Demolishing Debt

Proverbs 22:7 – The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.

Proverbs 22:26-27 – Do not be one who shakes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts; if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you.

1 Corinthians 7:23 – You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings.

They say that one of the greatest causes of divorce is disagreements over finances. Thankfully, my husband and I seem to be on the same page in this area and have been very diligent in our spending since our first date. We managed to plan our wedding without accumulating any debt and in the first 7 months of marriage, we have paid off almost $8,000 in previously acquired debt. Over the course of last week, we decided to revamp our budget a bit. I created a spreadsheet of all of our bills, their monthly amounts due, and due dates. We looked at those pesky annual expenses that seem to sneak up on us every year like our auto registration fees, snowplowing service, and vacation expenses. We took those and added them into our monthly budget so that when those bills came due, the money would already be there. We also looked at any areas we might be able to cut costs.If we had implemented all of the cost saving measures we found, we could have reduced almost another $300 in outgoing expenses every MONTH! We took a look at our remaining debt (two student loans and a mortgage) and also what our savings goals were over the next few years (a larger emergency fund, a third vehicle, and a basement remodel) and decided to implement only some of the cost cutting measures. That being said, we should be debt free (with the exception of the mortgage) by next February. We are excited and motivated!

So what does all this have to do with a Christian daily-living blog post? Well, God has some pretty strong opinions about debt and His ideas are pretty motivating to us to get all that accumulated debt paid off. When we make a choice to go into debt, we become subject to those we are borrowing from. This could be a bank, a friend, a family member, etc. Nonetheless, we are then required to behave according to how that lender directs us. We must make payments when we are told and in the amounts we are told. If we don’t, we are penalized. Debt can very quickly spiral out of control and we can begin to lose things that we hold most dear. In some cases, our relationships. God does not include this in His plan for our lives. The Bible tells us over and over again how much God wants to and has already blessed us. So much so, that He has given us everything we need. A debt free life should be our way of life.

Sometimes getting to that debt free life means making some painful cuts to the things we enjoy for a while. For example, we have committed to eating on a $50 per week budget until our debt is paid off. That means creative grocery shopping and coupon cutting. It also means we won’t have prime cuts of meat for dinner or an excess of pre-packaged foods for snacks. We are also cutting our spending allowance each month. This means we must be conscious of the plans we make and we must find ways to spend our time that are cheap or even free. We are also looking at cutting out our satellite TV bill each month. Now that it’s summer, we can get outside and walk, work in the yard, play tennis, read, study our Bibles, or just sit and chat with another instead of watching a couple of hours of TV each night.

I highly encourage every single person that is taking the time to read this post to sit down and examine your spending habits. Make it a challenge to yourself to see how much debt you can pay off and how quickly. If you’re already debt free, make it a challenge to see where you can cut spending to increase savings. God wants us to enjoy our lives, not be bound by working off our debt for all of our years. I finished off our new budget binder with a cover sheet displaying this verse: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).”

Wishing you a happy and blessed week of savings!