Surviving on Less

The first step to coming home was determining if we could afford it. We have had a double income for 90% of our married life. And now I wasn't planning on bringing in a consistent income. Now when I said I quit working, I lied. I just quit one job - my day job. In my free time, I also sell real estate for family and friends. These commissions have helped us through tight times of paying medical bills, repairs on the car, catching up on bills, etc. And I still sell it. It is something that we can rely on as long as it is in savings. (Oh! and I LOVE to look at homes, so that's a bonus.)

Back to the budget....we had to reduce our income by 33% in order to make it. For starters, we don't have credit cards. We are both spenders and the combination didn't work well for us. So four years into our marriage, we got rid of them. And we've not regretted it one minute. Don't get me wrong, there are thoughts every year that 'we could just put that on a credit card.' But then we work through whatever financial crisis we are in and the temptation is gone.

A few months before I decided to quit, we were introduced completely to Dave Ramsey. A couple brothers and their wives had talked about it before, but we hadn't committed to it. This time I borrowed the CDs from someone and listened to it all. It made sense and it complements our religious beliefs. So, we talked about budgets and started committing it to paper.

And it worked! Once we went through everything on paper, we realized that we could do it every month. We might be shy a couple hundred each month depending on Leon's overtime, but that would come from the real estate savings.

Woohoo!!!! This just made the decision easier. And I was ready.