Happy 6th birthday to the OG sister! There's no be Happy 6th birthday to the OG sister! There's no better feeling than getting to know the wonderful person she is growing into. We're so proud of this girl!! 6 is going to be a great year 💕
I'd want to sleep all day, too, if I were up every I'd want to sleep all day, too, if I were up every hour last night 🙃🙃 

Outfit @honest 🦋
Anyone see our other kids lately?? 😜 You know, Anyone see our other kids lately?? 😜 You know, it's so funny how some parts of the newborn phase have been like muscle memory and others have been like we've had our first born all over again. 

We were worried about how David and Evy would feel with this new family member but they have been so sweet that it brings tears to my eyes to put it into words. I was especially worried about Ev being supplanted as the youngest but, honestly, being the big sister suits her SO well and I think she's been loving it, too. 

I've also loved getting to experience this again with Josh. The way you band together during the newborn phase especially is very bonding. You rely on each other deeply and it's not always cute or pretty. 

Super grateful 💗
To the best big brother and sister. Cleo is going To the best big brother and sister. Cleo is going to think she has the coolest, smartest, bravest big siblings in the world, and she's not wrong 😉
She's here 🌷 Cleo Renée was born 2 weeks early She's here 🌷 Cleo Renée was born 2 weeks early on Saturday March 11 at 1:52 in the morning. 

Josh and I just had a feeling about that day (Friday), so we kept the kids out of school, went out to breakfast, and just spent our last day together as a family of four. 

My contractions started right after my 38 week appointment that morning and progressed throughout the day until around 4pm when I thought, "Mmk, I'm starting to really need to breathe through these. Better go in."

I was so convinced they were going to turn us away that it really didn't hit me that we were actually going to meet our girl that night until we'd been there for a few hours already. 

Baby girl ended up being 7lbs 15oz and 20in long!

We are all so in love. David and Evy are OBSESSED. A few times their friends have come to the door to ask them to play and they've said they'd rather stay home with the baby 😄

We are so blessed and thankful for this little girl ❤️
How to use a French hair pin. I love these things How to use a French hair pin. I love these things because they can hold up even my thick and chunky hair and I don't have a large clip sticking off the back of my head (don't get me wrong, I love a good hair clip, too)! Have you tried one yet??
This season of waiting has been weird. But I’m s This season of waiting has been weird. But I’m so grateful for it.

On the one hand, there’s so much to do to get ready for little one to join us—it’s been a while since we’ve had a newborn! I’m spending most of my free time writing and nesting, nesting and writing. 

And then on the other hand, I’m feeling pretty ready to have my body back. And by that, I mean just to be done literally sharing it with another being. You start to miss things after a while like being able to breathe when you lay on your back or not getting indigestion for eating a few grapes. 

Overall, there’s so much to be thankful for. Each little inconvenience is a blessing and I’m happy they’re there. I’ll also be happy when they’re over. For now, I’m just savoring being a mom of “older kids” (8 and going on 6) that can grab their own snacks from time to time and put on their own shoes. We’re going to be heading back to square one in a couple months and I’m sure there’s a lot we’ve forgotten!
Naturally, when we see a need, we rush in to fill Naturally, when we see a need, we rush in to fill it and fix it. On top of this, it’s hard for us to ask for help because we don’t want to be a burden to others. 

But in the process of meeting everyone else’s needs and neglecting our own (especially our need for rest), we often become bitter towards the ones we’re helping.

Instead, one of the best things we can do as a wife or mother is to assess our own needs and make sure to leave space to meet them ourself or to ask for what we need. 

It might be time to rest, help with the next meal, time alone to pray and meditate on God’s word, or allowing yourself to leave a task un-done so you can “selfishly” enjoy a hobby of yours like the rest of your family gets to do. 

In the end, making room to find joy each day may be one of the best things you do for your relationships.
30 weeks and counting down the days til we meet yo 30 weeks and counting down the days til we meet you. We *think* we've finally settled on a first name after non-stop back-and-forth and brainstorming. Any guesses?? Or.. what are your favorite baby girl names right now??
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Family, Finances, Life & Finances, Marriage, Uncategorized, Work · January 25, 2020

How We Paid off $30,000 in Debt and Saved up for a Down Payment in 2.5 Years

How to pinch pennies and save for big goals. 

First, the stats. In August 2017, Josh and I and our two kiddos moved in with his parents. At that time I had about $50,000 in student loans, $0 credit card debt, and $0 car payments (we sold our car just before we moved) but we also had maybe $1000 in savings? I honestly don’t remember. Since that time, we’ve been able to pay off about $30,000 in student loans, save up about $20,000 for a down payment on a home, not to mention pay a whopping $5,000 *unexpected* medical bill. Oh, and fly across the country for like 4 weddings.

Now, let me start with a little background. As I mentioned, about two and a half years ago, Josh and I moved in with his parents so we could start saving up to buy a home of our own here in Washington. Our goal at the time wasn’t even to start paying off the $50,000~ we (ok, I) had in student loans at the time.

First things first

We very quickly realized that that’s where we should start. So we pushed back our original timeline of when we would move out (something we would do several more times throughout the process) and started throwing whatever extra money we had each month towards my loans with the highest interest rates.

Now, it took us about 6 months to even start paying extra money towards my loans because up until that point, our family had been surviving on my small blogging income (which is doable when you’re living in your parents house). Six months after we moved in, however, I started working remotely for a tech startup in NY. This is when we were finally able to start making some headway. 

Here are a few tips and practices we used along the way that made paying off our debt more of a habit than a burden:

Don’t have a credit card… or at least pretend you don’t

Sure, this is easier said than done, but it is doable and so extremely important. If you do have credit card debt, I’d suggest working towards paying that off first. Dave Ramsey, whose principals we loosely followed, would tell you to make a list of all your individual loans and debts and work towards paying off the smallest debt first, then the next smallest, and so on. If that’s your credit card, then start there. If it’s a student loan, then start there (some of my student loans had 10% and 11% interest rates!!!!).

Staying away from credit card debt comes down to really only paying what you can afford at the time you want to buy. Josh and I *kind of* lived by this principal. We made most of our purchases with a travel rewards credit card so we could earn miles with our favorite airline, but we treated it light a debit card in that we paid it off very quickly. It was also the first thing we paid off every paycheck. We never wanted to be tricked by the illusion of having money when really it was owed to someone else. 

I always felt so much satisfaction whenever I saw that credit card balance drop back to 0 and almost in a way felt competitive about it. When I saw the balance start to wrack up, I felt stressed and annoyed that we let that happen.

Morale of the story, pay for what you can afford. Things won’t make you happier. If you feel like you really want something in the moment, wait a day or two to buy it and see if you feel the same later. You may save yourself from making unnecessary purchases in the moment.

Make sacrifices

I touched on a rather obvious point in the beginning of this post and that’s the fact that we – a family of four with our youngest only being three months at the time – moved in with Josh’s parents. And we’ve been here for about 2.5 years. Whenever someone tells us “Wow you guys are going to be in great shape when it comes time to buy a house!” I say with a huge smile, “We better be after living with our parents for this long!.”

Seriously though, saving up enough money to pay off loans and save for a down payment doesn’t come without sacrifices. It means finding the most affordable living conditions possible. It means working more. Making food and coffee at home. Finding the cheaper gym membership and potentially homeschooling or sending your kids to public school. 

It also very much means saying a big fat NO to lots of purchases, trips, services, what have you. Josh and I spent the last couple years driving a very dinky hand-me-down car with hawaiian print seats. At times, it was embarrassing to drive. Could we have afforded to buy a car? For sure. But we had a car (dinky as it was) that was free, got us to where we needed to go, and allowed us to put even more $$ towards debt and savings each month. 

Society will make you feel as though certain things are needs. Like a new phone, nice jeans, a new car, a big living space. The reality is, nobody needs those things, and they all come at a cost. It’s not that those things are bad, but they’re never needs and they won’t make you any happier on their own.

Making sacrifices is hard and, trust me, it does get frustrating saying no all the time. But it’s extremely worth it in the long run.

Create a budget

Josh and I rarely ever do anything by the rules. I believe that when people want to save money, they need to really understand how much they can trust themselves. Really.

I used a Everydollar to keep track of money coming in and out each month. It’s so easy to loose track of how much you spend in a certain category like eating out, coffee shops, clothes, cosmetics, etc. Everydollar, while retroactive, always made me realize when I spent more than I should and because of that knowledge, I would tighten up the reigns next month. 

Now, you may be the type of person who needs to withdraw Xamount of cash for eating out each month and when that cash is gone, no more eating out and if you don’t you’ll undoubtedly spend more than you should. Like I said, the key is knowing yourself. If you’re the type who’ll take a mile if you give yourself an inch, then you’re going to need to be strict to reach your goals. If you’re pumped about saving every penny you can, then you might not need to be so strict. 

In any case, it’s important to keep track of exactly where your money is going each month and there are a lot of tools that are great for doing that. Everydollar is my favorite because I find it extremely user friendly and in 2020, I have no patience for SaaS products that aren’t. You choose what works best for you.

Work more

Now, depending on how fast you’d like to get out of your current situation, you may or may not be motivated to work extra hours to reach your goal faster. The logic is simple. Work more = earn more $$ = pay off/save more. So that’s what I did. On top of earning an income with blogging and Instagram, I used those very same skills to get a full time job. 

That in and of itself was a big sacrifice. I would have loved to use all my creative energy towards my own blog, but in reality that just wasn’t going to cut it if we wanted to move into our own home as soon as I wanted. And I really wanted that. In the end, I actually ended up loving my job, my coworkers, and I learned a lot of new skills that could help me in my side job as well. So it’d say it was well worth it.

So whether you or your spouse take on extra work in order to throw most or all of that extra income towards paying off debt, again, it’s going to be hard but worth it!

All extra money makes a b-line to your debt

As you can imagine, it would feel pretty good anytime we saw some money in the bank even after all credit cards and bills were paid. But even if we did have extra money in the bank after that, it went straight towards our debt. Josh and I didn’t even consider it to be our money. I usually left a small cushion in our bank account if I could, and then paid as much as I could towards the principal of the loan with the highest interest rate. 

If extra money came in for birthdays, Christmas, side jobs – whatever – it went towards my loans. One year, we got about $7,000 from a tax return. Guess where 100% of it went? My student loans. Once we paid off all of my private student loans (about half our debt was Sallie Mae loans with insane interest rates and half were federal loans with much more reasonable rates) we shifted our focus towards saving up for a down payment. Even then, almost all extra money each paycheck went into a savings account where withdrawals and transfers were FORBIDDEN.

In conclusion,

Be obsessed with your goals. And enjoy the process in the meantime.

I’ll be the first to say that I haven’t always been patient throughout our journey of paying off debt and saving. There were so many days when I wanted to jump ship and take out a loan for whatever house I could afford at the time and get in my own place as soon as possible (working from home while living in a very full house is no joke). But again and again Josh reminded me that we were working towards something better. Better for us and better for our kids. And I’m so glad I reluctantly listened to him. 

Also take time to celebrate your wins. Like I said earlier, working towards paying off debt takes a lot of sacrifices and you’ll burn out if you never celebrate the progress you’re making. So, when you pay off a big debt, go out for dinner, celebrate with your family, enjoy the “meantime” knowing that you’re creating a radically different future for yourselves! 

How we paid off $30,000 in debt and saved up for a down payment in 2.5 years

In: Family, Finances, Life & Finances, Marriage, Uncategorized, Work · Tagged: debt, fastest way to pay off debt calculator, how to pay off debt calculator, how to pay off debt collectors, how to pay off debt fast, how to pay off debt in a year, how to pay off debt in collection, pay off debt, quickly, save up for a house, show to pay off debt with no money

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Comments

  1. Sarah says

    September 3, 2020 at 6:23 am

    Congrats on such a huge accomplishment!! My husband and I are doing something very similar. Our baby is about to turn 4 months old and we are staying with my parents to be able to pay off debt and save some money for our own home. Our original plan was to get out of here quick and just rent if needed, but buying is what we would so much rather do. With us working from home and my siblings going to school from home it has been hectic. And it is hard to admit you’re living with your parents when you have your own family that is growing. But when we stay focused on the positives and the beauty of the extra time with our loved ones it is so much easier to enjoy the journey. Thank you for sharing and being transparent! God bless y’all!

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Hi! I'm Chelsea and we're the Damon's. We spent the last two years in WA state paying off student loans and just bought our first house in SC! I love a smooth black coffee, Josh's first love is the Seattle Sounders. Our kids are huge dorks and constantly make us laugh and we all love spending as much time outside as possible.

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Happy 6th birthday to the OG sister! There's no be Happy 6th birthday to the OG sister! There's no better feeling than getting to know the wonderful person she is growing into. We're so proud of this girl!! 6 is going to be a great year 💕
I'd want to sleep all day, too, if I were up every I'd want to sleep all day, too, if I were up every hour last night 🙃🙃 

Outfit @honest 🦋
Anyone see our other kids lately?? 😜 You know, Anyone see our other kids lately?? 😜 You know, it's so funny how some parts of the newborn phase have been like muscle memory and others have been like we've had our first born all over again. 

We were worried about how David and Evy would feel with this new family member but they have been so sweet that it brings tears to my eyes to put it into words. I was especially worried about Ev being supplanted as the youngest but, honestly, being the big sister suits her SO well and I think she's been loving it, too. 

I've also loved getting to experience this again with Josh. The way you band together during the newborn phase especially is very bonding. You rely on each other deeply and it's not always cute or pretty. 

Super grateful 💗
To the best big brother and sister. Cleo is going To the best big brother and sister. Cleo is going to think she has the coolest, smartest, bravest big siblings in the world, and she's not wrong 😉

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Happy 6th birthday to the OG sister! There's no be Happy 6th birthday to the OG sister! There's no better feeling than getting to know the wonderful person she is growing into. We're so proud of this girl!! 6 is going to be a great year 💕
I'd want to sleep all day, too, if I were up every I'd want to sleep all day, too, if I were up every hour last night 🙃🙃 

Outfit @honest 🦋
Anyone see our other kids lately?? 😜 You know, Anyone see our other kids lately?? 😜 You know, it's so funny how some parts of the newborn phase have been like muscle memory and others have been like we've had our first born all over again. 

We were worried about how David and Evy would feel with this new family member but they have been so sweet that it brings tears to my eyes to put it into words. I was especially worried about Ev being supplanted as the youngest but, honestly, being the big sister suits her SO well and I think she's been loving it, too. 

I've also loved getting to experience this again with Josh. The way you band together during the newborn phase especially is very bonding. You rely on each other deeply and it's not always cute or pretty. 

Super grateful 💗
To the best big brother and sister. Cleo is going To the best big brother and sister. Cleo is going to think she has the coolest, smartest, bravest big siblings in the world, and she's not wrong 😉
She's here 🌷 Cleo Renée was born 2 weeks early She's here 🌷 Cleo Renée was born 2 weeks early on Saturday March 11 at 1:52 in the morning. 

Josh and I just had a feeling about that day (Friday), so we kept the kids out of school, went out to breakfast, and just spent our last day together as a family of four. 

My contractions started right after my 38 week appointment that morning and progressed throughout the day until around 4pm when I thought, "Mmk, I'm starting to really need to breathe through these. Better go in."

I was so convinced they were going to turn us away that it really didn't hit me that we were actually going to meet our girl that night until we'd been there for a few hours already. 

Baby girl ended up being 7lbs 15oz and 20in long!

We are all so in love. David and Evy are OBSESSED. A few times their friends have come to the door to ask them to play and they've said they'd rather stay home with the baby 😄

We are so blessed and thankful for this little girl ❤️
How to use a French hair pin. I love these things How to use a French hair pin. I love these things because they can hold up even my thick and chunky hair and I don't have a large clip sticking off the back of my head (don't get me wrong, I love a good hair clip, too)! Have you tried one yet??
This season of waiting has been weird. But I’m s This season of waiting has been weird. But I’m so grateful for it.

On the one hand, there’s so much to do to get ready for little one to join us—it’s been a while since we’ve had a newborn! I’m spending most of my free time writing and nesting, nesting and writing. 

And then on the other hand, I’m feeling pretty ready to have my body back. And by that, I mean just to be done literally sharing it with another being. You start to miss things after a while like being able to breathe when you lay on your back or not getting indigestion for eating a few grapes. 

Overall, there’s so much to be thankful for. Each little inconvenience is a blessing and I’m happy they’re there. I’ll also be happy when they’re over. For now, I’m just savoring being a mom of “older kids” (8 and going on 6) that can grab their own snacks from time to time and put on their own shoes. We’re going to be heading back to square one in a couple months and I’m sure there’s a lot we’ve forgotten!
Naturally, when we see a need, we rush in to fill Naturally, when we see a need, we rush in to fill it and fix it. On top of this, it’s hard for us to ask for help because we don’t want to be a burden to others. 

But in the process of meeting everyone else’s needs and neglecting our own (especially our need for rest), we often become bitter towards the ones we’re helping.

Instead, one of the best things we can do as a wife or mother is to assess our own needs and make sure to leave space to meet them ourself or to ask for what we need. 

It might be time to rest, help with the next meal, time alone to pray and meditate on God’s word, or allowing yourself to leave a task un-done so you can “selfishly” enjoy a hobby of yours like the rest of your family gets to do. 

In the end, making room to find joy each day may be one of the best things you do for your relationships.
30 weeks and counting down the days til we meet yo 30 weeks and counting down the days til we meet you. We *think* we've finally settled on a first name after non-stop back-and-forth and brainstorming. Any guesses?? Or.. what are your favorite baby girl names right now??
Saturday highlights 🖤 We've been trying to be s Saturday highlights 🖤 We've been trying to be super intentional with the time we spend with David and Evy recently, knowing that big changes are just around the corner! We pray with them, ask them what questions they have, take the time to explain things. I'm hoping they'll be set up pretty well for the transition of little sis coming in March but most of the work will happen after she gets here! How did you help littles prepare for baby?

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