We are so close

In less than two months we will have paid off every single credit card in our debt reduction plan. We will have gone almost 5 years without using a credit card once. We have changed the way we shop, eat, get entertained, and live on a daily, monthly, yearly basis. And I am so afraid we will go right back to our old ways as soon as we can get another credit card. The good news - there are two of us in this deal, an neither one of us will let the other one get away with it.

 We have learned how to ask ourselves many times a week: "Do I really need that?"

 We have learned how to cook at home and enjoy a pizza once a month.

 We have learned how to go to the movies on the cheap and how to check books out of the library.

 We know where to get great food for low prices.

I look forward to having some breathing room.

I look forward to this being over.

The beginning

It all ended on 9/9/09. That's the day after a very large sum of money left our bank account. It's mission - start paying down our debt. It all started more than 25 years ago. Somehow, simply by never facing facts we managed to get our selves into 6 digit debt. And that's not counting our house and cars.

Then this new economy struck. It struck us hard. Between us we now have 5 furlough days. I lost 9% of my income - my wife lost 14% of hers. All of a sudden we could no longer live paycheck to paycheck. We had to make some drastic changes.

And so we have.

This blog is our story. We are not poor. Nor are we to be pitied. We are just two people that over spent and are now figuring out how to survive with less. We are learning the lessons of the thinner wallet.