When Jed and I were engaged- his car broke down. {He may have spent the previous months teaching me to drive manually... but that's beside the point :)}
Fast forward to when we got married- Jed was going to drive to IL, we'd get married, honeymoon, and then drive back to Utah together {with all of my stuff}. I wanted an automatic, fuel efficient, big trunk and roomy inside car, and Jed got it- a Toyota Camry.
Yes, my grandma has the same car. And yes, everytime we see another Camry- it's only as we speedily drive past them on their Sunday drive :)
But the car has been sooooo good to us. We've gone on lots of trips, put more than our fair share of miles on it, and added a few dings on the sides for good measure. Yes, I will cry whenever we have to get rid of it :)
Anywho- I was asked by a good friend how we were able to pay off our car 2 years early. Jed and I both thought about it and came up with this list:
1.) Living on less than we earn
2.) Scholarships
3.) SAHM
4.) Income tax returns
5.) Paying Tithing
First:
Live on less than you earn
We've been fortunate enough to always have employment- knock.on.wood PLEASE!
I worked part time on campus and nannied for basically the first year of our marriage. Then, after PK was born, I was able to do some part-time babysitting. Jed has worked multiple part-time jobs including SportzFlimz, private math tutoring, BYU Math Lab {all at the same time} and more recently has had 2 paid internships for Moxtek and Novatek. There have been several months where we've had to eat what we already had rather than go grocery shopping, we've made many sacrafices along the way, and have made sure to make every penny count {through ad matching, couponing, doing research before bigger purchases etc.} There have been times when we've had to use savings in order to pay medical bills, but we've really tried to take this counsel to heart and do our best to follow it.
Second:
Scholarships
I honestly can't say enough about how proud I am of my Jedediah. He worked his tail off throughout school in order to qualify to be a Heritage Scholar at BYU {this is a
huge honor.} This scholarship paid for all of his tuition for his undergraduate work. What was even more awesome was that we still qualified for the FAFSA grants, so we were able to put that money directly into savings. With books, medical expenses, having a baby, etc. we've been very blessed by this money. I encourage everyone with the opportunity, or parents even, to help your child understand the importance of working hard early on to be able to reap the benefits later. Jedediah was clearly taught this {thanks Mom and Dad Alvey!} and it has really blessed our family. Because of this money, we were able to follow rule number one a little more realistically.
Third:
SAHM {stay-at-home-mom}
There are several reasons why I have chosen to be a SAHM, one of which is for financial reasons. I have read several different articles that say the average SAHM saves about 100,000 a year based off of each of her duties. While I really don't think the number is quite that high for me right now, I do know that I've been able to save our family a lot of money just by being home. For example, we only have one car and don't have a need for another right now. This lets us save on gas, insurance, and a car payment each month. Also, because I stay at home and thus have more time at home, I have more time to make cheaper, healthy meals, make my own homemade cleaners for a fraction of the price, coupon, and be more aware of needs in the home. While I understand that being a SAHM isn't always an option for people, I know that it can save families money- not to mention a ton of other reasons I think it is the best option if at all possible.
Fourth:
Income Tax Returns
Because we do not make that much with the random jobs we've had, each year of our marriage we've gotten an income tax return (sweet!). Basically this isn't anything extra that we've done in order to save money- but because of Rules #1-3 & #5, we haven't accrued any other debt. Meaning our income tax returns have been used to pay for medical expenses (don't even get me started on the ridiculous amounts of medical expenses we've had...hopefully no longer!), airplane tickets (I've flown back to IL several times), as well making a lump deposit on our car loan with each return.
Fifth:
Paying a full tithe
Each month, we write a check for tithing. It is 10% of all we earn given to our church. It is used for the upkeep of our church buildings, building new temples, it even helps subsidize tuition for BYU. We also are encouraged to give a generous fast offering, which is money that is used for humanitarian efforts, as well as those who are struggling within our own church boundaries. We both feel that everything we've been blessed with- especially financially- is in correlation with paying our tithing.
I am grateful to my husband who has taught me the importance of being frugal. This
does not come naturally to me. He has helped me keep a budget, to be more aware of where and how our money is being spent, and to make changes as necessary.
So there it is! How we paid off our car :)
Happy Monday all!
XOXO
