How We Paid Off a Huge Debt

Recently, my husband and I paid off a huge debt ,even though we are living on only one income. I’m still in shock that we paid this off so soon and without borrowing money. We did it and that means you can do it too!

When I got married 2 years ago, a friend asked me if we could live on one income, if we had to. This scenario would ring true if we started a family and one of us stayed home to raise the kids. Back then, I didn’t think it was possible.  We both had full time jobs but maybe we weren’t managing our money well. Or maybe all of our money went to our wedding, which was paid in full.

I lost my job last September. For a few months, we were forced to live on one income. Surprisingly, I was excited by this challenge. See how we downsized our budget and saved over $100 a month. It took 3 months for me to receive unemployment. Just as soon as unemployment checks started coming in, it ended, since I didn’t qualify for the extension.

All of my unemployment checks came all at once, in batches. It was a windfall of money which I am thankful for.

We could either save the money so we wouldn’t have to live on such a tight budget or pay off one of our debts. I knew that if we had extra money, we would end up spending it on something else. So we chose the latter, to pay off one of our biggest debts. This debt had such a high interest that if we only paid the monthly minimum payment of $250, we would be paying for it until 2014!

Also, I sold some of equipment from my former wedding video business. I sold a prized possession, my very first video camera. It was sold the next day on Facebook, of all places. I had a difficult time letting this camera go since I had built up a strong emotional attachment to it. But I kept reminding myself of the wonderful feeling I would have, once this debt was paid off.

By taking advantage of unemployment money and the sale of video equipment, we were able to pay off this massive debt, which we are extremely happy to get rid of. It feels like an enormous weight has been lifted off of our shoulders!

What can you do to pay off your debts faster? Do you have high-priced items that could sell well? Can you lower your budget more?