Circled and etched in my mind for the past four years has been the 17th of each month. I have it circled on my calendar, I get an email reminder that the date is approaching, and the number to make my payment is programmed on my telephone. Yes, American Express and I have had a long relationship together… a relationship that has went on for far longer than I had ever dreamed.
Sometimes when people talk about their debt, they have a period of “fun spending” where they bought great items for themselves and their homes. They reference their shoe collection or expensive furniture that they just had to have and ended up charging them to a card. My debt had no element of fun in it. There was no rush of fun spending and then a feeling of doom and gloom afterwards- it has been doom and gloom all of the way.
The sad thing was that we were doing everything right. We were excellent at saving our money and had socked away well over the recommended amount needed to fund our emergency account. We both worked hard at our jobs and we lived well, but modestly within our means.
The loss of a job, we figured would be an annoying setback, but nothing more than that. The setback went on for almost a year though and sent our world into a tailspin. The only job that replied during my husband’s search was in the Midwest and they could offer him less than half what he was making at his current job.
I remember sitting on a moving box and crying, as my son crawled at my feet. I remember the feeling of hopelessness and despair. As we packed, my husband suggested giving away stuff or getting rid of our things so it would be easier for us in the move and I remember telling him that we EARNED our items and that we DESERVED to keep what we had. Yes, everything felt like it had been taken away and I was keeping everything that I owned and no one was going to stop me from that. You could take my husband’s job, you could take my car, you could take my house, you could take away my church and my friends- but I was taking EVERYTHING out of that house with me.
As we journeyed to our new home, I peeked at Ethan behind us and looked at my husband’s sad face. I was so angry at God and angry at the world for what was happening to us. We had done everything right and here we were…with everything so wrong. I wish, at the time, that I realized that I had everything I needed sitting in that car with me that day. I didn’t need that moving van of stuff that represented what I was. These two people who rode in the car with me were everything that I could ever want.
As we settled into our new home, we started our life behind on all of our bills and with over $13K of debt. The kicker was that almost $8K of it was the cost to move all of our belongings cross-country. The rest was my husband’s student loans that we had gotten behind on and then the occasional, “Oops, we are overdrawn again” and a frantic writing of checks to ourselves from those convenient checks that they kept sending me.
Finally, one day I decided to not be a victim anymore and decided that I was going to be proactive about tackling our debt. I made a plan for how we would pay everything back and make our financial lives right again. It was a simple technique of snowballing our debts, but just to have a plan made me feel far more liberated and in control then I had felt in years.
We have been working on our financial goals since then, sticking to our plans and meticulously documenting the progress that we have made towards our goals. I am so happy to say that April 17th will be the last date that I have with American Express and I am ending our relationship for good. Our time together was never fun, we never had that great of a relationship- they just always seemed to be at an advantage. Frankly, I am tired of paying for our dates and I am moving on.
In honor of our final payment to the company, I am going to have a wild and crazy party (within our means, of course). I was wondering if anyone had any fun ways to celebrate ridding yourself of credit card debt? I am looking for fun party ideas- cheesy ideas, wild ideas, symbolic ideas for celebrating.
Remember, this is a party that has been four years in the making! I am ready to party like it’s 1999…or um, something like that but a little bit hipper.
I can’t wait to get your feedback and ideas!
Hi Amy! I think this is a great thing to celebrate! In fact, I’ve just started a blog for frugal party-throwing ideas! It’s perfect!
Here’s my suggestion:
Throw a “thank-you” party for everyone along the way who helped you out of debt. Perhaps these were encouraging friends and family, a financial advisor, or even your sister-in-law who loaned you money once or the friend who suggested the book or website that led you along the road to financial freedom.
Theme Idea: Man Doesn’t Live on “Bread” Alone
To read more of my ideas on how to carry out the theme (cheaply) through food, decorations, and activities, go here! Thanks for the inspiration!
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I would suggest keeping all of the credit card offers you get in the mail from now until you have a party (and invite a few of your friends to do the same). Then have fun cutting them up throughout your party! I find that very therapuatic (and with just student loans, my husband and I are about $70,000 in the hole… mind-blowing, really).
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Freedom! I’d throw a freedom ride themed party, but save space for some quiet reflection for you and your spouse. You could post your past debts on sheets of paper throughout the house and then have family members find them, cut them up and “bury” them in a small box, spend time giving thanks for getting through that rough time and bury those debts in the backyard (or do a small fire outside). Spend some time making financial goals for the upcoming year and make the 17th an anniversary where you look back on the past year with thanksgiving and plan for the next.
Great job to you and your family!
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How awesome it must feel to finally be getting rid of this debt!
I think the party is a fantastic idea!
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Have you seen the Obsessive Consumption blog? This girl draws her credit card statements every month until she pays off her debt. It’s brilliant!
I like the idea of making decorations out of credit card offers – that is some creative recycling!
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Congrats! That is fabulous! Maybe you could have the kids cut the card up along with some other scrap papers, etc. to make confetti! Have fun!
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I say go to the dollar store and get a pair of kid scissors for each family to give out to symbolicly remind others to cut up the cards! This could be fun, tie a ribbon to the scissor handle with a card attached bearing the verse to own no man anything! (bad paraphrase – I apologize!)
Liz
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How exciting that your debt is almost paid and your faith in tact!
Ok the messy (and slightly wasteful) side of me says: make a cake in the form of the credit card and take it somewhere to have a food fight with. (I’m sure there’s some useful parallels to the real world that could be made from this if my brain would think…coffee hasn’t kicked in yet.)
The destruction of the card, as others have mentioned, would definitely be a good highlight.
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I just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS! I can’t wait to get there!
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I cannot wait to have a “throw the credit card debt out the door” party! I would love to imprint it with a lovely boot print on its way out, in fact.
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Amy!
I am thrilled for you and appreciate your willingness to share your story. Good for you for making all these positive changes!
You could make a sheet cake that looks like a credit card, and then make a big deal of cutting it up! Or, what about asking American Express to sponsor your party? Ha!=)
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Amy – I am so excited for you!! We too just paid off all our debt but house and we too are so excited!!! I’m not really the party type, but I would say a nice night out with your husband and reflect on how far you have come!!! I never thought we would be able to say that we were debt free except our house….it’s amazing how easy it would have been for you to get off track! Congrats, now relax and reflect on where you have come from in order to get to where you are today!
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