we are OUT of DEBT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not ones to bury the lead.... WE ARE AT ZERO PEOPLE!

ZERRRRRRRROOOOOOOOO!

When we first started FPU a year and a half ago, we had no idea how much it would change our lives for the better.

Basically, we started this debt-free journey we had

$-17,000 in credit card debt alone!

Let's just lay out all of the updates I've got from YIKES (November 2013) to now:

The total is weird here because we added in LB's debt with his credit card and the tires. So the total was $-8,635.28 as of October 2014.

December 2014:

January 2015:

Beginning of May 2015:

AND NOW!!!

June 26, 2015: We Are Debt Free!

I share this to:

1. Brag

c. Be so darn proud of ourselves.

22. Make it VERY CLEAR that this stuff takes    t     i     m       e   . So much slow progress and patience. So much forgiveness and stick-it-ive-ness.  We have messed up so bad: the laundry room unexpected expenses, our wedding that we paid cash for, spending money on clothes and nonsense that we didn't really need, lacking patience with each other at times, holding ourselves to incredibly high standards and then beating ourselves up when didn't meet them... the list goes on.

x. This is hard work.

67. Encourage everyone in this: getting yourselves in a solid financial position and knowing that you are telling your money what to do is THE most important thing that you can do to remove stress from a relationship. Stress that actually isn't real and isn't about the other person. It is so much more about feeling out of control and taking it out on each other.

a. Remind myself that I never EVER want to be back there again. Being in debt was horrible and I am not interested in doing this again.

So go FORTH! Use the budgeting spreadsheet. Get on the same page with money. Ask questions. YOU CAN DO THIS!

May 2015 Debt Update

Yikers. It's been a while. Sorry everybody. I've just really lacked inspiration and motivation for while now... that's not to say that the wheels haven't been turning, but we just haven't pulled the trigger on anything yet. We have, however, been diligently and s    l    o    w    l    y   chipping away at our debt. We are down to our last credit card. Our very, very last one. The last time I updated y'all in (cough cough) January we stood here:

And now, at the beginning of May we are here:

A difference of $1,713.

I am actually pretty proud of this progress since we removed the wall, built a fence, installed crown molding, and painted the trim in the meantime as well. All with cash. All without going further into debt. Go Team Bennett. So here is the plan: this card is getting paid off this month. We are going to live like paupers (not really, but kind of), tighten the purse strings, and dump every extra penny to FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY be out of debt.

Considering that we started with $17,000 in credit card debt in the fall of 2013, we feel SUPER DUPER #Blessed and annoyingly so. Stay tuned for June people. It's gonna be rockus.