Live like no one else so you can live like no one else

We are in the middle of some big decisions and major changes. Anyone that is familiar with Dave Ramsey knows what the title of this post is all about and most of us struggle to grasp what that really is for our lives. We first took the Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace course about 6 years ago. We made some major changes adjusted how we were spending our money, started budgeting, took cash out, payed down some debt but we truly didn't grasp the "live like no one else so you can live like no one else concept" We canceled our TV for a while, went back to dumb phones, stopped eating out, taught the class a couple of times and changed our habits again but still didn't make a significant headway on our debt. In October 2013 Murphy got us good (Murphy's law - if it can go wrong it will go wrong) ...bathroom toilet leaked so we needed to tear out a portion of the sub-floor, and refinish the bathroom and Matt did an amazing job doing the majority of it himself (which saved a lot of money), the transmission went out in the Tahoe, Jacob was born in November and the Camry needed more repairs then it was worth and was not safe to haul a family around in any more. The only way we would have been able to avoid going further in debt is if we were on baby step 3 (save 3-6 months of income) but for the last 6 years we have been going back and forward between baby step 1 and 2 (step 1 $1000 in savings step 2 debt snow ball and pay off all your debt). 7 months after Murphy did his damage we have decided its time to "live like no one else so we can live like no one else"

We are selling our home, moving in with Matt's mom and step dad in Lake Preston and paying off ALL our debt in 2 years.

Yes you read that right. We are selling our home, moving in with Matt's mom and step dad and paying off ALL our debt in 2 years. Can you imagine being debt free in 2 years?! We are so excited to have that last payment within arms reach! Even with the adjustments we made before Murphy struck we couldn't see an end. THERE IS AN END IN SIGHT! Yes it will be a crazy 2 years we will have our own little area at Sharon and Mike's and the dogs can come with us, they have a few acres of land that the dogs will LOVE to run on. We will go from living on both our checks to living on one of ours with the other check going entirely debt.

Some maybe asking why not just rent in Brookings...If you live in Brookings you know the reality of renting in Brookings as a family is not cheap. There is no where in town we could rent for less then what we will be buying in gas to drive that wouldn't be a dump.

Some of you are thinking this is just to crazy, I could never do that!!! Others are jumping for joy for us to be out of debt in 2 crazy years!

We are selling our home and all the details of with who and what we are selling it for are yet to be worked out. Matt is working on that and of course we have looked into what Dave says and who is recommended by him in the area. We know that Volga is the hot place to be moving to and there are not many houses on the market right now plus we have an amazing location and even more amazing neighbors. (lets just say I am not letting myself think about leaving the neighborhood or it puts me in tears because we have been SO blessed to have lived here)

Its not all about getting out of debt. Its the freedom that we will have as we are working on this. Matt will be doing online course work during this time to get a degree through Indiana Wesleyan. We will be freeing up a lot of time for him to focus on school and also more time for us to enjoy our family, plus getting out of debt!

I am planning on posting more on the progress as we move along the journey, living minimlstly and sharing what God teaches us along the way.