Debt Update: $163,000 of our Student Loan Debt obliterated!

You may be wondering, where have you been Ashley? Have you given up and deserted your dream of becoming debt-free? Did the lineup of your friend’s fantastic summer vacations on Instagram deem to be too much for you to bear? Although, it can be tempting to throw in the towel, we are still very much dedicated to attacking our debt. Due to that fact, this lovely little blog here gets neglected at times. However, I wanted to give you all a little update on our debt-free journey.

Going from $280,000 to $116,800

Be still me heart! We are getting awful close to having under $100,000 of student loan debt. Of course, that is still quite the hefty amount. But we are nearing the end of this and that feels so good. Right now we pay on average 40% of our monthly income to our debt. With 6 kids it can be very challenging. But we know it’s going to be worth it. Our goal is to be done December of 2022 and so far we on track to meet our goal. We continue to wrack our brains on ways to create more income, save money and still enjoy life while being very intentional with our budget.

Josh still works at the prison and that job has really helped us make traction. He runs his optometry offices during the week and a few times a month, he drives an 1hr and half to the prison and provides eye care to the offenders. Along those lines, I occasionally babysit and sell items through facebook market place but my main side hustle is doing custom art. My little art business definitely does not move the needle as much as Josh’s prison gig. I have to keep reminding myself that every little bit helps. Not to mention, it has been such a fun adventure doing art again!

When I have a Hard Time saying “No”

Sometimes there are moments where saying “no” to things is just plain hard. I feel a little bit like a toddler in the middle of a tantrum when I admit this aloud but it’s true nonetheless. A while back, I complimented my friend’s adorable skirt she had on. She then explained where she bought it and what an amazing deal it was. In fact, it was only like $10 or $15 dollars. Even though, the skirt was a great deal and so cute, I had to decline. Namely, because I knew that my “personal fund” did not have adequate funds for that cute skirt. Such a small thing and yet those moments are hard. It’s hard saying no to cute clothes. Also, I was worried about what she was thinking. Maybe she thought I wasn’t being sincere with my compliment and really didn’t like the skirt. Perhaps, she thought I was crazy to pass up a deal like that. Fortunately, I was able to dismiss all those assumptions and move on.

Moving on… maybe that’s the key to saying “no” to things. I have realized that in that moment it’s hard to say no but give me a few minutes, hours, days, weeks, even months and I’ve moved on. Not Going on vacations, and putting new and fun things back on the store shelf, in moment it feels hard to do. However, time and perspective truly helps. Our world is so fast-paced and advertising creates this urgency to get things and get them right NOW. Do not delay or you will miss out! Guess what? If you allow yourself to sit for a while, you realize that that thing you want, is something you can live without or simply have later. Life will go on no matter what we buy or don’t buy. The question is will those purchases later bite us in the butt and add stress to our lives.

Spending Time to Save Money

Meanwhile, I am also focusing organizing and simplifying my home which is actually perfect timing. Why you ask? Going through all of our stuff has really helped me sell things more readily and helped me have a change in perspective. As I listened to youtube videos from The Minimal Mom, I realized that if I have less things to manage, I have more time to find ways to meet our goals. As expected, decluttering my home that we have lived in for 8 years is taking so, so, so, so, so long. And no, that’s not an exaggeration. But all I’m doing is spending time to save money.

My hope is that if I’m not stressed about managing all this stuff, that some space will open up in my brain for things that matter. I do want to carve out more time and energy to spend quality time with my kids. My hope is that having less in my home will help make that a reality.

So, it may seem counter intuitive to spend a lot of time decluttering when I could just embrace the mess and read my toddler a book. I definitely do that now. If I wait until my house to be clean to read my kids books and spend time with them, it would never happen. Thus, I’ll keep doing my best to do the right thing at the right time while also having some long term goals.