This Couple Paid off $10,000 Debt in 3 Months with 2 Simple Lifestyle Changes
How much debt have you accumulated over the years thanks to your credit card(s)? The snowball effect once you start swiping is an unfortunate reality for many, and before they know it, they owe vast sums.
In truth, a person’s debt can grow to colossal sums that the monthly payments don’t even make a significant dent. For Business Insider’s Ashley Abramson, the amount was $30,000, accumulated over 3 years.
The year was 2016 and along with her partner, Ashley was just from touring the United States. She’d come down with a chronic illness that forced her out of her freelance work, and the two convinced themselves that they’d only be between a rock and a hard place for a short while.
Over $1,000 Monthly
Swiping away to make ends meet, they’d be shocked three years later that they now have to make card payments of over $1,000 each and every month. Ashley says that none of them is proud of how much debt they are in, and that together, they are making huge sacrifices to get out of it.
Having tied the knot back in 2011, the Abrahams admit that they haven’t made quite the smart decisions where the money is concerned over the years. However, with so much debt gnawing at them, they’ve been forced to kick things up a notch.
Ashley says that for the past three months, they’ve been able to pay off as much as $10,000, which is commendable, to say the least. Paying in bulk means that they’ve saved a significant amount of what they would have paid off as interest and that their debt is down to $20,000 is something to be proud of.
Of course, they’ve had to do without unnecessary purchases such as Starbucks and the occasional Happy Hour treat, all of which have gone a long way in freeing up more cash that can then be channeled towards paying off their debt.
But just as these little purchases take time to grow into a shocking debt amount, Ashley says that cash freed by giving them up also takes time to grow into an amount that can pay off what they owe. With this realization, she and her husband saw the need to make bigger and more impactful sacrifices.
Giving Up a Car
One of these aggressive sacrifices was giving up one car. For a couple, using a single car while living in the suburbs is a nightmare. Walking isn’t an option, and it gets worse if they already have kids. All the same, Ashley says that they had to find a way to make it work, and once they did, they hardly ever miss the second car.
With just one vehicle, she estimates that they are saving between $600 and $700 every month. That’s some good money, don’t you agree? But then you have to be really committed to surviving with one car to run all the affairs of your family.
Another mega-sacrifice that this couple has had to make is surviving on one of their incomes, using the other one’s to pay debt. Seeing as Ashley is a freelancer, the amount she earns per month isn’t cast in stone. One month may be pretty good, but the one that follows may be frustrating.
As a couple, they’ve decided to live off her husband’s salary, using whatever money she makes herself to pay off their card debt.
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