Hi there! I’m Annie, a twenty-something from Pittsburgh working toward becoming debt-free through a Spending Fast. With me in this effort are my husband, Ben, our two-year-old son, Jack, and in May, we’ll add our daughter to the mix.
Pregnancy really has been the big push to get me thinking about my debt and realizing that changes need to be made. More than two years ago, when pregnant with my son, I tried my first Spending Fast, but I never put all my effort into it. Fast-forward through those two years and there are so many Amazon.com purchases, countless dinner dates to still feel young and hip, and even a move to a big three-story row-house in the coolest part of town, nearly doubling our space – and our rent. With the news of our second pregnancy it finally hit me that we couldn’t keep going on like this. I have bought so much for our son in his life already. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do that for two kids while maintaining our current lifestyle. We always were paying our bills, but constantly charging new clothes, toys, decor for our big house, lunches/dinners out and sometimes even groceries. I knew we needed to switch up things drastically and that’s why this fall we sold half of our stuff, moved in with my parents and started budgeting. The move has put me in the mindset that the Spending Fast is for real this time, and I officially started it in March.
Right now, we have a mix of credit card debt, three student loans and one car payment. It’s hard to admit this, but that all totals $156,263, with nearly $32,000 of that in just credit cards alone. We plan on living with my parents for the next year while we tackle paying off the credit cards, using the Spending Fast. Both my husband and I work in local television full-time and have taken on additional freelance work to make big payments toward reducing our debt. We also have made a Want/Need list and we’re trying our very best to stick to it!
I’m excited to share my journey here on the blog and hope my efforts, and even my mistakes, can help motivate someone! I feel very confident in my goals and sticking to them! I want a debt-free life for my family and the freedom that comes with it! I I’ve finally hit the point that I don’t want any “thing” more than I want to be debt-free.
Starting Debt: $159,253
Start SF Date: March 2016
Debt Paid Off Total: $2,990
Estimated SF End Date: March 2017
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P.S. Ready to get out of debt ASAP? Check out the Spending Fast Bootcamp!