PAID OFF!

Much of the reason that I have been couponing, menuing, cooking from scratch, etc. is because of our desire to get out of debt.  We have always had too much debt.  For many years we have lived the typical American dream...don't save for purchases....CHARGE them!  The tanking of our economy the past few years have made us reevaulate that notion. 

My hubby does his part by doing much of the household fixes himself and making repairs as frugally as possible.  For example our dishwasher door broke...and he scoured the intenet until he was able to find a part to fix it and he did fix it at a fraction of the price.  Recently our toilet tank cracked.  Instead of tearing the toilet out and getting a new one, he asked around and someone actually had one that they had found in a "bone yard" behind his place of work.  We got the toilet tank for free and it works and looks perfect.  By taking time to find a solution, he has saved us a bunch of money. 

My contribution is trying to buy food and personal products for our household as cheap as possible.  We cook from scratch as much as possible and try to eat out as little as possible (but that is always a work in progress).  I have also tried to stock up and preserve foods that are in season.  I am also starting my own seeds for the garden...and saving in the total cost of the garden.

It is not easy...we are very budgeted and there is not much room for flexibility.  But today...we reached a big milesstone....both our truck and our car are PAID OFF!  The truck was paid off early a while back but today our car was officially paid off.  We put extra on the principal and paid if off about 7 months early.  I cannot even remember how long it has been since we have been without a auto payment...may the last for many more years.