We Paid off $18K in Debt in 1 Year! - One Hundred Dollars a Month (2024)

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their Personal Savings Stories and photographs. I hope by sharing other people’s money savings tips here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all find new ways to save rock our budgets this year.

This week we are featuring Martha from Troy, Ohio. Here’s what she had to say:

Dear Mavis & Readers,

I’ve been following your blog for a few years and was excited for your latest “share & tell” theme. In 2015 my husband and I paid off $18K in debt and have paid off $48K in debt over 3 years. It has not been easy, but I’m happy to share how we did it.

We live in Troy, OH (just north of Dayton) and I am a stay at home-homeschooling mom and my husband works for our local government. We have two children, ages 8 & 10, and a cat. Four years ago we decided credit cards weren’t for us and have been cash/check/ or debit ever since. Three years ago friends of ours were teaching a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University course and invited us to join.

We did it, but honestly were not on board all the way at first. Dave Ramsey gives all these debt examples like paying off your $100 store credit card or a $500 car repair. So here we are in this Dave Ramsey class and I can honestly say my attitude wasn’t the greatest.

None of the debt we had was so called “bad debt.” We had always lived frugally, but my husband and I both had student loans we were paying off. We both have masters degrees and put ourselves through college and graduate school. Our other debts included a home equity line of credit due to a collection of failing house systems and car debt. The car debt was a little unexpected. We had a great station wagon, but a deer ran into us and the car was totaled so we had a $10,000 car loan that was pretty new.

In 2012 we had $48,000 in debt and had no idea how to get out because we were already doing most of the savings suggestions in the class. Slowly, slowly we began to work out a system that worked for us. We do a lot of thrift store/consignment shopping for clothing and homeschool materials. Although I don’t coupon much, I find that wise meal planning helps a lot too. We hardly ever eat out. And of course I garden! But here are a few of the tips we have used that others may not have thought of doing.

1. Haul Your Own Trash– We found our trash service costs kept going up. When it was about $25/month I looked into hauling our own trash. Our county has a blue bag system. Bags cost $6.00 for 5 bags. Recycle all you want for free. Between recycling and composting I can get away with using those 5 bags a month. About a $20/month savings.

2. Magic Jack Phone System– We have had a Voice over Internet phone system for a while, but recently a friend told us about Magic Jack. For $55 the first year and $35 any following year you can have a home phone through your internet. We were paying $26/month for our old VOIP system, but now are paying only $55 for the whole year…Big savings! We like to have a home phone because I don’t have a cell phone and if we go out it’s a good idea for kids/babysitters.

3. Cash in on Extra Vacation Pay– I know not everyone can do this, but we discovered that my husband could cash in on unused vacation. He has to apply for it near the end of the calendar year and has to maintain a certain amount of carry-over vacation, but for the last two years we’ve been able to cash in on some of his vacation time and it’s been a nice bump in the debt pay off plan.

4. Ask to Help a Contractor– My husband was not the handiest man when we first got married and he’ll never be the type to have a big home workshop, but in the 10 years since we’ve been married and home owners he’s learned a lot. One method he’s used multiple times is to offer himself as labor. Not every contractor will take an unskilled person on to help, but when they do it has reduced the cost. We also have agreed to do part of the work ourselves. This has especially helped with tree removal. Our property has or had a number of large trees-most of them 80+ old ash trees. In Ohio we’ve been plagued with the Emerald Ash Borer and it has killed all our gorgeous ash trees. We’ve found a tree company that will work with us. They take the tree down and leave EVERYTHING…branches, trunk, etc. The whole family (even the kids) pitch in to remove the branches and cut the wood for our fireplace. It’s a lot of work, but has saved us hundreds.

5. Barter– You’ve covered this a lot in your blog, but I will second this idea. You never know what skills you have that others find useful. My degrees are in Biology and Environmental Studies so I started teaching a homeschool science class. One of my friends teaches piano lessons. So we trade..she teaches my daughter piano and I teach hers science. It’s saved us a lot in music lessons.

6. Cash in on Your Skills– All of us have different talents and gifts and you never know how that may come in handy. Just like Mavis is selling her stuff on etsy you might have a skill someone is willing to pay for. A lot of my work and volunteer experience has been in environmental and urban planning and non-profits. I used to teach a course at a local college in non-profit management and slowly word got around that I was a good facilitator and planner.

In the last two years local non-profits and churches have asked me to help facilitate board retreats, workshops and even write strategic plans for their organization. And I love doing it because it’s a flexible thing. I’m not advertising myself in anyway, but through word of mouth I have had about two or three contracts a year. That’s enough for me to make a little extra to help the family and I still get to exercise my professional muscles while I homeschool my kids.

7. Be Honest with Your Kids About Your Budgets and Their Activities– My kids know we’re on a budget. We allow them to do one sport/activity at a time on top of schoolwork. Sometimes we talk about how it doesn’t work out. My daughter really loves animals and thought she wanted to get into horseback riding. We did 4-H for a year and while we had an amazing club she learned she’s not really into showing horses and we discovered just how expensive it would be! It was a mutual decision between my daughter and us that it wasn’t in our best interest to continue 4-H. She’s going to take some art lessons instead!

8. Vacations with Kids– We are super frugal when it comes to our vacations and yet have amazing experiences! I’m lucky to have grown up in Vermont so when we visit family back home there are many New England experiences that are free and fun. Last May we took the kids to the Smoky Mountain National Park for a week for $500! My parents gifted us with the use of lodging for a week and we chose one and only one activity to pay for. We ate all our meals but one in our rented condo and the national park is free. We took advantage of ranger programs and great hikes and had an amazing time. One day we hiked to a waterfall and my husband and the kids found over 100 salamanders while splashing around and I read a mystery novel. With a picnic lunch it was an almost perfect day. I would highly encourage anyone considering vacationing with kids to check our national park system. Over the years we’ve done several and there are great free programs and usually a week pass is around $20. The NPS junior ranger program is also excellent and the kids get sworn in by a ranger. It’s awesome.

9. Things to Do Without…TV, Cell Phones, and new clothes. Our family has never had a TV and I don’t feel the least bit deprived. We have Netflix and Amazon Prime if we want to watch videos and we can avoid most of the yucky stuff this way. I get my news via NPR and local websites. The only time I miss having a TV is for big sporting events like the Olympics, but then I can usually go visit a friend.

I haven’t had a cell phone in 4 years. It’s been an inconvenience, but not impossible. I will say I will probably get one this year. Texting has become too ubiquitous and we also have started doing more elder care for my husband’s family which requires me to coordinate family appointments and activities a little bit more.

Over the years our family has been really frugal when it comes to replacing clothes and shoes. If we do have to get something I try to buy used…except for my husband. He’s 6’5” and it’s really hard to find shoes or clothing for him. But I love everything from our local goodwill to ebay for myself and the kids.

10. At Home Date Night– We’ve been doing this for years. My husband and I both like to cook and we found it was more fun and a lot cheaper to make a date at home. When the kids were little we put them to bed early, but now we just feed them early and let them watch a movie. We might pay a bit more in groceries for a better cut of meat or fancier ingredients, but it’s still cheaper than going out and hiring a sitter!

11. Talk About It! One of the best thing about paying off this debt has been the conversations between my husband and I. Early on we started meeting twice a month to go over the budget and review the budget. We agreed not to make a purchase over $50 unless we discussed it first. Although now we’re debt free except for our home mortgage, we still have work to do. Right now we’re saving to replace the roof and replace my husband’s car. The benefit of all of this has been our whole relationship has gotten closer. Where we used to fret about debt now we dream about things we want to do.

Martha H.
Troy, OH

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