Almost embarrassed to admit this, but

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-20-2004
Almost embarrassed to admit this, but
3
Tue, 08-16-2005 - 5:49pm
I will anyway. I added up the amunt we owe to everybody yesterday and realized that for the first time EVER, we finally owe less than our combined yearly income. Now we have been married nine years, and when we started out, our income was absolutely dismal. I was making $5.75 an hour!! working part time. We had close to $24,000 in student loans between the two of us. Not to mention his ccs (I didn't have any then), car loans, etc. Now in the eighteen months, we have added two car loans too. But I have gotten over $3.00/hr in raises this year, and I am working 35 hrs/wk as opposed to the 29 I was working before. So anyway, our income and our debt both hovers at the $58,000 mark. Only we knock off about $1400 every month, so it won't be too long before i add everything up again and realize that it is WAY less. Now I know some people wouldn't be too enthusiastic about this ratio, but we are putting money into my dh's 401k plan now, and saving every month (though it does get depleted with occasional therapy-related things for our daughter) Anyhow, my dh and I are underearning. It is a tradeoff, so I can be around for our daughters. Anyhow, dh and I aren't the kind of people who need a lot of stuff, our kids really aren't either so it works for us to keep working on digging ourselves out of this hole. Today we took the girls on a field trip: We went to Culver's for ice cream and then went through a car wash. Total spent: $17.00. Our kids thought it was great. The one thing we all want is a house...we live in an apartment that is only $675 for 3 bedrooms. It is pretty run down, our neighbors aren't the kind of people we'd hang around...not dangerous, just drunks. we don't let our kids play outside...we will take them to the park to play, etc. NOT fun, but we committed ourselves to making some prgress with our debt, and keeping living expenses down is one way to do it. When we moved here, the only other place for rent so that our dd could go to the school we wanted her to go to was $1100 a month. It was nice, but we will never be able to buy a house if we are paying that much for rent, and underearning, too. So anyway, it was a tradeoff. Just wanted to give a big THANK YOU to everyone on this board who has been there for me through the years. We still have a LONG way to go, but it feels good to actually know that we are making progress!!! Heather
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2005
Tue, 08-16-2005 - 7:13pm

That is fantastic news!!!

Jennifer

 

Image hosting by TinyPic

Avatar for cl_phocid
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 08-16-2005 - 7:42pm
Heather - that is terrific news!

All my best,
Danni

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-09-2005
Tue, 08-16-2005 - 9:19pm
Good for you!!! And it will be nice to see the balance drop further each month. We are almost at the same place -- I thought we could make better progress but our dog got sick and things came to a screeching halt. I am becoming a firm believer in the emergency fund idea.
Congrats again
Megan