Just Beginning

I am a 47 year old single mom of a beautiful 7 year old daughter. I am just beginning my debt free journey and after reading the Total Money Makeover I am pretty certain I am the poster child for doing EVERYTHING stupid there is to do with money. As a result, I have $115,500 in debt and that does not include the house. I had found Dave many years ago and have even been to one of his shows. But, life kept happening and I never truly began the plan. I only kind of sort of did it. Well, that does not work! Either you do it or you don't. There is no half way doing it. However, When I read TMM agaiin this past September I was again so inspired by the stories in the book that I decided to learn from my past and not let it discourage me from becoming debt free. So just a few days prior to October 1, 2015, I logged onto EveryDollar and did a budget. I mean I really did a budget and accounted for every single dollar. There is was, my first REAL budget. It was staring at me on paper and wouldn't you know it, I was $100 short for the monthly expenses. I toyed with the idea of not giving to our church, but then decided, no the Lord has blessed us so much I am not going to cut out our giving. So that Sunday I dropped our check into the donation basket at church, thanked the Lord for all the blessing in our life and asked for his guidance as I begin my journey to debt freedom. Well, wouldn't you know it, about a week later my supervisor let me know that I would be receiving an award of excellence for a project I recently completed. The award was $100. Wow!!!! It gave me chills. I realized the Lord is watching over me as I begin this journey and will help me along hte way. I will continue to pray and ask for His guidance and I will continue to tithe. My goal is to be debt free by the time I turn 50 in 2.5 years. Lots of hard work is needed to accomplish that goal but I have no doubt I can do it with hard work, grit deterination, discipline and the Grace of God.