Debt Update

We started this journey in September 2010. As of July 1st, 2011, we have paid off $13864.01!!!!!

As you may have heard, Tony and I are working super hard to pay off our debt. We have made a few mistakes in the past that we can blame on being young and naive... or most likely we were just being stupid and careless! However, after taking a long 13-week course about money management, we are on the same page. A page that says NO to debt! A page that is sick of giving over $1000/month of our hard earned income away to the collectors! A page that no longer wants to be slave to the lender!

Here is the ugly, nasty truth of how out of hand our debt became:

So almost a year ago, on September 13th, we walked into our first Financial Peace University class. We had heard about it through our marriage prep class and knew that the first class was a freebie. Everyone else in the class already had the kit and workbooks ready to go. Tony and I sat empty-handed. He was embarassed, but I didn't want to "blow" $100 on something we weren't going to stick to. I even forgot to print out the workbook freebie handout, which furthered Tony's embarassment. I had forgotten that sometimes he doesn't like to "go with the flow" and stick out from the others. Needless to say, after one class, we were hooked. We bought the kit from our instructor before walking out the door that night.

I quickly dove in and became the nerd of the Stein team. Tony fell into the roll of the free spirit, but started to grow more into a tight-wad free spirit ;) Fortunately we already had Baby Step 1: $1000 Baby Emergency Fund in place from our wedding. After three weeks of class, I finally calculated our Debt Snowball. Ouch. Our total debt was... get ready for this... take a seat.... $61,943.19. We were 25 years old. How the hell did this happen?! It was time to get angry and get rolling on our debt snowball.

If we can keep up the same pace of about $1500/month, we will be debt free by June 30th, 2014. Although this seems super far away at this point, I have to remember what we started with (see that sickening number above) and how much on interest we will be saving (over $11,000!). Plus, it's seven years earlier than if we just paid minimum payments!

We are finally under the $50,000 mark. Do you know how much debt you have? Most recent grads/mid-20s have never added it up. You can't attack a problem if you don't even know where you stand. I challenge you to the Debt Snowball!!!

Baby Stein… ETA January 20th, 2012!

So remember when I posted about Eelpout Festival a few months back? Well after that trip, Tony got this bright idea to start a family… now. We had originally planned to wait until at least our 1st year anniversary. But being the baby-lover that I am, and since no time is the “right time,” we got to work!

On Friday, May 20th, Tony and I went out for a friend’s birthday. Although we had fun, we ended the night with a fight. We rarely have fights and this one wasn’t anything huge. It was more just something that you brushed off and forgot about the next morning. We both headed off to work the next day at 10am. It was a slow day in the office and I was starving. I ran over to Cub Foods and got a lean cuisine… and a pregnancy test. I was a week late.

No big deal… I was ten days late the month before. But I couldn’t just let that test burn a hole in my purse all day until I went home… so after lunch, I did the deed. And much to surprise, yet not surprise, there were two pink lines! (aka, it was positive). Here is was, about 2pm in the afternoon and I was supposed to just wait 3+ hours to tell my hubby??? I couldn’t handle the waiting. So I called up my good friend (and boss) and begged her to finish out the day for me at work. I couldn’t fake being sick because I couldn’t wipe the cheesy grin of my face… so I had to tell her! Then I ran off to Target and picked up a little present for hubby.

Since I was home so early and we had a grad dinner to go to that night, I dressed up and fixed my hair. Then I wrapped the present and waited by the door for Tony to come home. He was a little surprised to see me home so early. But before he could even suspect anything, I handed him his gift. He looked confused and said, “What the heck is this for?” I told him that I was sorry we got in a fight last night and this was a little gift to make up for it. He replied, “All I gotta do is fight with you and I get presents?” I told him to just go ahead and open it.

He peeled back the wrapping paper and pulled out a little onesie that said “I Love My Daddy” on it!