Trimming the Fat, Vol I, In Which We Reduce Our Debt

My brother and his bride gave me a book for my birthday last month. The book has made quite an impact on our little household so far. I read it and was inspired and then Rich read it and was inspired. We've begun making sweeping changes in the way we operate our home, our budget, our goals. The book was Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover.

Now, while we weren't in bad shape (compared to pretty much all other Americans), it's been a rough year. Rich's job has been horrible, giving him work when they have it and effectively just letting him be laid off when they don't have it. So while we are nearly always frugal and I am sometimes downright cheap, this year has caused a pinch that will be felt clear through Christmas of next year.

In the process of trimming the fat from our budget, working steely-eyed at clearing all credit card debt, and dreaming about paying off the mortgage, a fundamental shift has occurred in our relationship. It's been nice to partner toward a cause that will benefit us both and our son. It's been like a game so far to call our service providers and talk them down from their regular monthly rates, to call our credit cards and talk them down from their ridiculous interest rates.

I've been selling off items of clothing, home decor, pieces of furniture to build some cash to pay off some debt. Oddly, that's been fun too, though we don't really own that much of real value since I don't believe in buying furniture NEW to begin with. In our entire home we only have two pieces of furniture we bought new from a store and both of those were on massive sale when I got them. I'm just frugal by nature.

We've rediscovered Aldi grocery stores. Do you know you can buy a bag of snack chips in there for 99 cents? (and did you know that computer keyboards don't have a cent symbol on them? huh.) I'd forgotten what good savings live there. We've even cut back on things like pop (why buy soda when water is free and teabags are cheap?), fast foods, and convenience meals.

We're keeping the Netflix account because it's cheap to begin with and it's already keeping us out of the movie theaters on weekends. How many movies come out that you just HAVE to see on the big screen? The Harry Potters and anything with a superhero spring to mind. Anything else can be put off until it arrives in the little red envelope in my mailbox.

It's a good goal to have, controlling the household budget, reducing debt, and paying off the mortgage, but it's taking an effort for sure. And that's a good thing. May as well have something challenging to keep our focus on each other.

I highly recommend the book. And if you read it, go ahead and get your calculator out. You'll need it.