I know it's been a long time since my last blog, but a lot has happened since then. We got word in the beginning of March that we would be moving two weeks later so we only had 2 weeks to get everything ready. Thankfully it was a very smooth move, thanks to the military. They give a huge moving allowance which allowed us to essentially go on a paid for vacation while we were in transit. We stayed in San Antonio on the River Walk and went to Sea World and a river boat ride. Then we stayed in Mobile Alabama and I was able to see the ocean for the first time! We had a wonderful time.

We've also made huge strides on our debt diet! We decided that we were done with car debt, so yesterday we traded our minivan for the private party value and bought an older Jeep Cherokee in cash. We're so excited not to have any more car payments! We now have two older cars, but we'll have the cash available to make needed repairs and upkeep, as well as rent a vehicle for long trips. Now we just have to tackle another $6000 or so in student loans and misc and we'll be done! Our goal is to be debt free by September, exactly 1 year and 2 months after we decided to get serious about paying off debt. We're going to try to make sure to stay away from all debt for the rest of our lives, except for maybe a mortgage when we've decided that we've had enough of living on base. Right now we love living on base and can't see ourselves living off-base any time soon. It would be great to eventually have enough saved up to put 50%-100% down on a house. We'll see what happens with that.

I shopped with coupons for the first time today. Of course I've used them before, here and there, when I pick one up in the aisle. But this was the first time that I sat down and cut them out, made a list that used many of them and went to work. We saved $7.30, which I'm sure to many seasoned coupon users is a small amount, but we were proud. We even had a $2.00 coupon for a $1.99 bottle of baby wash so got that for free. My husband even talked about how much fun it was to save money and find the best deals. He also ordered some Hapads (inserts for your shoes) and instead of simply ordering them online he called the company and asked for a lower price so they took off $1.00 a pair, saving him $4.00 total! So today we saved $11.30.
Oh - and we paid off a 4th bill this month. That's 4 bills that we don't have to pay ever again! It was a 0% interest credit card for our mattresses. It's amazing how much more comfortable they seem now that they're paid for.
It was a good day.

We got our tax refund today and I couldn't wait to start paying off the bills! We paid off the remainder of my husbands car (which we bought from friends who let us pay $100 a month until we could pay them off with our refund) We also paid off our credit card that we used over Christmas. And finally, a student loan! When we get the next paycheck we will be able to pay off one more smaller debt and will be left with only two small student loans, a personal loan, and the loan on our minivan. It feels so good not to have to worry about those bills any more! We're three steps closer to being debt free!

The other day I was going over our budget and tweeking it a little. I looked at the amount that we're putting toward our debt each month and got a little ache thinking about how much fun we could have with all that money. We could go on weekend getaways, replace my chipping dishes, get some paintings for our home etc. Not that we don't believe in spending money on those things, but right now we've committed to putting some of those things off until we have our debt paid off.

Anyway, I was thinking about the ache I was feeling and it reminded me of the sore, aching muscles I get when I exercise. It's always the best kind of pain because even though it hurts so bad, I know that I'm doing something great for my health. In some ways, the ache that I get from not being able to go out and spend that money is similar because it just reminds me that we're doing great things for our financial health that will pay off in dividends in the long run. So the next time I look forlornly at that beautiful set of dishes on the store shelf, I'll remember that I'm doing something great for our fiscal health by saying no.

This is my first time blogging, but I've been looking at this site for a long time. It has been such a great source of support and encouragment while we turn our finances around.

Some background: My husband is active-duty Army and we live in base housing. We love the Army life and it's been a great help in saving money since we don't have to worry about paying health insurance and get huge discounts on groceries (at the Commissary) and housing.

We started our "debt diet" in July of 2006 and so far have paid off almost $17,000 in debt. We paid off a huge chunk of that when we sold our two brand new cars and bought a used mini-van. At that point we knew we were committed. We had a little setback over Christmas because this was our year to travel home to see family, but now we're back on track and excited about knocking out our debt by January of 2008.

I'm also excited about being a part of this community! Again, I appreciate all of the support that you've unknowingly given me just through sharing your own stories.