$3,250 in 6 months!

We did it! We paid off our credit card balance of $3,250 in 6 months! I just made the final payment a few moments ago!!
Most of you probably had no idea we were even working on this goal. This goal has actually been in the works for about two and a half years. We've had a lot of setbacks - namely extended maternity leave and unemployment - but we are now FREE OF CREDIT CARD DEBT! Wow!

Here are some of the resources we used to make this happen:

1. Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover - We listened to this audio book together and it provided the basis of our plan to pay off our debt. We're still following the plan, but now we're moving on to the next step! Best part, we borrowed the audio book from the library, so it didn't cost us a penny!

2. Simple Mom - The author of this blog, Tsh, was my first inspiration on this journey we have taken. If you search the archives of her site for "money," you'll find lots of practical information for dealing with family finances. Tsh and her family are Dave Ramsey fans, too.

3. The Simple Dollar - The Simple Dollar is my absolute fav personal finance blog. The writing is easy to understand, the topics are specific with good examples, and the advice is good. But the best part is this blog isn't just about money management, it's about figuring out what you want out of your life and making financial decisions that support what you want.

4. ING Direct - In addition to our regular checking account that we pay our bills from, we opened a checking account through this online bank almost two years ago. I highly recommend them, because you can create as many subaccounts as you want (we have 8), name them what you want (ours include "Joey," "Morgan," and "Emergency Fund") and keep your money categorized. This has made the task of budgeting and accounting for our money a million times easier than before we started using it.

Wish us luck on the next step of the journey!