Small Sacrifices – Living Like No One Else

Until this last Monday, frugal living has not been too much of a sacrifice. We have very few real needs & it has been an adventure to find new ways to save & earn money.

On Monday we sold Daniel’s truck.

It only got 16 miles to the gallon.

It was our only debt.

A small car with good gas mileage is more practical.

We did not really Need a truck…

But we will really miss it!!!

This was on our first date:

Yup- Daniel picked me up in his white truck to go snowshoeing. On the way home, we got stuck! (He was pretty embarrassed) A bigger pickup came along & pulled us out.

One day we will have bigger, better truck that we own 100%. For now, we will be frugal.

At the end of last year Daniel & I sat down & made some big financial goals. Our long term financial goal is to get through vet school debt free. We don’t know how we will do this- but we decided to shoot for the stars, do our best, and hopefully get really close.

We have listened to a few Dave Ramsey books about financial freedom & staying out of debt. One of thing Dave Ramsey says is-

Live like no one else Now, so that you can live like no one else later
The meaning is that if we make the necessary sacrifices now to live within our means & stay out of debt, we will be self reliant & have financial freedom later. Daniel & I decided that the benefits of a debt free (or close to debt free) life is worth a little sacrifice now.

For now we are surviving on one car. It takes a little extra time & coordinating work schedules, but we can do that!

Some days I look at the money in our savings account & dream about the things we could do with it Today. Then I sit back and realize what a blessng it would be to not have to deal with debt after vet school. The small sacrifices now- the inconvenience of only having one car, living in a small basement appartment, saving every extra penny we earn- will all pay off in a few years.

Saving money has become our little adventure/ addiction. I am incharge of minamizing our expenses through using coupons. Daniel is in charge of tracking our savings. He has created a “Grant Family Income Allocation” excel sheet. This helps us put a name on every dollar.

At the very bottom of our excel sheet is an ‘account’ labled: Daniel’s Truck. Right now there is $0 being allocated to that fund, but one day….