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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Digging out of a Debt: A Newlywed's Tale

I am by no means a finance blogger. I think we can all agree, yes? But I have talked about some of our debt on my little ol' blog and have mentioned how Jason and I give ourselves an allowance each pay period and have cut back on my our spending.

...WELL
CNN Money found us through my blog and featured our debt story on their site! Go read it, people! Here!

Now, it is just a little excerpt and the writer didn't mention all of our money saving tips (probably because I gave her a plethora of "tips" and I mean we weren't the only newlyweds featured, here!) so I thought I would share some of the other things Jason & I do to save money but still live life to the fullest!
  • We allow each other a monthly allowance
  • We still go out to eat, BUT mostly with groupons, living social deals, etc. It makes it fun to try new places and we get a deal! We also find restaurants that have deals throughout the week (.50 wing night, $2 Beer Tuesdays, BOGO fajitas...etc)
  • When I plan our weekly shopping, I try and buy most of our veggies & proteins, which are on sale only and plan our menu around it.(Lane has a great blog about this, too)
  • Listen, Jason and I like our adult beverages, folks; it can get costly drinking out, so we buy more for the house and it lasts way longer that way (we're not huge drinkers when we're home. I get sleepy!)
  • Currently we do get free movies at AMC Theatres (thanks to a friend who is a GM) and that saves us a TON when it comes to entertainment out of the house. I know that won't last forever, and when we're not lucky enough anymore, we'll need a Plan B. But why worry about that just yet?!
Very soon, I'll have a husband in law school and even though we will both be working, I am determined to get our debt down and find ways to save even more. Way before I met Jason, I was super irresponsible with money. I charged eve-er-y-thing I could. I also worked two jobs to get that debt down and pay off my car. I am itching for a new car because I want one, but also love that zero/month car payment! The younger me would just trade my car in but I've grown up and am more practical, now.

Not every day, are we both on track with our spending. We do go over our allowance and/or over spend when going out, but we're so much better about our spending that we used to be. AND neither of us have used cc's in forEVER.

That's our story, and we're stickin' to it!

How do you cut costs?

9 comments:

  1. that is SO cool that CNN featured your story! those are great money saving tips too.

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  2. How awesome that your story was featured on CNN!?! :)
    My husband and I actually do a lot when it comes to going out and about but we are very savvy about it. I have to dress up for my day job and I have the best Goodwill ever near me! I swear, it's like a Khols! LOL. We also have an excel spreadsheet that we list ALL of our purchases in... at the end of the month we know where we are putting the bulk of our funds and adjust for the next month.

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  3. Such great tips girl, we do some of the same things and have talked about setting a certain allowance each week..just need to try it soon :-)

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  4. Our student loan debt is being paid off with deployment money. I can say that is the ONLY (ONLY!) good thing about deployment. My husband takes care of all of this stuff. I've found that I can cut back by saying, "No Starbucks this month" or "No new clothes this month" and eventually good habits form. Unfortunately, we live in a world that is full of army/deployment/training so we generally take opportunities like last minute trips whenever we can. Because we never known if/when we'll get to again.

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  5. That's awesome! I just finished reading it. And you had some great tips! David and I are definitely frugal. And we do that by having homemade food for lunch and dinner for weekdays. (and not the frozen dinner kind) You can also save money by turning your A/C up and using fans. We save a lot of money that way.

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  6. Having allowances definitely works well. We also try to call places and get them to lower our bills.

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  7. That was all such practical and simple advice. I love it! Groupons in my area tend to not be as good so I do still spend a decent amount of money eating out. One thing I do is I shop at thrift stores. When you are feeling like splurging, head to your local Goodwill or Salvation Army and you can usually get every single thing you find that you want for less than $30. Honestly, thats where I save money. Secondhand (but still cute!) clothes, furniture, books etc. Thanks for sharing!

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  8. Ok that is REALLY cool that CNN found you.
    That's great you are down by $5,000 at least :)
    I know about that student loan debt...booo. I'm right there with you :(
    But, anyways, I usually don't spend money on something unless I NEED it. I don't buy things I don't need. Like, I haven't been clothes shopping on a good year. I will get a shirt here & there but only if I need it. Things like that - I don't splurge. Now, when it comes to food, I might splurge a little...after all, even though grapes are $2.50/lb - a little pricey...but I'll still do it because it's healthy & good.

    Proud of you for doing what it takes and being frugal <3

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  9. great post! I need to start sticking to a budget and planning everything out if I ever want to buy a house! Great information :)

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