We are. Like many couples, we started out our marriage with debt – matching 5 figures of debt - and it grew from there. Within a few years, it seemed like we were drowning and we didn’t know what to do. All I knew was there was no way I was going to file bankruptcy – I made a commitment and I was going to fulfill it. I just didn’t know how.

Thankfully, through the wise advice of friends, a financial education from Crown Financial Minstries, God’s amazing provision, and a lot of work on our part, we were able to pay off nearly half our debt within a few short years.

We were making good progress toward being debt free, but then we relapsed.  

Life happened.  

We moved, we had two houses (cuz we couldn’t sell the other one), and a variety of other emergencies occurred. And unfortunately, our only emergency fund was our credit cards. So more debt again.

And we’re working hard to get through it again. But this time I KNOW we can get out of debt without bankruptcy, by being smart, by being frugal, and by really being good stewards. God is amazing in his provision and I’ve seen him do amazing things in our lives and in others.

But still it’s a journey. This week, the following story from Jill Cooper at LivingonaDime.com arrived in my email box and I just had to share it with you. If you are at all in the battle of overcoming debt, I pray you gain more hope, conviction, and strength from Jill’s words. They were timely for me, and I hope they are for you as well.

Enjoy.

….Shannon

Is There A Way Out of Debt?

by Jill Cooper, LivingOnaDime.com

I was at some people’s home the other day and as often happens with Tawra and me, we started talking about debt. Our hostess and her husband were like many people. They got married, got some credit cards, and started spending. They were up to their eyeballs in debt.

After years struggling and living with the stress of it, they decided to change and have now been debt free for a couple of years. When I spoke to the woman, she said something that I found interesting and it got me thinking. (Now we’re in big trouble– I’m thinking!) She said, “When you are in so much debt, you can really believe there is just no way out.”

Based on the e-mails and comments we get from readers, I know what she says is true. There is a way out in most cases, but the sad thing is that people often just can’t think rationally in that situation.

Have you ever seen a movie where a scatter-brained person falls into the water and starts flailing his arms and screaming “Help, I can’t swim! Help, I’m drowning”? The people on the shore look at each other and shake their heads, yelling, “Put your feet down.”

The person in the water is screaming “Help me, help me, I need help!” so loudly that he can’t hear them. He is splashing so hard he is causing water to go up his nose and into his mouth, almost drowning himself.

Finally he hears them, but he still doesn’t do what they say because he is too busy trying to figure out how to keep himself from drowning. All of a sudden, his feet go down and he realizes that he could have touched the bottom at any time.

Even standing, the water is up to his neck and a wave will hit him in the head once in a while but he can still walk to the shore one step at a time and save himself.

Many of you feel like you are drowning in debt and can see no way out. You may think there’s not a way to save yourself. We sometimes have ourselves convinced the only way for us to be saved from our debt is for someone to come and rescue us (like the government, family and friends and even God).

If someone does try to save us we are so afraid and we often fight so hard that we are liable to pull that person down and cause him or her to go under, too. (This can happen when parents help kids, when one spouse pulls the other down or even when friends try to help).

You might say, “But this is money– It isn’t water and I can’t just put my feet down and expect that all will be well. Maybe not, but you can do what we and other financial advisers have been yelling from the shore for years. It is almost as simple but you can’t hear it above your screams for help.

What is it? Stop Spending. Really stop spending. Stop spending on everything. Just stop spending.

People constantly ask me, “How did you get out of debt?” What it all boils down to is I stopped spending. I bought only the bare necessities in food, shelter and clothes and sometimes I even did without those. My grandson has a T shirt that just makes me crack up. It shows these bears on their way to a camping trip. One has a TV strapped to his back, another a boom box, another a computer and so on. The caption says “The Bear Necessities”. We all laugh at that, but the truth is that’s the way most of us think and live.

Here’s an example of the thinking that helped me get out of debt. I went to the grocery store the other day where they had coffee for fifty cents. I thought, “Boy would I love to buy a coffee and sit at one of those tables with a book and read,” but I didn’t do it. I bought the bargain loaf of bread that I came for and left.

Once, when I did a similar thing, I had a woman sarcastically say to me, “It’s only fifty cents”. That same woman was the one I mentioned at the beginning of this story, who was “swimming” in debt at the time. Each fifty cents makes a difference, each $50 makes a difference and, if you are buying a car or a house, don’t tell yourself that $500 here and there doesn’t make a difference. If you spend because you say, “Life is short. You need to enjoy it while you can,” you cause your own stress and will always have financial trouble.

If this is your attitude, life is going to be very short for you and your family. Because of that extra $.50, $50 and $500, you are almost under water. Stop being afraid. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Stop screaming and flailing, put your feet down and save yourself. Stop listening to that little voice that says there is no way out and you can’t save yourself. That voice is only you deceiving yourself. Don’t choose to believe you are drowning when you really aren’t.

Put your foot down and stop spending.

Would a financial crisis in your family jeapordize your homeschool?

If you weren’t able to allocate any funds to homeschool curriculum or resources what would you do? Could you continue to homeschool?

Personally I’ve worked very hard to ensure that I could be at home with my children, even though it requires me to work from home. But we still have faced interesting financial times. A couple years ago, I realized that I needed a curriculum backup plan.

While I believed that I could homeschool with just an internet connection and a library card, I needed to know that  my kids could continue to be homeschooled even if I couldn’t invest another dollar into curriculum or resources.

Now I’m electic in my resources, and am homeschooling four kids from a kindergartener to a high schooler. So, what works for me may be different than what works for you, but here are some of the strategies I used in creating my homeschool backup plan:

1. Identify your needs for core basic curriculum – Reading, Writing, and Math.

Afterall,if they can read and write they can learn anything. And Math is well… just plain necessary to do much of anything in life. Identify where your children are and where they are going. 

2. Identify which resources you think you need to buy.

Make a list of what you think you’ll need, if the world is perfect. I’m not talking about buying full curriculum packages for all twelve years – that’s not within most people’s budgets AND not flexible enough for adapting your homeschooling  to your child’s changing needs or interests.  But having a list of what you think you need becomes your starting point to begin the next step.  

3. Look for free, nearly free, or low cost alternatives to those things you think you need to buy. Can you use alternatives? 

 For example, I really like Sonlight’s literature based curriculum, but buying twelve years is just not possible for us. So I identified which materials we already had, and found some interesting alternative literature-based programs for a lot less.  

To help save you some time, over the next few weeks I’ll share some of the resources I found with you.

4. For those curriculum or resources items you absolutely must buy, purchase them.

Some things just have to be purchased. Identify what those are for you and begin budgeting for them and purchasing them.  For us, this included another copy of Mastering Mathematics (elementary math), a few volumes of Life of Fred (middle and high school math), a used microscope, the Robinson Curriculum, and a refurbished duplex, laser printer.

5. Create a list of basic core curriculum tools or resources you may use, just so you have it on hand when the time comes.

It’s really tempting to save your favorite resources and links on the computer, but computers fail. By writing out or printing off a list of the resources you’ve identified and storing it a binder or a safe place, you’ll know that you have the information at your finger tips, even if your computer has died.

6. For Science, History, and electives, identify what resources you can tap into for free or nearly free.

There are so many resources available for science, history, and electives it can make your head spin. There’s fabulous materials out there, thanks to the generosity and effort of others. In the coming weeks I’ll share some of my favorites. But I encourage to make a list of those that you really like so you can find them later if you need them.

Homeschooling is a fun journey. Work, yes. But fun and amazing. It’s worth putting the effort in to ensure you can continue, even if you can’t invest any more money into it. Our greatest investment is in our children. To me it’s worth taking the time and effort to safegaurd that investment and the investment we are making into their education.

Enjoy.

…Shannon

Halloween presents an interesting dilemma for us as a Christian family. Here in the U.S., as soon as the school supply sales are over, the stores pull out the Halloween paraphernalia – decorations, costumes, pumpkins, and of course, candy. It’s impossible to simply ignore it. We’ve tried, didn’t work.

When our oldest was small, we made the decision to ignore Halloween. And that worked for a while, but when our daughter was three she took matters into her own hands – digging into her dress up box and pulling pieces to together, so she could have a costume like all the other kids. After all, dressing up and imaginative play was something we encouraged; and she wanted to join in. 

So we re-evaluated. How do we honor what the bible says about avoiding witchcraft and the occult and still allow our children to find their place in this classic American cultural event? While Halloween has it’s roots as a Celtic festival, we Americans have over time adopted it as our own and woven it into our culture.

As a family, we’ve chosen to emphasize the more wholesome parts of Halloween, forbid the gruesome and occult references, and use the time to build our ties as a family and with friends. And use the time to discuss our beliefs in the context of the culture. 

Now that it is October, my world is full of kids thinking of Halloween and how they can participate in the holiday without violating the rules. For my daughters it means designing and sewing costumes. For my sons, it’s a time to balance what they are attracted to (the scary) with what we allow.

And for my husband and I, it’s a time to discuss with the kids more about what Halloween is about and help the kids come to their own conclusions and beliefs. For we believe, its important for the kids to “own” their beliefs, to come to their own conclusions, based on not just what we believe but also their own research and their own convictions.

Over the next few weeks, I may share more about how we, as a Christian family, are preparing for and studying Halloween this year. Please feel free to share in the comments your own ideas on how you’ve dealt with the Halloween dilemma in your own family.

…Shannon