How I Tackled $35k Debt and Finally Achieved Financial Freedom

How it started

Right around when we had our first kiddo, we were about $35,000 in debt, and right after I had him, I decided that I would quit my business at the time. I was a pet sitter, dog walker, and dog trainer at the time.

Just being married without kids, I was making plenty for us as a couple with that business, but I knew we were going to have more kids, and I knew that having multiple kids in daycare would quickly outprice how much I was making in my business, so I decided to stop.

Now, I considered us pretty normal at the time. We had debt, but we always figured out a way to pay all our bills at the end of the month.

One day, I was in Target and found this cute silverware set. I think it was $24.99 or $29.99, and I realized we can't afford that. I can't buy that right now. It occurred to me that, at that moment, we were one emergency away from being financially ruined.

I left Target, got in my car, and was like, I'm done. I am done. This was my "aha" moment. I spent every single solitary second after that, any free time I had, just Googling and watching videos about how I would fix this.

Now, I should mention that a couple of years before we had our first kiddo, I started having this recurring nightmare. The recurring nightmare was that somebody or something was chasing me, and it was trying to kill me, and I would be just out of sight of it. I'd be in a bush, or I would be in a closet with the door open, and I could see the thing, person, or monster trying to kill me, and I had this feeling that any moment, It would see me and kill me.

How I began to fix things

I'm home, and I watch every YouTube video I can find. I had to read as many blog articles as I could find. I saw many different things and just absorbed them like a sponge because knowledge is power. I knew I could figure out this huge problem if I had the knowledge. I quickly learned that I had to take it one step at a time.

So you can't pay off debt, work 70 hours a week, learn about investing money, and never buy anything again. Those are way too many extremes, all at the same time. And so I had to break it down into sizable chunks.

Cut spending

The first thing my husband and I did was figure out ways that we could drastically cut our spending. I try to explain how we did this by calling it the savings onion or savings like an onion. I looked at all the things on the outside of our onion only, and then I figured out how to save as much money as possible on all the items outside.

And then when that was done, I just went into the other layer of the onion, figured out that layer, and then so on until we maximized how much money we could save.

Pay down debt

The next thing we had to do was tackle our debt, which is easier said than done. It was $35,000. I didn't know where to start; the number seemed so big. I remember when we first started, I really had some serious doubts about whether we would be able to do it.

We scaled back everything to the point of ridiculousness. In the midst of all that, we did buy a house. We went for eight months without buying anything new for the house

I felt like as soon as we started to gain ground and pay off our debt, something would break, or something major would happen. But we did; we got through it in eight months and saved up our emergency fund.

The advice I want to give you now is to have a plan and stick to it. That's the best thing you can do. Also, don't just want to pay off your debt. You must be super intentional about paying off your debt, especially if it's a considerable number. If you aren't, you're going to lose your momentum quickly.

Increase income

The next thing I had to do was increase my income because, at the time, I wasn't making anything at all. I dabbled in the internet world, and I was able to make some money on Etsy and eBay.

It has been a journey. I just became super, super passionate about helping other people. I just wanted to help as many women as I could. I knew they didn't need to be anxious or stressed about money and that it was a solvable problem.

So that is why I am here. I eventually started to do little things on the internet here and there, and it was super uncomfortable, but my passion outweighed my discomfort.

I am here to help as many people as possible change their financial lives. I want you to be able to take your kids to that waterpark and not have to feel stressed out about how that little trip will make it so you're more stressed next week about money or how you're going to buy groceries.

The day we made that last debt payment, I never had that nightmare again. It said to me that I was manifesting the stress and anxiety way more profoundly than I thought at the moment, and it doesn't have to be that way.

Financial freedom

That's my story and how I ended this journey to financial freedom. What was your "aha" moment that changed the way you think about money? Share your story in the comments below.

Next, check out my 15 Home Depot Secrets to Save Big.