This is my guest post that was featured on POPSUGAR. To go ahead and read the full post, head here or to read a spinet of the post, continue on. 
It was a crazy thought — paying off and cutting up every single one of my credit cards. It was an even crazier thought that one day we may not owe anyone a single dime.
I kept thinking to myself, “It’ll never happen” and “I’m a stay-at-home mom with another baby on the way and my husband is a contractor, we can’t make this work.” But little by little, we did.
We killed off over $55,000 of debt in just two years all while living on one income and growing our family of five. It was anything but easy, but it was the best decision we ever made — to become debt-free.
Our family members looked at us like we had lost our minds when we told them we no longer had a credit card for “emergencies” and when we got rid of our fully loaded Mac Daddy Tahoe for a well-loved, paid-for Sequoia with leather interior being the only bells and whistles it has.
My friends thought I was insane when I started walking dogs for extra money to pay off our debt even faster. “Uh, you’re hugely pregnant and you’re walking dogs in this heat?! Y’all must really need the money.”
And the truth is, we did need the money. We needed every penny because we had a crazy plan of paying off all our debt. And this year, we are going to finish that plan and pay off our house.
By now, our friends and family don’t think we’re crazy anymore because they’ve seen firsthand the blessing that becoming free from the hold of debt has been to our family. My husband was able to quit a job that he no longer loved in favor of starting his own business again and being home more with our three children. We’ve been able to give like never before without fear that we won’t have enough money left to pay the bills. We’ve been able to send our two oldest children to a private preschool, and we’ve been able to go on several vacations. All without using credit cards and all while paying off debt.
It hasn’t been easy, but then again, nothing worthwhile ever is. If you want to join my family in the crazy and pay off debt, here’s how you get started:
1. Stop Using It
In order to completely become debt-free, you have to make a commitment to stop using debt — of any kind. That means no more credit cards, no more taking out loans of any kind, and no more borrowing money from a relative.
It’ll be scary at first, like real scary. You’ll feel a little panic like you won’t know what to do if this or that happens, which is why you must do step two . . .
To read the full post, head here to POPSUGAR.
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