How My Best Friend and I Paid Off Over 70K In Debt

Honestly, it all started by accident.

I’d just gotten approved for my second credit card. This credit card came with a much higher limit than my first. Amazon was running a special on a 0% APR for up to 12 months.  I applied, and they accepted!

I ran to tell my best friend the good news. She was so excited that it inspired her to do the same. She applied, and they accepted!

Over the course of 5 years we took turns getting approved for credit cards, using them but only paying the minimum balance because we thought it was helping build our credit. At least that is what we were taught. Eventually, we found ourselves in hot water. We owed more on our credit cards than we were making! I remember the day I sat at work contemplating how to pay off all my credit cards off for good. I opened my internet browser and googled, “how to get out of credit card debt.”

That was the day that I realized that we were not the only ones that were in debt. Story after story, video after video people talked about how they got into debt and how they did not know how to get out.

As the years we on, we started sharing information about our finances. She, who was more of a free spender than me would constantly swipe her card everywhere we went.

She came to me one day and stated that she wanted to buy a car. My response was that I supported her but that I didn’t think it was a good idea to go from no car note to a car note unless you really had to. Just like that, life happened. She bought a car, had a kid, got more credit cards and as for me I got more credit cards and had been applying for loans to pay off the credit cards as well as moving out on my own. Bills started to accumulate, and we were both in over our heads again.

Fast forward about 5 years we had enough! We got serious to the point that we decided to hold one another accountable for every debt paid off. I don’t know if you know but studies show that having an accountability partner will increase your chance of success by up to 95%.

The study, in our opinion, was correct! Together we have paid off over $70K in debt! We plan to go into the new year debt free!!

What we have learned from this lesson was how important it is to have an accountability partner. Of course, there were times we felt too embarrassed to talk about our financial mistakes but once we voiced them we noticed just how much alike our situations were. As for credit cards, we’ve transferred our balances, increased our credit limits which in turn increased our credit scores and left the credit cards behind. We limit the amount of days that we eat out. We search for coupons and stick to shopping on sale. We learned one another’s spending triggers. If she were to see something that she knows I would like, she will make sure she is ten steps ahead of me when it comes to helping me make a rational decision.

At the beginning of each month, we get together and write down a list of goals that we want to complete before month end. We hold one another accountable and take action one goal at a time. We are each other’s motivation.

Have you recently paid off debt? Leave us a comment below.

Be Blessed,

ShaK