Bon Voyage!

We've been wanting to go on a cruise for a long time! Ever since our honeymoon, we've wanted a chance to get away from it all. Don't get me wrong, we've done Disneyland in LA, eaten our fill of cheesesteaks in Philly, and joined the WHOLE Barnes clan in Disney World. Traveling has not been completely on the back burner, but if you know anything about my husband, you know we have a budget. 

Let's start by saying, I hate the budget. I know we need it, but it's like dieting. Put it in perspective: my dad publicly cut up my credit cards at our rehearsal dinner. I never used them when I wasn't allowed, but there were very few moments that I wasn't allowed. I like to spend money, and I'm a spoiled baby. I get it. 

Respecting my husband, and not wanting to ruin our marriage before it started, I (quite grudgingly) went along with his budgeting plans. And the spreadsheets. So. Many. Spreadsheets. We were doing alright. We got married in June, bought a new car in November, and in January Chase lost his job. Interesting turn of events, but we thought we'd be OK. We quickly realized how little we knew about money, and how we'd missed the MOST IMPORTANT truth: our money was not our own. 

God taught us so much through those three, lean months. He supplied all our needs. I even had a friend randomly give me a gift card for us to have a "date night." We started tithing faithfully. I don't say that to toot our own horn here. It's not about us. I only say it to put in perspective that God had plans for us and our money, and at first we didn't make it a priority to do things His way. He revealed His faithfulness to us through the painful times, and we wanted to be obedient because we were so thankful for the grace He had shown us. Part of that obedience, we believed, was to become debt free.

Debt freedom was quite a process for us. In four and a half years of marriage, we've each lost a job. We also wanted to become homeowners as soon as possible to avoid throwing away our money on rent. Thanks to a fantastic tax rebate, in 2009, we bought our home. The end of our debt came in a bit of a whirlwind. When I got laid off in the spring of 2011, one of our first decisions was to jump on the fast track to achieving our financial goal. We didn't want to be in debt in case I didn't have a job at the end of the summer and we were limited to one income. Remember those spreadsheets I mentioned? Well, Chase had a spreadsheet for every possible scenario. One of those scenarios was our finances with one income. It was doable, but we definitely couldn't afford a car payment. We paid our last car payment on August 8, 2011, and because I had gotten a job, we refinanced to a fifteen year mortgage.

After that, we had to have an emergency fund, and since our doggy destroyed the hand-me-down furniture from my parents, we had to replace that as well, and our furnace, and our hot water heater, and, and, and...you know how it goes.

This year, we decided. We're going. Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cozumel. Don't be jealous, just come with us!!