Tuesday, June 7, 2011

My Breaking Point


With all this talk about shopping, marriage, the Royals, and shoes, I wanted to take a time out and kinda refocus on what we (or maybe just me) are here for.

Getting and STAYING out of debt.

As I pulled out our swim diapers for the first swim of the season, I had a flashback.  It was the single moment I decided to get out of debt.  I had forgotten about it but I wanted to share it.

I had a 11 month old little boy.  And had just found out we were expecting baby #2.  We were super excited but deep down I was terribly nervous.  We were barely making it each month with one kid.  Owed $40,000 on our cars, another $40,000 on some land, and at least $10,000 on a credit card.  (For all those things we didn’t plan on for baby #1.)

We weren’t poor.  We were broke.  We spent every dollar we had before we even had it.

It was a Friday night and I had just put the last diaper in our possession on my son.  We were out of money.  Out.  Like maybe $2 in our account.  But I got paid the next day and we had to make it till the next day.  It was risky, but I thought we could do it.

Murphy (really, Murphy Jr.) came to visit.  Let’s just say that diaper was obliterated.

The only thing I had in the entire house was a couple of swim diapers left from the summer. 

Swim diapers barely hold anything!  Their main purpose is to keep anything from floating away if you know what I mean.

But Saturday morning, I put a swim diaper on my son and headed to Walmart.  I live 1 mile from Walmart.  Literally.  One mile.

By the time we got there he was soaked.  I ran in, bought diapers (and a change of clothes for the poor boy) and there in the Walmart bathroom had a mini melt down.  What kind of mom couldn’t afford diapers?  He had to wear a swim diaper for crying out loud.  I was soooo tired of being broke.

And that’s the day I decided it had to change.  We took FPU that fall.  Began our baby steps.  Sold a ton of stuff.  And little by little changed our life.

And a little over two years later, we were debt free.  I heard Dave Ramsey say this week, “It’s not a straight line, it’s kinda wavy.  With ups and downs.”  And it was.  We had ups on our journey and downs.  For us it was two steps forward, one step back.  But by the grace of God, we did it.

If for no other reason than that I do not ever want to relive the agony of being the mother who can’t afford to keep my kids in diapers.  Or anything else for that matter. 


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