Debt free and it feels so good.

I DID IT!!!!!!

For those of you who have been following my story…..I have been trying to pay down my debt and I FINALLY did it!!!

May 2014, my ex left me, out of the blue, after 22 years of marriage

Dec 2015, my divorce was final.

I accrued some debt, since I was now covering all the bills, on my own, with my not-so-big salary.

My divorce cost me $7000.

I made enough to cover the mortgage, and all the other monthly bills, but it was tight.

I knew I didn’t want to stay in the house because there were too many memories there. We lived there for almost 20 years. We had also done a lot of improvements, so it was almost ready to sell.

The one big thing that the house didn’t have was central air. I could not, in good conscience, sell the house with out it. So I had central air installed, as well as some other minor improvements, that the inspector found. I was a little tight on money, so my step father loaned me the money, to pay for all the upgrades, which came to about $4100.

I put the house on the market in Pennsylvania and started looking for a place to live in Rhode Island, which would be my new home, where I would start my next chapter.

It took 3 months to sell my house and the buyer wanted another 3 month to close. That gave me some time to find a house. I traveled back and forth from PA to RI once a month. This cost money as well, so my credit card balance was getting high.

I sold the house and moved to RI in May 2017.  I made a nice profit from the sale, so I was able to pay off the credit card, which was about $10,000 at the time, and make a nice down payment on the new house.

Of course, when you move into a new place, there are things you need to do and buy.

I hired the company Pods to move almost all of my belongings from PA to RI. That was $1000.

I sold all my furniture from the old house, because it was too big for my new house. I had to buy a washer, dryer, refrigerator, kitchen table and chairs, bed, dresser, couch, end tables and a TV stand. That all added up to about $5500.

I had to replace the hot water heater about a year after I moved in. $1000

And I also bought a shed last year, which was $2100.

So, between 2015 and 2020, I have spent and paid off about $38,000 / 5 years = about $7620 extra a year on things other than normal living expenses.

I was determined to get rid of all of the extra financial burden. So with my income from work and my dog sitting business, I was able to really make a dent.  Even with Covid, I was able to finally pay everything off. I am so grateful to still be working, during all of this. And even though I lost a lot of my overnight doggy guests, since no one is going away on vacations,  I am still watching dogs during the day and making some extra money from that as well.

I feel free. I feel lighter. I feel relieved and I DON’T plan on getting into any debt again. If I don’t the money, I cant get what I want, until I do. Now I can go back to saving and I also want to pay more toward the principle of my house. And If we cant take vacations next year, I might start on some home improvements. I really want to renovate my bathroom and kitchen and do all my floors. The extra money also helps me with my new paint pouring hobby.

Now I can breath. YAY!!!