"Go Big, Or Go Home"

When we first decided to become debt free, we weren't ready to be "Gazelle Intense". We liked our nice life we had built ourselves, even if we couldn't afford it and shouldn't have had all the "toys" in the first place. My philosophy, prior to Dave, was "go big or go home". In other words, if we were borrowing money for a new tv/ nice car/ vacation/ dinner out/ camping trailer, why not borrow lots of it and have the best?

We ended up with lots of nice toys, but a big ol' debt.

We bought a brand spankin' new Acura TSX, in November 2005. All the bells and whistles were a MUST, and back then, we thought in terms of "how much overtime?", as in, "Oh, we can get the payments to $556.45/month? That's one shift of OT! SOLD!"

Little did I know, as we signed away our lives (a common cliche when you go heavily into debt, but does one stop to think about what it really means?), that I would get pregnant one month later and we had just committed to Frugal Mister missing one day a month for SIX YEARS with his family! That cliche takes on a while new meaning when you think of it in those terms!

So, we had agreed to not sell the Acura when we started this whole crazy thing. Then something happened. We got smart ;)

We are so tired of thinking in "HMOT" terms. The sooner we can be done with the OT, the sooner we get our lives back!

We *finally* sold the Acura to a long time family friend, and bought her '03 Civic in return! It was an even trade, but we got rid of that UGLY car payment!!

We do the budget tonight and I can't wait to see how that $556.45 builds steam on our Debt Snowball! And to think we will NEVER have a car payment again is an INCREDIBLE feeling! Our friend pays only $117/month for a LUXURY car! I am so happy for both of our good fortunes in buying and selling of great used cars :)

I have also come to realize I don't have to abandon my old philosophy, "GBOGH". I just need to apply it differently.