Breathing In Debt

Where to start...


First allow me to introduce myself. My name is Marvey and I am 32 years old, married with two children. I was first made aware of  Dave Ramsey and his strategies to becoming debt-free about 10 years ago by my sister. She was excited about this new book she had read. It was about a man who had declared bankruptcy twice in his life but was able to rise up, and not only become debt-free, but RICH!

She explained to me over the phone what I had to do and I thought, hell yeah! I can do that! I thought I had a great understanding of what I needed to do, to get my husband and I out of debt after our casual conversation. Ummm....can I say ...WRONG! I didn't bother to read any of his books. Nor did I do any research on what it was I should be doing! I rushed out and bought a coupon organizer, labelled my envelopes and filled them with money. No, I didn't do a budget, I somehow forgot about that part. So as you can guess I depleted my envelopes within a few days, and couldn't tell my hubby where all the money went! I quickly gave up on the program after that and never really thought of it again until right before Christmas this past year.

Its the most wonderful time of the year? Not for us...No for us it was the most stressful, dreadful time of our lives. We were BROKE, as in $23 in the bank, zero savings, bills due and two little boys eagerly awaiting Santa Clause. What were we going to do? I didn't want to think about how deep we were in debt. I didn't want to admit that once again I had screwed up our finances. I was lying to everyone, including myself, about how WELL were were doing financially.  I didn't want to face the truth, because I was too embarrassed and ashamed of myself...

I remember lying in bed that night unable to sleep. I felt as though I couldn't BREATHE. My God, I thought, what have I done????  I'm not an overly religious person. ( I tend to think of myself as more spiritual than religious.) But that night I prayed my bum off while crying silently next to my husband, so not to wake him. I truly believe that he heard my anguish, because then the answer came to me...Financial Peace.