop the progress, but the truth is, it only made life easier. Don't stop! You can get it!
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