How We Paid Off $122,243.01 of Student Loan Debt

I am definitely not a financial expert and I’m sure that there are better ways to go about paying off debt, but I wanted to share what we did to pay off $122,243.01 in student loan debt in 4 1/2 years! Enjoy!

Zero Based Budget

Zero based budget means every dollar is accounted for in your budget. When you add up everything in your budget and subtract your income, it should equal zero. My husband and I get paid twice a month. When we get paid I make sure the bills that are budgeted for the first half of the month were paid and look through our purchases to see if I need to cover any costs from what we save from monthly (seasonal expenses). Anything left over goes straight to debt. Here is an article from Dave Ramsey about zero based budgeting.

Monthly and Seasonal Expenses 

When setting up your budget you need to know what your monthly and seasonal bills are. Seasonal bills are things like car registration, Amazon Prime membership, homeowners association fees. Think of things that you only pay for once a year or quarterly. This is what my husband and I save for every month for those seasonal expenses:

-Amazon Prime Membership
-Beachbody On Demand Membership
-Car Insurance 
-Car Maintenance
-Car Registration/Inspection
-Daycare Tuition
-Daycare Supply Fee
-Dog
-Dues for Conventions and Associations (Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Music Adjudicators Association)
-Christmas
-Homeowners Association Fee
-Lawn Maintenance 
-Medical Expenses 
-Minor House Repair
-Pest Control

Because we get paid twice a month a couple of those items are split between paychecks. For instance, we save a little for Christmas out of each paycheck to make the numbers work. I can’t stress enough how important I think doing this is. I really do believe this and our emergency savings was key to paying off my student loan debt.

Buy Used

It’s easy to get caught up in the “keeping up with the Joneses’” mentality. Comparison is the thief of joy. There will always be somebody else with a nicer car, house, clothes, furniture, and anything and everything else. You can find great deals on quality things when buying used. This past February I got in a car wreck and totaled my paid-off 2010 Toyota Corolla with 220,000 miles. Ouch! We knew that the next vehicle purchase we wanted to make was a van. As it turns out a coworker of mine owned a 2012 Toyota Sienna Limited and was ready to sell to us (as soon as they were able to find a car). Y’all, the van is AMAZING. It was kept in such great condition. It’s still weird to me that we own such a great vehicle for $12,000. (We could have paid for the van in cash, but we used the payout from my car to make the final payment on my student loan and didn’t want to use up so much money from our emergency savings. However, we will be able to knock out $12,000 pretty fast.)

Other things we have purchased used are a leather sectional and recliner for $500 from The Salvation Army. It was a floor model and retailed for $4,000. We bought our dishwasher for $60 at a garage sale and $30 in parts (kick plate). It retailed for around $800.

Don’t forget when buying from Amazon there is a used option from their warehouse. Every time that is an option for an item I want I take it, especially now with staying at home due to COVID-19. We are ordering a lot on Amazon right now and every dollar adds up!

Emergency Savings

Now, the Dave Ramsey method is to have $1,000 in emergency savings while paying off your debt. That is not what we did. We had a $10,000 emergency fund because we knew there were some big ticket items coming down the pipe line that were going to need to get fixed. We were able to replace my car’s transmission, replace our roof, replace our home’s AC, pay for unexpected emergency clinic visits, and unexpected vet bills that exceeded what we had saved. Over the past couple years our Emergency Savings has fluctuated a little so right now we are working to get it fully funded again. We will be there in a couple months no problem! 

Keep Spending Low

This is kind of obvious, but necessary. It doesn’t mean that you can’t buy anything for yourself or go anywhere or do anything ever. It does mean you need to be wise about your purchases and where you shop. I shop at Once Upon a Child, Target, and Walmart for our son’s clothes when needed. We were also very blessed to get a bunch of 2T clothes from one of my best friends. (Luckily he has been in the same size for a while!) When I needed to buy new clothes after I had Ewan I shopped at Ross, Marshall’s, and TJ Maxx for clothes. (Watch out at TJ Maxx. It can get pretty pricey!) If you are used to going out to eat every week, try every other week, or once a month. Are you used to buying a lot of make-up because you like to watch YouTube beauty videos? Stop watching them! (Guilty!) A lot of little changes add up, so don’t give up!

Side Hustle 

My husband has an eBay shoe store that generates some income. Both of us also work extra band contests when possible to make extra money. We have been able to help with medical costs when I was pregnant with Ewan, purchase our couch and dishwasher, and of course put extra money on my student loan with our side hustles.  

I know it can seem like a bottomless pit when getting out of debt, but keep going! The first payment we made to my student loan debt after refinancing was $2,000.  $940.43 of that went to interest! Talk about soul crushing! How the heck was I supposed to pay off $122,243.01 of debt when only $1,059.57 of a $2,000 payment went to the principal??? But we did it!!! And remember, we had a baby and I went through postpartum depression that required a lot of money in therapy and doctor visits, replaced my car’s transmission, replaced our roof, and replaced our AC while paying off my student loan. If we can do it on a teacher’s salary, so can you! Don’t give up!

I give God all the glory and honor for providing for us. We stayed faithful in our tithing and we never went without throughout our journey.

In hope and healing,
Brittany

You will not have to fight this battle.  Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.

2 Chronicles 20:17 (NIV)


Postpartum Support International: 1-800-944-4773 (Non Emergencies)

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

Postpartum Support International Support Coordinators

Postpartum Progress

PostpartumDepression.org

Pregnancy & Postpartum Mental Health Symptoms (from Postpartum Support International)