We're Debt Free!

Well, the moment is finally here:  WE'RE DEBT FREE!

For just over 4 years, Rob and I have worked hard and sacrificed to climb out of our student loan hole.  And guess what?  We finally made it!

We paid off just over $41,000 in debt.  When we started this insane journey, Rob was making $38,000 a year.  Not much for a family of 5.  He worked 3 and 4 jobs at a time to bring that income slowly up to right around $50,000 - $60,000, where we stayed for a few years.  Now with his new job, he's making much more than that, and we killed off the last $16,000 since December.  Hurray!

We're really, really excited about this change in our lives.  We've set new goals for how quickly we can save for retirement, create and fully load up College Funds for the kids, and pay off the house.  Life is Good.

...  Hopefully we'll be able to go scream that we're Debt Free on Dave Ramsey's radio show.  There's apparently some sort of application process for that, and they'll let us know if we make the cut some time this next week.  We'll go down to Nashville either way, so we'll stop by his place to mark the milestone. 

Some crazy things we did along the way:
- Went without AC for 2 years until we'd saved up enough money to buy a new unit.
- Learned how to make our own laundry soap.
- Cut our food budget in half.
- Told the family we couldn't afford to drive 200 miles to their house all the time.  (This doesn't win friends, by the way.)
- Said "no" to a lot of things - movies and eating out with friends and family, for example.
- Left our dead van in Key West and drove home owners of only 1 car.

We're happy to have added a little more wiggle room into our budget.  Sacrificing to Win is fine, but it gets old after a while.  We're still not big spenders (shocker, I know), but it's nice to have another $100 in the food budget.  That's my favorite lifestyle upgrade - I can buy bagels and orange juice any time I want.  SWEET.

...  That's all I had to tell you.  Hurray for us!