The Process of Becoming Debt-free

Our journey started in Sept. 2005. I was due with our first son in 3 months, and a friend was talking about Dave Ramsey and how they were on his plan to become debt-free. Wow. Debt-free. Who doesn't want to become debt free? No one likes debt. Not really. Some people might not think it's possible to live without debt; some might want possessions more than they want to be debt-free. In the end, I think when people find out it is possible, they'll go through extraordinary means to get there. That was us. We sat down at the dining room table and made out a budget and decided we were going to do this thing.

For months to come, I learned new habits - shopped at thrift stores, garage sales, ate at home, and learned how to bargain shop. We learned that we actually could live without going to the movie theatre! Finally, less than a year later - we paid it all off (except the house). What a feeling! But we weren't there yet....

In the process of trying to lower our budget, especially with groceries, I was trying to still keep up our organic diet. After all, who wants to trade health for debt-free status? It wasn't just theory - I could feel the difference when I ate unhealthy foods. The cheapest way to have organic food is to raise your own. So, thus began my gardening and cooking from scratch! I found that I really LOVED doing these things, and when I would visit the farms where we bought our meat/milk/eggs, I also loved the country/farming life. We decided we wanted to have our own homestead; land of our own, and a house we could call our own, no matter how humble. Our OWN. Not the bank's - OURS! Well, that's where we are today - still looking for the piece of earth to call our own. We're saving up our money and hunting for whatever we can afford. We're working like it all depends on us, and praying like it all depends on the LORD. We still owe a mortgage on our current home, but we are working right where we are, building our little suburban homestead on 1/10 of an acre (including the land the house is sitting on!) until the day we can pay cash for our land and sell our house. It may be weeks, it may be years, but we are waiting on the Lord to provide, and trusting that HE wants us to "owe no man anything except the debt of love".