Tag: debt free

April 16, 2018

What Are We Doing to Help Us Save a Bundle on Groceries?

Saving money can be really hard sometimes, especially when you are trying to get out of debt. One of the biggest places that we spend our money is on groceries (which is not surprising with a family of 7). However, since the beginning of the year we have been working very diligently to cut our expenses to get closer to financial independence. One of the most difficult budget categories for us is groceries. But we have found a few ways to help us save a bundle on groceries, which has really helped!

April 4, 2016

Why You Should and How You Can Save More Money

For most of the nearly twenty years of our marriage, we never had any money in our savings account. Oh, we’d occasionally shove some money into the account for a week or two, but we’d always find a reason to take it out and spend it. Either we’d spend it because we needed it to pay bills (because we spent our bill-paying money on other stuff), an “unexpected” expense would rear its ugly head, or we’d see a “new and shiny” thing that we “needed”.

We read all the advice about paying yourself first, but, you see, that “didn’t apply to us” because we were “different”. We didn’t make as much as others. We had more expenditures than others. On and on the excuses went for many years. Read more

January 11, 2016

The Frugal Farmer 2016 Goals

2016 Goals

Setting goals is something I do personally and we do as a family every single year. Usually, I look forward to these goal-setting session with great anticipation. This year, not so much. It’s been an exhausting year here from a personal standpoint, and although we are praising God that we came through the many bumps in the road that we experienced with success, I’m Just. Plain Tired. Although I can’t share all of the details of our hurdles, they were intense to say the least.

Have you ever had a year like that? No need to share the details, it’s just that, in spite of the many tribulations I’ve experienced in my life (see more on that here, here and here) I’ve usually come out with a victorious attitude. This year I just feel kind of like I escaped certain destruction by the skin of my nose and I’m darn worn out. Read more

January 7, 2016

What to Do if You’re Serious About Getting Out of Debt This Year

Hey, frugal friends! As I wrote on Fruclassity on Monday, I’ve got a serious itch to dump the remainder of our consumer debt this year and to lower our mortgage as well. Not sure what’s prompting it, but the urge has been going strong for three straight weeks now. The conspiracy theorist in me tells me it’s because America is headed for a nasty financial meltdown, but I’ll spare you from that rant for now. 🙂

Meltdown or no meltdown, it’s always good to get out of debt and to take advantage of those times when your motivation is strongest. So, in that vein, here are some rock solid tips for dumping debt if you’re really serious about becoming debt free. Read more

December 21, 2015

7 Reasons Why You Can’t Get Out of Debt

Here’s Why You Can’t Seem to Dump Your Debt

For years – years – Rick and I struggled to overcome debt. We failed every time. Oh, there were times of debt freedom, but we inevitably fell back into debt again. So what made the difference for us between failing at getting out of debt and succeeding at getting out of debt? One huge key was attitude. We learned to overcome the mistakes that broke people make and to stop believing the lies that broke people believe.

Another vital key was that we learned to understand what it was that was prohibiting us from getting out of debt in the first place. There were several habits and mindsets that were keeping us from succeeding on a long-term basis from dumping debt. Now that we’ve overcome them and are successfully dumping our debt, I thought it would be a good time to share what we’ve learned. Enter, 7 reasons why you can’t get out of debt. Read more

December 7, 2015

4 Ways to Jump Start Your Debt Payoff

How to Jump Start Your Debt Payoff Goal

If you’re just starting a journey to debt free, or if you’re slowly moving along and are needing an extra push, this post is for you. Sometimes as you work toward your financial goals we need to jump start your debt payoff. The benefits of giving your goal a jump start are many. It will help you:

make a serious dent in your debt
force you to make a big sacrifice in order to get used to doing so
motivate you to keep moving toward the finish line

Jump Start Your Debt Payoff

Long-term goals are difficult to keep up with. It’s easier to lose 5 pounds than it is to lose 50, and it’s easier to pay off $1,000 in debt than it is to pay off $10,000, simply because of the time factor. The more time that goes by as you work on your goal, the easier it is to live with the progress you’ve got left to achieve. As I wrote in this earlier post, the enemy of “best” is “good”. Read more