It’s been a year since my husband and I finished off my student loans and even though we’re not a 100% debt-free yet (we’re still working on the mortgage), we’ve been able to see the tremendous benefits of a life free from the chains of debt.
Yes, debt is a trap. I know our society wants us to believe otherwise, but it is simply a chain that keeps you from realizing your true life’s dreams.
As I mentioned before in another post, my husband quit his job, with no backup plan. That’s pretty scary, but here’s the thing, it’s been a month since he quit and we haven’t even touched our emergency fund.
We haven’t stressed – not once – about how the bills are going to get paid. And as one of our kids’ Godparents said, “y’all did it the right way – you made sure that you don’t owe anyone”.
It really doesn’t take much for us to live on. In fact, this whole experience has taught us that we could have been saving and doing so much more with the money that my husband was earning before.
We’re getting to experience having Daddy home for dinner. Daddy’s phone not ringing all day long. Daddy not missing important family events.
We’re getting to experience something that over the years has been taken away from society – Daddy getting to do more than just “provide” for his family. Daddy now gets to make money, and thus, “provide” for us, but he also gets to show up for soccer practice, help get the kids in bed, read stories, build birdhouses, and the list goes on.
It’s beautiful and it has only been made possible because we committed ourselves to living a debt-free life.
Because you know that I love numbers and I love showing our “real life on a budget”, here’s what our budget looked like before we committed becoming debt-free (this is from 2012):
2012 Budget
Mortgage: $740
Auto Insurance: $175
Health Insurance: $475 (this was before the Affordable Care Act went into place so his employer wasn’t required to pay for health insurance yet – and this was for just 3 people!)
Car Payment: $450
Netflix: $8
Internet: $40
Groceries: $600
Diapers/Wipes: $85
Fuel: $250
Utilities: $420
Cell phone: $150
Credit Card #1: $35 (Min. Payment)
Credit Card #2: $75 (Min. Payment)
Student Loans: $450 (Min. Payment)
Total Expenses: $3,953
That’s a lot of money that we would have had to have every month in order to just cover our bills! Heck, we didn’t really have anything left to save or tithe!
Here’s what our monthly budget today looks like:
Mortgage: $740
Auto Insurance: $114
Boys’ Preschool Tuition: $529
Internet: $60
Netflix: $8
Groceries: $500
Diapers/Wipes: $85
Fuel: $150
Utilities: $375
Cell Phone: $45
Health Insurance: $450 (All 5 of us are on a healthcare sharing ministry.)
Tithe: $200
Monthly Savings (various accounts): $400
Total Expenses: $3,656
You may also be looking at this going – wait, you’re expenses didn’t go that far down!
Look at the difference in what those expenses are now paying for:
- Our boys’ preschool tuition (which we never thought in a million years we’d be able to afford)
- Giving
- Savings
- A family of 5 – in 2012, it was just 3 of us.
That’s the whole point to living a “real life on a budget” – making your budget work for you and allowing your money to help you to realize your dreams and goals. Our money is now doing that – it’s now based around our real life and what we value most. If we still had that $1,000 in minimum debt payments every month there’s literally no way we’d be able to afford to pay for our boys’ school and save $400 a month!
That would have added another $1,000 on top of the debt burden! My husband was only bringing home right at $3,500 (deficit much????).
The difference is now, we make the rules – my husband gets to set his pay and his hours. That’s the fun of being self-employed. Granted the downside is that we now have to pay $450 a month for health insurance but the freedom has been well worth it.
That’s what I want for everyone – freedom. Freedom to live your real life on a budget – whatever that budget may look like for you.
Sure, if you want to have nice cars, nice houses, nice vacations that are all paid for with debt, that’s okay. It’s your budget, you get to decide how you use it, but I do want to challenge you with this….
What more could you do with that money you’re paying out in debt payments every month?
Could you finally take that trip to Europe?
Pay for your kids’ college tuition?
Pay for that kitchen remodel?
Finally quit that job you hate?
My husband being able to quit the job that was draining the life out of him has been an amazing blessing to us – so don’t go thinking that you have to be stuck working a job you don’t love. You have options.
Again, it’s totally up to you – what does your real life on a budget look like?
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Sarah says
Hi Jessi!!! Your husband quitting his job has been so encouraging to me and my husband!! I keep updating him on your story, haha 🙂 My husband is planning on quitting his job in April! We have our third baby coming in a little over a week and he has vacation time he’ll be taking. Then, in March, he gets a bonus which he wants to hold out for (hence the April quit date haha). We JUST paid off our SUV last week and now our only debt is also our mortgage. It feels incredible!! I love that you guys are able to spend more time together as a family. That is our goal, too 🙂
If you don’t mind me asking, what does your husband do now for self-employment? Mine will be doing real estate and construction!
Jessi Fearon says
Sarah, you’re going to send me pictures of this sweet little when they arrive right??? You know I love gushy over cute little bitty babies! 🙂 And congratulations on paying off your SUV!!!! That’s amazing! Pat is doing what he loves…building stuff. lol He’s doing home remodel stuff – like kitchens, bathrooms, and basements. He’s loving being back to working with his hands. 🙂
Sarah @ The Teacher's Wife says
I totally missed your post about your husband quitting his job. I love your transparency – it’s inspiring to see how living without debt really can set you free. Thanks for sharing!
Savannah says
Our real life budget keeps taking hits, but that’s what happens right? My husband started a new job recently, and it has skyrocketed our income. He is bringing home at least $350 more per WEEK! That’s $1400 per month. However, we were living just fine on his previous income, so we have been living like we don’t have that $1400 and operating on the same budget. We are throwing the extra income right onto debt. We are six figures under WITHOUT a mortgage, which is very discouraging. 80% of it is my student loans. I have an amazing career that I could have only gotten through my degree, but it’s still just heavy. I am thinking about starting a blog to hold myself accountable to our budget!
Thank you for your realness in your blog – I stop by every day hoping you’ve posted! 🙂
Meg says
Our budget is in a rut. Im just trying to keep my head above water until 2017. Tax return should skim half our credit card debt off and then a bonus from hubs work will be put towards moving. We will be downsizing our house in 2017. I am completely anxious for this to happen. Heres to looking forward. 2017 will be a year of permenantly dropping debt!!!
You guys always inspire me!
Side note … Our house flooded back in february (faulty toilet hose) and we paid some debts and did the major repairs on our house with the flood money. However, we have not put back our baseboards and quarter round and its DRIVING ME NUTS… But Ill deal with it until we have the extra cash rather than put it on a card.
Jessi Fearon says
You know, I know a guy that can put your baseboards and quarter round back on. 😉 Just say the word and I’ll have Pat call you. And you know I’ll be screaming from the roof tops in joy when y’all get to move! 🙂
Alexandra says
My husband and I are so determined to get rid of debt. We have about 63K of student loan debt (eek!!). We are currently living off of one income (my husband’s) and hopefully I will get things started soon (job/income wise). We are expecting our first baby this November/December…so hopefully I can work from home and help financially. Life is so crazy beautiful and I know God will provide (sometimes I doubt that and it’s a constant battle). It is very encouraging to hear your story Jessi! We hope we will be in your shoes someday soon. We indeed don’t want to make loan payments for the rest of our life. We want to pursue our goals, dreams, and explore the World! Many blessings to you and your family!!!
Jessi Fearon says
Congratulations on your soon-to-be little bundle! Sending prayers y’all’s way for this new wonderful chapter of your lives! And honestly, the first step in succeeding with anything is determination – so y’all are already on your way to making your dreams a reality! 🙂
Brittany says
What healthcare ministry did you go with??
Jessi Fearon says
Christian Healthcare Ministry – we haven’t had to file a claim yet so not sure how that’ll go, but we have loved them so far! 🙂
Jenny says
I love the update Jessi. We’re trying to get there. We are debt free including the mortgage but my blog business is not there yet to provide for our family. My husband is encouraging and cheering me…and helping drive kids everywhere so I can buckle down and work hard. We need to replenish our emergency fund; we borrowed from it a lot in the last year we were paying off our house. That was probably a mistake. So I need to work my business hard and we need to save and then hopefully that will give Chris some job wiggle room.
Jessi Fearon says
Congratulations on paying off the house Jenny!!!! That is awesome! And you’ll get there with the blog – I just got my Sirach Bible Study book from Amazon last week and I can’t wait to dig in (planning to do it before Advent starts 🙂 ).
Amy says
I’m so excited to read this update, and for your family! I follow several (female) bloggers whose husbands have quit their jobs to work with them on their blogs/businesses, and/or to have more flexible work arrangements for themselves. My husband has a good-paying, secure job, but he’s generally only reasonably happy with it, and I’d love for him to have the freedom you described here. He just needs to figure out a way to make it work for him…