I took this picture overlooking the ocean at our resort in Maui in December 2019. It represents a lot of things to me, but mainly this:
The System worked.
Back in 2007 we were in the throes of debt. Over 15 years later we were able to spend ten days in Hawaii on a paid-in-cash vacation. Paid. in. cash. With savings to boot!
If you had told 2007 Jessica that story, she would have laughed in your face. Because that was impossible to believe. But here we are.
In case you don’t know the back story, here it is in 100 words or less:
2007: we’d spent all the money we’d made in the California housing boom, over 200k, moving to the midwest and purchasing a home and rental property. At the end of it, we were 18k in consumer debt, owed several 100k on two mortgages, and no savings. After a loss of income and with our sixth baby on the way, we needed to make some big changes.
Oy.
Not to be defeated, Bryan and I started to right the ship. Over the course of the next 18 months, we both took on extra work and we sold lots of things, including a house. We weren’t able to sell the rental property right away, but as soon as we could, we did, paying off $42k in negative equity to do so.
Whew. Mess, right?
To right the ship, we built a zero-based budget every month and slowly paid off the debt, even with an unpredictable income.
One of the things that came out of that season was learning how to eat cheap. In the process I developed the Good Cheap Eats System to saving money on groceries.
