If you're new here, this is a series about how my husband and I paid off more than $20k in debt in less than two years. You can read more about our story, budgeting, and how we trimmed our expenses in this post.
The truth is, even with our tight little budget and slashed expenses, we still didn't have enough room in our budget to rmake a sizable dent in our (read: my) student debt. We had to bring in more income to help things along. So, this is what we did next:
LOTS OF SIDE HUSTLES.
Finding additional ways to make money can sometimes be more difficult that you realize. It was for us, in a lot of ways. John's primary job requires a lot of evening and weekend hours and we've always felt really strongly that a parent needs to be a constant at home for our boys. Bouncing them between daycare and nighttime babysitters wasn't something we wanted, and I don't regret that decision. Any additional work we took on had to fit between the hours John was home and what I could juggle as a stay-at-home-mom.
John loved making things with his hands, so he created an Etsy shop to sell his projects. I did per diem admin work from home. John took extra lighting and website design jobs on the side. We sold things we didn't need. I provided decorating services and staged homes on the weekends. We may have been a "single income family" but we worked hard to create multiple streams of income to make a bigger shovel to dig ourselves out of the debt trench.
It was really exhausting. We were either working, caring for our littles, or working on our own home "to-do" list at all times. We never really stopped.
THE POWER OF YES.
Our victories were slow and steady. The promise of progress gave us courage to say YES to things that sometimes looked like a lot of work.
There was the time John received a message from a potential Etsy customer, asking if he accommodated bulk orders. If you're familiar with the Etsy marketplace, then you understand it's not the platform for anything considered "bulk." Haha! But this client was working on a big corporate design project and was motivated to feature John's work- they wanted a fast turn around, but the payoff for us was in the THOUSANDS. We said YES. Two stressful, whirlwind weeks later, John's work was received by a satisfied buyer, and we used the proceeds to completely knock out one entire debt!
Months later, I wasn't looking for any extra day job (Abram was 8 months old at the time and I thought I had my hands full with a crazy toddler and a nursing infant) but I got a unexpected inquiry about childcare from a friend of friends. She and her husband were desperately seeking a daytime babysitter for their 6 month old daughter.
Gulp. I was a new mom-to-two. Could I handle THREE children, not to mention TWO babies close in age? All at once????
And then I remembered our prayers. We had been praying for a path to paying down more of our debt, faster. I'd also be in the position to help some people who needed loving care for their daughter. I knew I could provide it. It seemed like a win-win situation.
We said YES, and I am so glad we did. She became like one of my own as soon as she arrived every morning to our home. She played with our boys, she snuggled, she was one of our crew. She was easy to please at lunchtime when my own boys had picky days. She was a champion napper. She laughed a lot. We had a wonderful relationship with her parents. When it was time to say goodbye to our arrangement when we sold our house, it was sad, and my days became almost too quiet without our third kiddo. Her presence wasn't just a blessing to our finances, but also to our hearts.
LASER FOCUS.
Our journey began in April of 2017. By April of 2018, we had paid down about $10k!!!! How we managed to bring in an extra $800+ a month without receiving an inheritance or winning the lottery, I will never figure out. We did it with God's numerous blessings, lots and lots and LOTS of work, and by resisting the urge to blow those hard-earned dollars on anything other than debt.
It was at this point that we got HUNGRY for the finish line. It was SOOOOO close. We had paid down about half of what we owed in just a year on a humble income while raising a toddler and welcoming a newborn. We were determined that 2018 was going to be OUR year.
You guys, this is when we got a little crazy.
Final post about this to come.
The truth is, even with our tight little budget and slashed expenses, we still didn't have enough room in our budget to rmake a sizable dent in our (read: my) student debt. We had to bring in more income to help things along. So, this is what we did next:
Finding additional ways to make money can sometimes be more difficult that you realize. It was for us, in a lot of ways. John's primary job requires a lot of evening and weekend hours and we've always felt really strongly that a parent needs to be a constant at home for our boys. Bouncing them between daycare and nighttime babysitters wasn't something we wanted, and I don't regret that decision. Any additional work we took on had to fit between the hours John was home and what I could juggle as a stay-at-home-mom.
THE POWER OF YES.
Our victories were slow and steady. The promise of progress gave us courage to say YES to things that sometimes looked like a lot of work.
There was the time John received a message from a potential Etsy customer, asking if he accommodated bulk orders. If you're familiar with the Etsy marketplace, then you understand it's not the platform for anything considered "bulk." Haha! But this client was working on a big corporate design project and was motivated to feature John's work- they wanted a fast turn around, but the payoff for us was in the THOUSANDS. We said YES. Two stressful, whirlwind weeks later, John's work was received by a satisfied buyer, and we used the proceeds to completely knock out one entire debt!
Gulp. I was a new mom-to-two. Could I handle THREE children, not to mention TWO babies close in age? All at once????
And then I remembered our prayers. We had been praying for a path to paying down more of our debt, faster. I'd also be in the position to help some people who needed loving care for their daughter. I knew I could provide it. It seemed like a win-win situation.
We said YES, and I am so glad we did. She became like one of my own as soon as she arrived every morning to our home. She played with our boys, she snuggled, she was one of our crew. She was easy to please at lunchtime when my own boys had picky days. She was a champion napper. She laughed a lot. We had a wonderful relationship with her parents. When it was time to say goodbye to our arrangement when we sold our house, it was sad, and my days became almost too quiet without our third kiddo. Her presence wasn't just a blessing to our finances, but also to our hearts.
LASER FOCUS.
Our journey began in April of 2017. By April of 2018, we had paid down about $10k!!!! How we managed to bring in an extra $800+ a month without receiving an inheritance or winning the lottery, I will never figure out. We did it with God's numerous blessings, lots and lots and LOTS of work, and by resisting the urge to blow those hard-earned dollars on anything other than debt.
It was at this point that we got HUNGRY for the finish line. It was SOOOOO close. We had paid down about half of what we owed in just a year on a humble income while raising a toddler and welcoming a newborn. We were determined that 2018 was going to be OUR year.
You guys, this is when we got a little crazy.
Final post about this to come.
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