I’ve been told that I’m pretty hardcore about budgeting, getting out of debt and more.  That’s not really a surprise to me.  My wife and I squeeze so much out of our budget that most people would be shocked and ask why.  Well… I’m here to "bust" the myth that we’re totally hardcore on the budget and getting out of debt.  I want to share several things that we did during the time we were working toward having our debt paid off. 

My wife and I do what we can to make our money stretch as far as we can.  However, truth be told… we have those days when we just really go nuts.  I think back to almost two years ago.  We were in the middle of our get out of debt plan.  And somewhere along the way, we decided that we had to have the rest of our yard fenced in so that the dog and our son would be able to run and play in the back yard.  Good idea, bad timing… I think it set us back about 700 - 800 dollars.

And then there was graduate school.  I had taken an exam to get into graduate school and the five year life on the score was almost up.  So in 2005, I went back to graduate school and paid cash.  That probably set us back around 8 to 10k.  I’m glad I went back to school and very glad we paid cash.  The timing was probably not the greatest.

Are you beginning to see a pattern?  :-)   We’re just like you.  We have great ideas but the timing is not always the best.  We may seem hardcore but we too buy things and try to enjoy life a little.  I love technology and gizmos.  I would love to buy more stuff, but I’m slowly becoming better about saying no to the now, so I can say yes to the future.

My wife and I did our best to be hardcore about getting out of debt.  However, we did buy things that we could have said no too.  We did go on two vacations.  We did spend a lot of money that could have been used to pay off debt.  I wasn’t as hardcore as I wanted to be… But we did get out of debt, we stuck with the plan, and the plan worked. 

The bottom line:
You don’t have to be hardcore to succeed.  You can have a few moments to relax and enjoy yourself on the journey.  Just be aware that it may take you longer.  My wife and I could have been out of debt a year earlier but we decided to do some other things along the way.  That being said, your level of sacrifice and commitment to winning will determine the level at which you succeed and how long it will take to achieve that success.

So what are you waiting for?  Get started today!