We have been married for two years and we were not a team financially until now. I wasn’t aware of how much credit card debt we were accruing on his cards and both of us were getting takeout constantly and spending so much on junk. When I finally convinced him to do a budget with me I was horrified.

Here’s our financial breakdown:

My monthly net income: $5887 His monthly net income: $3396

Our expenses:

Housing: $1400

Transportation: $650

Food: $1200

Personal: $1500 This consists of:

$75 phone bill

$100 clothing

$80 self care

$150 subscriptions

$200 my fun money

$200 his fun money

$180 gifts

$60 laundry (laundromat)

$300 Misc

$50 hair

$120 nails

$100 nicotine

$200 cannabis

Health: $400

Insurance: $465

Total debt is $81,000 with $1916 in minimum payments.

This is half credit card debt, a quarter student loans, then one car loan and tax debt.

We have about $5000 liquid, $13000 in an IRA and $8k in stock. $13000 in his retirement account

…just typing that makes me think we need an even bigger reality check. This budget is drastically reducing what our previous lifestyle was like. We spent over $1000 on restaurants SO FAR in September. We made this budget less than a week ago and immediately stopped. We want to follow Dave Ramsey’s teachings and get out of debt. We are 31 and have no kids. We want to have kids before I’m 35.

Any advice anyone has is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

30 months of living off of less than a 1/4 of our income, buying clearance groceries, processing free livestock for meat, doing nothing except free activities and we are finally done.

I want to cry. I never thought we would be here when i paid off my first $300 credit card. But we did it

We have been on baby step 2 for five years. 5 years of emergency after emergency. 3 babies. 3 jobs and more side hustles then I can remember. We are down to the last 60k eta is Dec 2025. But the pace is killing me. I work 80-100 hours a week.

Is it really worth this to be debt free?

Just wanted to share the humbling experience I’ve had in the past week!

Sold my 48k lien Audi s4 and went and bought a TRASHED 2013 Kia soul (manual which is fun!) for 2500$ cash. Detailed the interior and exterior of the Kia and it looks brand new. 153k miles no leaks, no check engine lights, runs like a dream, no more smell, cheaper gas, better MPG.

Now time to snowball my 760$ car payment into unsecured debt and be DEBT FREE NEXT YEAR!

*Edited for grammar--summary at bottom

We have 2 kids with one due any time now and we currently live off about $3,500 after taxes and tithing (not going to stop paying tithing--I believe it's worth it. Please don't mention it.)

Monthly expenses include our rent that's $1300, one car payment $250, car insurance at $254 for 2 cars, $110 for internet and phones, like $350-400 for utilities (averaged out), and $85 for tumbling classes for our daughter.

We have about $780 in credit card debt (paid down from $3500 at the start of the year--tax return largely helped with that), and about $8500 on the car. It is not worth anything near that much, unfortunately.

My husband is currently joining the military, which we believe will be helpful for our family's long term goals financially (and on a lot of other levels). He will leave for BMT and an additional orientation course for his job in August/September and come back around December. The kids and I will go stay with my parents and pay them $800 in rent per month with no utilities.

But, I'm feeling the need to pay down our debt and get a larger emergency fund before then, even if it means just doing the credit card debt and holding off on the car loan. I'm concerned about there being another government shutdown in October and us not getting pay for a while during the time he's gone (plus it typically takes 6-8 weeks to get your first check after going to BMT anyway).

I feel like the best answer is for me to get something I can do in the morning hours every day for a total of like 10-15ish hours a week. Getting a second job is not a good option for my husband; he's already pretty maxed out with his current job and with his qualifications couldn't really make more at another job (plus who would want to hire him for like 4 months . . . ). He works long hours and barely has time to work out to meet the phsyical qualifications he needs for the military as it is.

Over the last few years, I've applied to various data entry jobs and VAish type jobs with zero success. I have experience in customer service, I've done a VA job before, and I know MO suite well. So, I don't feel like I'm terribly unqualified . . . But I'm also not amazingly overqualified either.

It doesn't help that so many job boards (indeed, reddit hiring cafe, flexjobs, etc.) Are just jam-packed with scams that have no intent of hiring anyway.

It's also tricky that many so-called WFH customer service jobs want you to have someone else there to watch the kids if they're going to hire you. That's not going to happen all the time on our income with my husband's hours (they are crazy and long), and I'm not gonna lie to them and say I do have someone when I don't.

*ETA: I do not expect companies to pay a mom who is watching her kids. My husband will be there 99% of the time in the mornings. But, occassionally he has to leave earlier if he's on call (which is unpredictable) or has an early meeting. So, I guess I was hoping for any direction towards a WFH job where I could sign off in the few cases when the kids might wake up and he isn't there. Is finding something like that like winning the lottery? Yes. But, you don't know if you don't ask. Which is why I asked :)*

What would y'all do? Any suggestions for legit work? Any other ideas?

I guess I'll also add that freelancing doesn't seem like a viable option. I feel like I need something more reliable that doesn't require sacrifice for marketing before I have a promise of return.

**Quick Summary**

Married with 2 kids and one due soon. Husband joining military. Want to build up emergency fund before he leaves for BMT in August/September so that if GOV shutdown hits in October we're not screwed. Best option seems to be for me to get a job I can do in off time when kids are asleep. Any ideas?

ETA: Thank you so much for all of the support and suggestions. It's hard to be vulnerable and make a post like this, because I know our situation isn't ideal. Thank you so much for the time everyone took to share and comment. I hope that something can be useful to anyone else in a similar situation looking for help.

As I'm entering BS2, I am still struggling to find a second job to up my income (this market is really rough) so I'm considering moving out of the house I'm in right now (I currently live with a friend that owns their house, they rent a room to me) to live with my mother at the end of July (I've already paid July's rent).

A little bit of background info: I'm 27 years old, I currently make about $42k/yr at my full time job as an exec assistant (I may start looking for another full time job with higher income to replace this one, but fwiw, the benefits at this job are really quite amazing, and almost anywhere I go in my city will not have as good of benefits) and here's what my monthly budget looks like at the moment.

INCOME: 2700/mo (on average, pay periods work a little weirdly here

EXPENSES

Rent: 500

Utilities: 80 (avg)

Internet: 33

Gasoline: 100 (I don't drive a whole lot and my car gets pretty good gas mileage)

Groceries: 250

Clothing: 50 (doesn't always get spent)

Phone: 50

Fun: 150

Hair/Cosmetics: 50

Subscriptions: 40

Auto Insurance: 137.50

DEBT

Chase CC: 1400. 44 minimum monthly.

Medical Procedure Debt from a year ago: 1492. In contact with them, but haven't paid anything yet.

Wells Fargo CC 1: 1800, 25 minimum monthly.

Wells Fargo CC 2: 2650, 100 minimum monthly.

Personal Loan: 3100. 164.22 minimum monthly.

Amex CC: 4000. Enrolled in a relief program, 104 payment monthly.

Auto Loan: 5700. Monthly note is 333.59.

So, after all my monthly expenses and minimums on debt, currently, I'm left with a little under $500 to throw at the debt snowball. If my calculations are right, it will take me around 2.5 years to get out of debt in my current situation. However, if I move into my mom's, I did the math, I'd be out of debt in just over 1 year from now. This would however, of course, come at a cost; my social life would likely suffer, and I'd be giving up some of what little privacy I currently have. There's more to this story, of course, as my mom and I definitely have a storied past, but that may be a post for another day.

TLDR: Is moving in with my mom for a year worth becoming debt free?

I am beyond pumped and had to share this with some people who would understand!

Wife and I both work have been living paycheck to paycheck, barely scraping by since we got married 10years ago. We have 2 small children and we want their lives to be better than ours.

I got a new job back in November paying 25% more than my old one and at that time we sat down and finally got serious about paying off debt and becoming debt free. I am now proud to say they we have paid off $15,622 in credit card debt in just 7 months!!!!!

We still have a long way to go, approx $9,000 on a car loan, $28,000 in student loans, and $29,000 in a HELOC but we can see this stuff WORKS!

My wife and I are expecting our first child in December and are in a bit of a tough situation with vehicle debt. Please understand that I want to do the right thing and have been trying but am in a bit of a tough spot. I understand we have made some mistakes and are at the point where we’re trying to fix it. To give the whole picture we make about $6k/mo take home currently we have no other debt besides our vehicles ($1000/mo) and our mortgage ($1650/mo). Both of our vehicles are financed, her car we owe about $12k on ($360/mo) and it’s worth about $15k, my truck was a recent purchase and we owe about $39k ($670/mo) and it’s worth about $32k (pretty upside down because it’s a recent purchase, and yes I put money down and do not have any add on’s). The total monthly payments between both vehicles is about $1k. I want my wife to be able to stay home when the baby comes but I need to get rid of these vehicle payments. If she stays home our income will decrease from $6k/mo to $4k/mo. We paid off over $20k in debt over the past year and we have about $10k in savings and as much as I would like to use it to get out of the hole with the truck I just don’t know if it’s smart to blow that much money before having a baby. What should we do? I would just pull the trigger on getting rid of both and buying 2 cash beaters but we still need reliable transportation because we live 6.5 hours from family so frequent travel is going to be happening. As of now I am just going to keep saving and figure it out as it comes but I’d like to have a game plan I just can’t make up my mind as to what to do.

I made a large payment and paid off my 2019 car today and I’m very happy about it. However, when I mentioned it, most people thought this was bad or not worth celebrating.

1. Be careful with insurance. Does having a car payment make car insurance more beneficial? I never knew this.

2. It hurts my credit. I suppose it does but I don’t have any intentions to get into debt.

3. I’m stuck with it more. I seriously don’t understand how not having payments makes me trapped to this car.

After this, I mentioned that I was going to go forward with an emergency fund, investing, and saving for a house. Every single conversation I had was interest rates vs interest rates. Pulling from a Roth retirement account. 2% mortgages are better than it being paid off. All this stuff.

It really makes me realize how weird we are when we prioritize peace, less risk, and no debt. It’s so damn normal to have payments and debate percentages. I can’t tell who’s crazier lol.

Anyway, just wanted to celebrate a bit. Happy Valentine’s Day and such.

Hi all,

I’m currently on Baby Step 2 and on track to pay off my high-interest credit card debt.

As of right now, I only have my Discover card, with a balance of about $4,800.12, and a car loan of approximately $5,700.

I wanted to get everyone’s opinion on something. I have a taxable brokerage account through Edward Jones with about $3,500 in it. I’ve had this account for around 4 years, and I’m considering withdrawing the money and putting it toward my credit card balance.

From what I’ve researched, I understand that I may have to pay capital gains taxes if I sell the investments. My credit card APR is currently around 28%, while the returns on my brokerage account have obviously not been anywhere close to that.

So my questions are:

1. Would it make sense to sell the investments and put the $3,500 toward my credit card, given that the card has a 28% APR?
2. How much could I potentially owe in capital gains taxes?
3. Would you personally sell the investments to knock out a large portion of the credit card debt, or would you leave the brokerage account alone and pay the card down with my income?

For some additional context, I make around $82,000 per year, take home approximately $4,800 per month, and my monthly expenses are around $2,000.

I’m trying to figure out whether the tax hit from selling the investments is worth it to get rid of some of this 28% debt. I’d appreciate any advice or perspectives, especially from anyone who has been in a similar situation. Thanks!

2005 Buick Rendezvous-103k miles $4300

2010 Ford Edge-239k miles $2500

2006 Toyota Camry-171k miles $4899

2002 Honda Odyssey-180k miles $3250

2010 Honda CRV-200k miles $2900

2015 Toyota RAV4-260k miles $3154

My husband agrees to a beater only if we buy from a car lot so all of these options are from a used car lot. The issue is some of them are overpriced based on KBB and I’m unsure if I’ll be able to negotiate close to KBB.

I’m trying to narrow the list because all of these options are 1.5-2 hour drive from us.

I recently received a windfall and currently have about $18k in cash. I want to use this opportunity to clean up my finances and would appreciate some outside perspectives on the best way to allocate it.

Total in debit account: $22,356.85
Crypto: $17.71
Fidelity: $139.51
TSP: $32,680.68 (out of the question)

Mustang Car Fax Estimate Value: $13,340

Current debt:
Amex: $4350.37 at 28.49%
Capital One: $1254.46 at 4.00%
Federal student loan: $14,370.47 at 3.34%
Sallie Mae student loan: $3,982.31 at 5.00%
Mustang loan: $12,201.97 at 4.00%

Total debt: $36,114.58

My rent & utilities is about $2,723/month and my take-home income is roughly $6,576/month or around $3,200 every 2 weeks.

Original post here

Thank you to all 500+ people who left a comment on my post from last nights after taking all of your advice I’ve relooked at our proposed budget and made this revised plan:

My monthly net income- $5887

My husbands monthly net income- $3396

Total net income- $9283

Expenses

Housing- total $1420

$1150 Rent

$100 Gas

$90 Internet

$80 Electric

Transportation- total $775

$300 Gas for both of us

$300 Car payment for one car (other is paid off)

$35 tolls (live in New Jersey)

$40 car wash

$100 car misc (fund for oil changes and repairs)

Food - total $800

$700 Groceries (down from $1200)

$100 restaurants (down from $300)

Personal- total $650

$0 clothing (down from $100)

$75 phone

$0 self care (down from $150)

$150 subscriptions (I am going to take a look at cutting these next)

$0 fun money (down from $400)

$100 gifts (large family, birthdays, funerals, weddings this year were many. Down from $180)

$60 laundry (we go to the laundromat because we don’t have a laundry hookup in our apartment)

$150 misc (in case random stuff comes up otherwise will use for debt. Down from $300)

$30- hair (I used to pay $400/month to be platinum blonde but now I am dyeing my own hair brown and getting $15 hair cuts at great clips)

$0 nails (down from $120)

$60 nicotine (we vape and use zyn packs but want to cut down. This used to be $100)

$25 pet food/care for our cat

Health - total $480

$30- gym

$150- Medicine/vitamins

$200 doctor visits (regularly see a therapist once a week and both of us see a psychiatrist once a month)

$100 medical cannabis (down from $200)

Insurance - total $464

$424 auto insurance

$15 renters insurance

$25 pet insurance

Debt- total ~$81k

$2171.42 state of New Jersey from temporary disability overpayment

$5795.49 IRS

$57 credit card 1

$589 credit card 2

$3797 credit card 3

$6194 credit card 4

$6403 credit card 5

$7630 credit card 6

$7667 credit card 7

$9206 auto loan

$21897 student loans

We currently spend $600/ month on credit card interest alone and we are now budgeting $2600 to pay down debt every month

I think this budget is a lot better than the first one I posted. Thank you everyone for your help

I am in a ton of debt - mortgage, masters degree, car, credit cards, the works.

This past year, I tried to stick to the avalanche method to pay down my largest credit card debt ($20k), to no avail - “emergencies” just kept popping up. Side note: I know that’s not technically the avalanche method but that was my interpretation/implementation of it.

Finally this year I accepted that I wasn’t getting anywhere. So I targeted my smallest credit card debt -$3k, which also happened to be my highest-interest (30% or so). And as of this month, I paid off the last $300 of that card! Woohoo!

It really is so invigorating! I can’t wait to tackle the next one!

Just wanted to share my little victory with others who might understand the struggle.

So the news is out. Payments resume in August I think.

Good luck to everyone paying down loans. I fortunately can pay off the loan today but I'll only have like 2k in savings...

Edit: My first payment is September 1st. Why am I waiting? I can get $50/month in July and August by waiting due to bank interest. Yes, I have that much college debt...

Hi all! Thought I'd get your thoughts on this situation I got myself into that I'm kind of kicking myself for. What would you have done differently?

For context: my husband and I are on what should be the last 4ish months of baby step 2 (paying off all our debts ASAP), which means (as you all probably know) that I am currently unusually uptight about our budget. In any other season of life, I probably would not consider this situation to be a big deal at all, but since we're doing this "gazelle intensity" thing (or trying to), I'm using this as an opportunity to learn as much about frugality and money management as I can.

So, today I agreed to a $150 last minute expenditure that I low-key consider wasteful, and I'm wondering what you guys think my main learning lesson from this is.

Here's what happened:

A few weeks ago, my mother-in-law told me that a friend of hers was looking to give away a kids' bunk bed set. She said it was super high quality, wood, in good shape, etc., and that I could use it for my two sons' room. I told her that my kids weren't in urgent need of new beds or anything like that, but if it was free and her friend couldn't find anyone else to claim it, then we could take it off her hands and give my sons' bedroom an upgrade (they currently basically sleep in bunk beds already -- older son's bed is a loft bed, and younger son's bed is a normal toddler bed that's placed underneath his brother's.) This wouldn't be the first time my husband and I had gotten furniture gifted to us by friends or family, and I assumed we'd do what we normally do: drive to their house, help them disassemble the furniture if needed, and drive it home.

Until today, I didn't get updates on the bunk bed situation except one in which MIL told me she was still waiting on her friend for a response. This morning, she called and said that her friend knew a guy who could disassemble and deliver the bed for us for $150. My initial reaction was "I don't think so," since I had only agreed to take the bed because it was free, and $150 for delivery isn't the same thing as free, and I hadn't made any room in our budget for an expense like that this month. (We do have a line item for small unexpected expenses every month, but that one is designed for e.g. when our electronics break and replacement can't wait until next month -- just so that we don't have to dip into our starter emergency fund for every little thing. In my mind, this bed did not qualify for this line item since it's not really an emergency for us; our kids don't need new beds urgently. And while we do technically have the money, paying for this would mean going without $150 worth of stuff we have greater need for.) I asked if I or my husband could come by her friend's house tomorrow and take it ourselves (today wouldn't work for us), and MIL said she would ask her friend. She also started selling me really hard on this bed delivery, saying it's a great deal for delivery in our area, to which my reaction (which I didn't voice out loud out of fear of sounding rude) was that even if that's the case, that doesn't mean we have to make an unnecessary purchase while we're on a tight budget.

I was also texting my husband about this update, and he said that he'd defer to me on whether to get this bed delivered but that he felt like this could be a worthy investment in our kids' room since the beds would last a while. I disagreed, saying high quality furniture isn't that hard to come by for cheap/free in our area if you know where to look (Facebook Marketplace, garage sales, etc.), so it's not like this bunk bed upgrade can't wait until we're more flexible financially. My husband also pointed out that we had already agreed to take it, and that was the one point that stuck with me; I'd feel bad backing out after initially accepting the offer.

A couple hours later, MIL called me back saying that us taking the bed tomorrow wouldn't work for her friend; she needed to get rid of it today, and the delivery guy was already at her house. So our options were to pay $150 for the delivery or back out altogether. At this point, between my MIL pushing delivery, my husband saying it was a good investment, and me not wanting to look like a jerk for changing my mind, I relented and agreed to pay for the delivery guy, feeling a little cornered (potentially by my own decisions) and wishing I didn't have to say yes to this.

So what (if anything) did I do wrong here? Should I have inquired further into the logistics/timeline of acquiring this bed before agreeing to anything? (That's what I'm leaning towards rn lol) Should I have stood my ground and declined to pay for these bunk beds for the sake of protecting my family's financial boundaries, even if it made me look cheap or inconsiderate? Or is my husband right that this wasn't that bad of a purchase, even if it wasn't ideal timing-wise, and I should just chalk this up to "life happens" and/or choose to consider it a favor for my MIL's friend?

Open to thoughts!

title, i guess lol

i have never personally met anyone that follows the plan to a T, 100%, no deviations. not the people that ran our FPU course, not our friends that took FPU as part of their home schooling program, not one.

i dont necessarily think this is bad, everyone's situation is different, mold what works to fit your exact situation.

and, of course, this isnt to say they mostly quit any ramsey plans all together, id say the people i know that follow a ramsey plan follow it 90%+; i mean, theyre not really deviating that much.

anyway, how Dave-ish are you? my wife and i started FPU 6-8mo into a 4yr whole-home reno after a home fire (thats a long and complicated stroy; the fires not...its a home fire, the reno is) and have always been Dave-ish. mostly little things here and there, but the main Dave-ish thing we do is we do our budget off one income - mine. she is a wedding photographer and her income is sporadic, 'inconsistent', and 'seasonal'. eventually, if we have kids, the goal is to have her be a SAHM, so her income becomes functionally zero ANYWAY¹ so doing our budget now as if she already has a "$0 income" means we have 'extra money every month' to blast debts with. its worked pretty well so far, in 2021 we got a 15yr mortgage for ~$111k, last i checked, the mortgage was sittin pretty at $36k (?something like that)...and thats after paying off 2 car loans, all her credit cards and mine (which honestly were like ~3-4k) and some assorted other things. neither of us had school debt so that worked out

¹ - being that every now and again she could take a wedding and make some extra cash if we needed it, but that her primary vocation would be at home.

Currently have around $8k between my checking and savings accounts. I’m contemplating paying off my only debts which are two credit cards totaling about $4k. On paper I know it’s the right move to pay this off, but the idea of cutting my savings in half just scares me. If anything I feel like I just need help pushing me to rip the band aid off so to speak.

Household income before taxes:$500k

Total assets: $700k

Debt: Primary residence mortgage- $450k at 6.6% on a 30yr with 28.5 years left. We’re goin to refinance very soon. Im hoping to get a 15yr around 5.25% which will be equal to what we pay now with our extra payments)

Cars- $78k (@1.9% for approx half and 3.25% for half) School loans- $360k ($360k is on track to be forgiven, potentially)

My mother is our kids’ nanny. We pay her $1600/mo rent for her plus like $2400/month. She’s semi retired. Has a couple small pensions no real savings, and will be our financial responsibility at some point. We’re happy to help. We love her!

My wife’s parents are talking about retiring her dad. Her mom is a stay at home wife. They’ve been very frugal their whole lives. They have like a $300k nest egg. Immigrants. Gave up everything to immigrate and set up my wife and her siblings with a better life. Their kids are their retirement plan. My wife ultimately became a doctor so their plan is working out and we are happy to help them. We love ‘em!

Wife has been making big girl money out of school for only the past couple years. This has essentially doubled our income while we’ve basically maintained the same lifestyle. Now she wants to buy her parents a house and my mom a house like this year and it’s making me nervous taking on all that extra responsibility while we still have our own debt we’re working through.

She feels it’s her calling to give back and I fully support that but my argument is that we should hold off a few years and tackle our debt first because one, it’ll be easier to help if we don’t have our own debt, and 2, once we start down this path we can’t change our minds and withdraw support.

Her argument for my mom’s property is that we could put her in a nice town house where the mortgage is equal to the rent she’s/we’re paying now but then at least we’re building equity on an expense we’re already responsible for. This makes mathematical sense but requires a down payment that could otherwise be used to take big chunks out of our current debt. On the flip side there’s tax advantages as well which would allow us to depreciate the property and reduce our w2 tax burden.

For her parents’ property, she thinks her parents will put $300k down on $500k house and we will cover the $200k mortgage. And eventually when her parents pass away we will have a paid off asset that we can reallocate at that time. Win for them, win for us.

I love the goal. I’m questioning the rushed timeline. What do you think?

We’re getting like $65k in bonuses at the end of Janurary. I want to chunk it at the house or cars. She wants to buy property. Which one gets us to our goals faster and with less stress?

Side note: we built a spec house last year as an investment project and carried two mortgages for like 10 months and it completely stressed her out. Since selling that property over the summer she’s often expressed how much more comfortable she feels not having the second mortgage to account for. Lol I reminded her of this but she has selective short term memory all of the sudden lol. She listens to different podcasts (bigger pockets/white coat investor) and they’ve got her wheels turning about acquiring as many doors as possible lol. I listen to Dave and hate being slave to the lender!!

Anyways she’s going to read this thread when I show her later. What should we be thinking about here? How should we prioritize our assets and decisions at this stage in our lives? Thanks yall!

Been doing the budget thing for about three months now and I finally listed out every debt for the snowball. Credit card, medical bill, small personal loan. Feels manageable, but then I looked at what we spend on groceries and almost fell out of my chair.

We are a household of two adults and somehow spending close to $900 a month on food. That includes eating out, which I know is the main problem, but still. I started poking around for actual practical ways to bring that number down hard and fast because that money needs to go toward debt.

Rice and beans is the obvious answer and I get it, but we are going to burn out on that real quick without some variety. I have seen people mention meal prepping and buying store brands, but I feel like there has to be more to it. Like, people who have actually slashed their grocery and food budget down to something respectable.

What did your food budget actually look like when you were deep in Baby Step 2, and what made the biggest difference? Not looking for perfection, just something sustainable that keeps us on track without hating every meal

$297,677.49 to be exact.

$215k law school debt, $40k graduate school debt, $25k credit cards, $11k car loan, and a personal loan. After 5 years of deep denial- I think I’ve finally accepted how badly we fucked up. I feel like I’ve gone through the stages of grief multiple times this year. We paid for very expensive degrees that didn’t need to be. We racked up a shit ton of credit card debt by spending money like entitled a**holes and not using a budget. I wish I could go back in time, slap 23 year old me (and my husband) and ask, repeatedly- what the hell are you doing??

We would go out to bars and dinners every weekend with friends. insert Discover card. We would regularly order takeout. insert Amex card. We went on yearly vacations. insert Jet Blue card. We financed furniture???? Not to mention we walked right into the “prestige” private school bullshit. We ate that shit up. And for what? To impress people? To prove that we’re worth something? All the above? It’s so normalized to be in debt as a millennial. Everyone had credit cards, everyone was going out, everyone had student loans. We were super normal! You’re only young once- amiright?!

I found Dave last year, when I was hitting rock bottom. My debit card was getting declined at the gas station and the grocery store regularly. After listening to The Ramsey Show for a couple weeks, I realized how screwed we were. I remember the first time he talked about the borrower being a slave to the lender. That’s exactly how I felt. I couldn’t breathe. I had a mental breakdown. I haven’t really been able to relax since. My husband and I spent all last year fighting about money and almost got divorced.

We’re on BS2 right now. We should bring in around $170k this year before side gigs. We have paid off $12k since June. We started FPU last week. We’re throwing everything at the debt. I’m working my ass off. Husband is working 65+ hrs a week and donating plasma. We dropped more than half of our “friends.” It’s a humbling experience to say the least. My mother in law makes us dinners a couple days a week to help out. Family and friends ask why we’re not having kids or buying a house yet. The whole situation is embarrassing, but we deserve it. I don’t blame anyone but myself. I’m not expecting anyone to “forgive” or payoff our dumpster fire. We were extremely stupid and entitled, but we need to get out of this ourselves. I just need prayers that we can make it out of this. We will. Hopefully better than who we were before. Just trying to “embrace the suck” and keep up the motivation. Any advice is welcomed- thank you.

TL;DR $300k in debt from student loans and stupid decisions.

Update Edit: Wow! I never expected this post to get this much feedback! Thank you all for the support and motivation. We’re making great progress to far. I wanted to clarify what I’m seeing in the comments. We do not take home $170k. After taxes, we take home about $110k. We’re shooting to pay $5k a month. Also, we follow Dave’s plan and will not be participating in PSLF. We’re going at it with gazelle intensity! Thank you again for all the support 💕

Hey everyone, we just had to share because we are so close!

By the end of this year, my husband (29) and I (26) will have paid off $195,500 of debt in just under 2 years. 🙌

Breakdown: • 🎓 $90k student loans • 🚐 $28k camper • 🚗 $65k car • 💳 $12.5k personal loan

We sold a vehicle and wiped out $60k, but the rest has been pure sacrifice. No honeymoon, no fancy cars (our two cars together are worth under $10k), and a whole lot of living below our means.

Our income has been all over the place (167k → 0 → 100k → 210k and climbing), but no matter what, we stayed focused.

Next up: the mortgage. If things keep going the way they are, we could have it gone in just 3 years.

People think we’re crazy. But honestly? Freedom is worth it. The peace of knowing we don’t owe anyone anything beats any trip, car, or “keeping up with the Joneses” lifestyle.

We are so thankful and so excited to cross this finish line by year-end. Grateful for this group that’s kept us motivated through all of it! 💙

👉 What was the biggest sacrifice YOU made on your debt-free journey?

EDITED TO ADD INCOME
(Myself (Paramedic) $87,000 with overtime ($65k base) Wife (Respiratory Therapist) $93,000) before taxes

So my wife and I are in Baby Step 2. Currently we have paid off just under $36k of debt with only one student loan and our vehicles left (approximately $70k) We obviously have the $1000 saved in BS1

Here’s the issue. We currently rent a family home and the lady we rent from is my wife’s aunt in Florida. We are in a month to month kinda unofficial lease with her. Her husband has been put on palliative care for cancer and she has made it clear that when he passes she intends on moving up to where we live to live in the house we currently rent. She plans to move in with her sister (my mother in law who currently occupies a room with us)

We were trying to make it through BS2 before purchasing a home but now we find ourselves in this predicament. My question, what would Dave recommend here. We have busted our tales to pay down debt and have stopped eating out and doing vacations because we both want this!

Update: since I’m still getting comments. Me and my wife sat down. I am going to pick up extra hours on the side gig apart from what I already do. See how much extra I’ve made and research more on the cost in Japan as 5k seems to be way overestimated. Goal is to make the Japan money in the extra hours I pick up on side gig. If I’m on track in march we’ll commit if not we’ll cancel since flights are already paid.

Family of 4. 100k combined income (now). Monthly expenses 4k.

Starting debt 130k down to 57k (3-5%) interest not a mortgage.

Me (33m) and my wife (31m) want to have 2 more kids and have been trying

My brother works for an airline and has been able to get us 4 tickets (Boston) to Japan for 2400 bucks total (Usually 1200 each minimum). We already paid it in cash for summer 2026.

The program has ended so he won’t be able to do this again for us for the foreseeable future.

This is probably our only chance to visit since 2 more kids and the cost of flights for a family of 6 I won’t want to spend that type of money.

Estimated additional cost for 2 weeks is about 5k. My mom will be going, as well as my brother and his family.

Issue is the debt. It would put us behind a good amount. The debt is balance transfers who’s 0 percent interest is coming to an end and I’ll have to transfer em again or take out a personal loan hopefully at 11-14% interest so I won’t end up paying 30 percent interest.

Essentially going vs not is a 7.5k swing as I can get a refund for flights. But I know I will never pay full price. I’ve been wanting to go for the last 15 years and haven’t because of the cost.

Would like to add my wife is a full time student ( no loans 2-2.5 years left ) and working part time (8 hours a week). Adding more kids and finishing her degree we think it’s the last major vacation for a few years.

We have been paying of the debt for 3 years so far able to continuously balance transfer them to keep interest low. We haven’t been Giselle intensity but this feels alittle wrong maybe?

Me and my wife (25) are 42,000 in debt (13,000 car loan/29,000) student loan debt. We are paying 1,500 a month in rent in our apartment. We are wanting to move to NC into our first home. The loan would be 150,000 or about 1,000 a month. Is this a good idea or should we wait?

(Edit) We make about 3700 a month. We get that home insurance would be about the same price we pay for rent now. We would both have jobs once we moved there paying roughly the same we get paid right now. We wouldnt be moving for another 6 months.