By Angie Mentink

I have been struggling for months wondering if I should post this topic. Finances are such a personal thing and I struggle with telling our story, but it was thanks to hearing other stories that allowed us to get out of debt in a short amount of time. I feel led to share some of the ideas we used. When my husband and I were first married we were both very against credit card debt, but we thought a mortgage and a couple of car payments were fine. We assumed that was the way it would always be. We lived pay check to pay check and we were so busy always running, spending, and never thinking much about it. Our health was also slowly declining.

One evening, about 9 years ago, my husband came home ecstatic and said, “We are going to get out of debt!” I was so angry! I had been brainwashed to believe that wasn’t possible, ever. My husband and I had just recently been saved and God was doing a great work on our marriage and our lives. I do realize that my anger was sin and I did ask his forgiveness. He said, “Just read this book, Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey, and then we will talk about it again.” I started the book determined to fight this battle by gaining more information from this book as to why this wasn’t going to be possible. After the first couple of chapters God really did a great work on my heart. I didn’t think I could follow the system exactly, but I saw the possibility of becoming debt free and I was really, really excited!! My husband was very surprised and excited as well. We already had an emergency fund in savings, and I knew that rather than putting money in an envelope, I needed to pay bills first, then I figured out how much we would need for the next two weeks (kept that in checking), and everything else went to pay off the debt. If we ran out of money then we did without those things we thought we needed. We still felt it was necessary to be generous during this time. It took us less than 5 years to get completely out of debt. I remember toward the end paying way too much on our debt and eating nothing but pork for a week. We were so excited when we found 40 dollars at the end of that week in the cupboard. Neither one of us remembered putting it there. We bought some produce with it and enjoyed it more than we ever had. A funny thing happened after we got out of debt. Our family became even more frugal. This experience taught us that there is greater joy in the small things that don’t cost any money. While we made some mistakes during this process, and still struggle,  our experience taught us to evaluate a want versus a need. We are all happier and healthier after cutting the junk and the busy lifestyle that we assumed was necessary for contentment.

I am going to share the things we do now to save money and maybe some of these will help others. We pray a lot for wisdom, so anything good here is of the Lord, not us. I’m not suggesting anyone should do these as they may not be right or possible for some. I’m just sharing our story. All of these things didn’t happen over night. We slowly added things one at a time sometimes moving a little too quickly. For example we bought two goats before we had a fence for them and I couldn’t stand the thought of them being in a barn locked up so they ran around our place like dogs for a few weeks until the fence was done. I won’t do that again!

1. We cut our satellite (we no longer watch or own a TV) we may watch a documentary or an edifying movie once a month if that on our computer. This has been the biggest blessing to our marriage and family!!!
2. My husband did a few electrical side jobs to bring in extra money.
3. We got rid of our dumpster and started hauling our own trash (this cut our trash bill at least in half)
4. If my husband didn’t need Internet for work we would have cut this too (it’s paid by his work).
5. We hang most of our clothes out when the weather is acceptable (I had no idea just how much drying our clothes was costing until we stopped)
6. We burn wood exclusively in the winter for our heat. (This is huge with an old farm house)
7. We make all of our skin care and most of our own cleaning products.
8. We preserve as much as we can and I never turn down produce when others have abundance (our family loves canning, freezing, and dehydrating!) and we never waste. All scraps are fed to something or composted.
9. We milk a cow and make as much butter and cheese as our milk quantity allows (we are hoping to grow this to provide 100% of our dairy soon).
10. We have a hoop house to extend our growing season.
11. We buy in bulk the things we can’t grow (organic grain, feed, and a little produce) from a food coop and then make 95% of our food from scratch. (I haven’t figured out pasta, mustard, or ketchup yet)
12. We only use our air conditioner about 10 days out of the year (this is another huge savings!). We open up at night and then shut windows in the morning. We also try to cook outside when it’s really hot.
13. We don’t go to movies
14. We didn’t vacation much during this time and now we only go about every two years. We bring all of our food and plan to do things that aren’t too expensive.
15. We never buy candy, pop, or any other junk food (we feel way better and these little expenses really add up).
16. We do most of our own home improvements.
17. We enjoy doing things as a family that don’t cost anything like bike riding, going to the park, playing games, swimming at the dam, and so much more!
18. We love to go to garage sales and thrift shops, and we love and appreciate hand-me-downs.
19. Recently we sold our tahoe and bought an old 15 passenger van. For the first time we put money in our savings. Our taxes are way less and there’s less stress about it getting damaged. We only have liability coverage.
20. We try to fix things before buying new and mending if possible.
21. My husband brings leftovers for lunch every day.   We only eat out at Chipotle’s about twice a year and we don’t feel bad after eating there!
22. My husband does all of our vehicle and machinery maintenance and fixes things he can. Otherwise we have a wonderful mechanic~Larry Tworek~when we can’t figure it out.
23. My husband does most of the shopping since he’s in Columbus every day and has an hour lunch break.
24. We have chickens for meat and eggs and learned to butcher these ourselves.
25. We now grow all of our own meat (hog, lamb, beef, chicken, and turkey) this started more as a health thing and then we realized the savings.
26. We don’t participate in as many organized activities for our kids. The kids don’t miss them and we have learned that the thing they want the most is to spend time with us, not run all the time.
27. We have bare minimum insurance and trust that God will provide all of our needs.
28. We never buy bottled water
29. We never paid a babysitter (we found plenty of time to hang out around our place together alone). A couple times a year grandma blesses us with an outing. Sometimes we just stay home.
30. Cory and I both felt like it was more important for me to save us money rather than try to earn money during this time. We don’t have to pay taxes on saved money!!
31. We now have an Ooma phone that connects to our computer along with two tracfones (we don’t text or use too many minutes). The Ooma phone was $100 investment, but now only costs $4.00 per month for unlimited calling.
32. We used cloth diapers most of the time for our last two babies (more about this in a later post).
33. Most recently we started sourcing more local feed (we were paying way too much for organic bagged feed and probably paying more for our own chicken and eggs). We know we have a superior product so it was worth the extra cost, but this will be better quality, lower priced, and we love supporting local business!
34. Our next adventure is to try to learn how to butcher our bigger animals ourselves.

By now we probably sound like very boring people. I would have thought that about us before all of this started. The Lord has given us such peace and joy and we don’t need all the busyness and expense. This new mindset of staying debt free has prevented us from making a lot of big mistakes. Our conviction is that if we don’t have the money to do something then it’s not of God’s will.  If this blesses even one person then to God be the glory!