For those of you who don’t know our story I wanted to share a post that was featured on Money Saving Mom.

We began our debt free journey in the summer of 2006, almost a year after we had been married. Hard to believe its been 8yrs since we made a decision that will forever change the way we live our lives and our family tree. Since this article was written we’ve had several major life changes including selling our home and moving into a 900sq ft bungalow rental house down the street, starting our own company, purchasing equipment for our new business, buying a fixer up house with some land on the opposite side of town(more about that here) buying a van, taking several trips including another trip to Hawaii and having another baby.  All the while we’ve strived to live on cash and avoid credit cards and loans. I will say we did end up deciding to purchase our home with a loan but hope to pay it off early and got a good deal on it since it needed some major work done.

I’ll let this past post explain how we got started on our debt free journey and explain more about the other changes in some upcoming posts. http://moneysavingmom.com/2012/08/being-debt-free-is-so-worth-it.html

I have to admit, some of the things we’ve done or do that has saved us money would definetly go down in the “weird” file for many americans. For example, we don’t have cable or a flat screen tv. We use cloth diapers, natural health remedies and cleaning methods. We’ve bought pallets of food and gluten free items at an auction(we’re talking 50lb bags of cereal, oats ect) and filled our living room with cardboard boxes full of seat covers to sell on ebay. We bought a popup trailer on craigslist so we didn’t have to rent one and then sold it when we got back in town for more money than we bought it for. The funniest thing my husband has probably done was pick up chunks of ice off the walmart parking lot to put it in our cooler(for items we didn’t have to worry about where the ice came from of course)but we still got a good laugh out of it…

I told you they’d be weird 😉

Have ever done something “weird” to save money?

For those of you who don’t know, my husband and I, by the grace of God, live debt free. It’s not always easy and this year has definetly thrown some challenges our way but I wouldn’t have it any other way. We started our debt free journey several years ago and have never regretted it. We now facilitate financial classes occasionally and LOVE being able to encourge others in the journey by “throwing out a rope” so to speak.

Now I know not everyone wants this or feels its what their family should do and some have decided to stop it temporarily for other things they need to take care of but for those working towards this goal the sacrifices you are making now will have a huge impact later. Success very rarely happens overnight. It’s making right or wrong decisions on a daily basis. Making bad choices over and over will cause death by 1000 cuts. Now I didn’t say it would necessarily be easy but things that are worth it usually arent. Set goals and allow yourself small rewards to help keep your momentum going. Push, push, push, be intentional and very soon, little by little you will be seeing the rewards and results of all your hard work. I know you can do it!!