I started bawling, she remembered.
How am I ever going to repay that?
It was the moment she decided to stop ignoring her debt and prioritize paying it off.
They were planning a small wedding that would cost $10,000.
After help from family and her fiance, Val was left with $2,500 to fund on her own.
No Interest Til Almost 2027?
She would eventually cover most of her portion with those savings.
Even in marriage, Val and Nathan didnt combine their incomes.
Val had just started a job as a school counselor making $36,000 per year.
Even though her student loans were more than her salary, she was determined.
It was this perspective that influenced all her day-to-day decisions.
Here are some of the things she did to cut expenses.
My husband also carpooled on his one-hour-each-way commute for two years.
My friends had smartphones in college.
My co-workers had smartphones at work.
My mom even had a smartphone before I did, she said.
He was still driving it when it was a collector at 20 years old!
Both made me sick and fueled my debt-payoff fire.
They continued to live frugally, budget and live without smartphones.
In the fall of 2014, they were down to the last $9,000.
Then they could rebuild those funds as if they were paying off the debt.
So in November 2014, she made her final student loan payment.
Val had her baby in May 2015.
It all started with paying off debt, Val said.
That really changed our lives and our familys life.
Jen Smith is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.
She and her husband paid off $78,000 of debt in less than two years on two less-than-average salaries.
She gives money saving and debt payoff tips on Instagram at @modernfrugality.
