Member-only story
How We Paid Off $32,000 on One Income
I am a stay-at-home mom of 11 children and we dug out of $32,000 of debt on one income. This is our story.
When my husband and I decided for me to come home from my teaching career 20 years ago, he made $23,000 a year. We had two children and one on the way. Shortly after I quit my job, pro-ration caused him to be laid off.
Perfect timing, huh? So, he was forced, prematurely, into starting his own landscaping business. It proved quite profitable in the summer, but lagged greatly in the winter. Struggling to keep up, he worked tirelessly to solicit business, hoping the next job would get us through the drought.
Long story short, in two years we found ourselves over $32,000 in credit card debt! We had used them to live, thinking we’d pay off the balance after the “next big job,” which never came. (I talk about the amazing nature of compound interest later in the post; if you don’t believe it, get yourself a credit card!)
Needless to say, creditors plagued our lives, with the added pressure of people wondering A. why I didn’t go back to work, and B. why on earth we were still receiving the children God gave us!
Life was hard. I cried–a lot. I wondered what we had done, and why God was not honoring my decision to…
