can I get a high five?

We've paid off our line of credit! I made the last payment this morning (we had the money to pay it yesterday, but the bank wouldn't let me make THAT BIG of a payment at once). See the graph in the side bar?? It feels awesome to have that thing paid off and no longer hanging over our heads, all the more so because of how hard we worked to get it done.

It definitely helped to have received some big chunks of unexpected money these last five months: a larger than anticipated income tax return, a huge retroactive payment for Quebec child tax that we didn't know existed so hadn't applied for, and a lump sum payment for Peter's Collective Agreement having been re-signed.

All that money could've easily (EASILY) been spent on other -ie. more fun- things. How bout a little family vacation? A few new camera lenses and an external flash? A new vehicle when we needed to upgrade? A new kitchen (oh for a new kitchen!)? The deck we'd like to build in our backyard?

Believe me, there's a list.

In addition to having to exercise A LOT of self-control when those cheques came, we also really cut back on expenses. Reeeeally cut back. As in, cut back in every area possible.
- no eating out
- no shopping (if we absolutely needed something, we looked second-hand first)
- no renting movies (maybe one every other month... if we had a coupon)
- smallest cell plans possible (because we were in a contract and couldn't cancel completely)
- basic cable (which we could've cut too, but we needed something)
- buying a three year old van when we needed to upgrade to something that would fit three car seats
- keeping our grocery bill under or around $400 a month (NOT EASY!)
- and cutting down on other household expenses: cloth diapers instead of disposables, homemade cleaning supplies, baking bread, winter temperature set at 15C (59F) at night, 17C (62.5F) during the day and 21C (70F) at night (I'm nothing if not a benevolent dictator), etc.

Basically, we lived as frugally as we possibly could. Our moto became:

Use it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do
Or do without.

And it worked. Thirteen thousand dollars in less than five months, is no small feat. We're excited and proud of ourselves. Next on the chopping block is our van payment. It's supposed to take another 4 1/2 years to pay off... think we can do it in one year??

Living frugally to pay off debt definitely Works For Me.