Earlier in the year, I wrote a post about how we decided to do a Contentment / Debt Challenge for six months. It’s been a few months since we wrapped up that challenge and I’m happy to report it went very well! I thought I’d type up a little recap for anyone interested in learning more about what this looked like.

What is the Contentment / Debt Challenge?

You can read about our mindset and framework behind this here, but the basic gist is that we came to the realization that something had to change in our finances in order to get where we wanted to be. We have dreams and goals, and without some lifestyle changes, it would be very unrealistic to achieve those dreams. We had to start with tackling the debt and in order to do so, we had to stop the behavior creating the debt: spending. Our version of the contentment challenge (inspired by Nancy Ray’s three month contentment challenge) is coupled with an aggressive plan to pay down debt. We felt the two went hand in hand. We felt it was important to stretch this challenge over a six month period to make some actual headway on the debt and also to really drive home some lifestyle changes in the form of learning contentment.

By The Numbers

January 11, 2021 - July 11, 2021
Looking at January 1, 2021 - June 30, 2021 financials

Total paid: $20,900
Cost of repayment of debt: $950
For a total debt reduction of $19,950

Major wins:

Paid off one credit card in full.
Paid off both cell phones.

If we had only paid the minimum payment on everything, total paid would be approximately $10,000. It’s hard to know what the cost of interest on paying such little would cost us in the long run but I’m sure it’s disgusting.

We paid an average of roughly $3,800/month during the 6 month contentment challenge.

How We Achieved This

Practicing contentment - rules around eating out, shopping, etc.

Budgeting - monthly budget meetings, tight moving budget

Utilizing 0% interest balance transfers on other CCs we already had but weren’t utilizing.

Taking all extra income and allocating toward debt. This included random refunds from purchases, work bonuses, stimulus checks and more.

This wasn’t us following Dave Ramsey or others guidelines, just our decisions made as a couple to challenge ourselves. We were inspired by some of the stories we heard from Nancy Ray surrounding her annual contentment challenges and how others combined their challenge with a debt challenge.

How We Did With Our Rules:

Eating out - we did SO GOOD up until the chaos of moving back to Kentucky really heightened. It’s just really hard to go through a big move without dining on the go… a lot.

Shopping - we did really, really well with this, only making a few clothing purchases that hadn’t previously been approved by us when writing the rules because of Sarah’s new job.

We were able to cut a lot of expenses on health related purchases by utilizing our HSA and FSA cards whenever possible.

Reflections

This really changed our thinking a lot. From our budgeting to just how creative we’ve become on cutting monthly expenses, to how we approached home-buying and just in general what we view as “affordable.”

Cutting the chains of debt (our paper chain strung about the apartment which served as a visual reminder) was a great motivator for us. Each chain link signified a dollar amount. At the end of each month we cut down the appropriate amount of links for our progress. We wrote a memory or something we were grateful for on each link and we plan to look back on them at the end of the year.

We made a strategic decision to cut our living expenses drastically as we waited to move into a house by renting an extremely “affordable” apartment. This meant cutting several amenities we had grown accustomed to, in order to save ourselves substantial amounts in the brief period between the SC apartment and a house in KY. Let’s just get real for a second: This was super uncomfortable for us. But it’s eye-opening. We are so excited and so much more appreciative of things like a dishwasher because of this experience. And our bank account appreciates it too.

I honestly don’t know how we would be able to approach the next season of life if it weren’t for this challenge and how it has prepared us financially to buy a home - but also our financial goals as a couple and our ability to communicate about our finances regularly, as a team.

We are reminded that our strength comes from the Lord, not our ability to stick to a challenge. We are reminded of the Lord’s provision. We are reminded to steward those blessings. We still have a long way to go, but six months was an excellent amount of time to see real change in our hearts and our minds.

Going Forward

While we had initially discussed back-to-back six month challenges at the beginning of the year, with a short break in between, we learned in June that God has other plans! We are expecting a baby boy in February 2022 and now have a long list of preparations to handle. While many things are necessary in getting our new house ready and our lives ready in general for an addition to the family, we decided to hold off on the second challenge. This isn’t, however, a green light for spending. We worked way too hard to undo everything we accomplished. While the rate at which we pay down debt for the time being will have to slow down, we are making purchases for baby Henry and our home without going further into debt.

Our monthly budget meetings and financial planning has gotten even more creative and we’re honestly excited to work together in new ways to create the life we dream of, in a way that glorifies God and means that we live beneath our means.

I can’t stress enough how much this has changed our mindset. We often talk about how, had we not done this challenge and continued spending like we were, how different this season of preparation for a baby and moving into a new home would look. We would be swiping the credit card like crazy. And yeah, we’d love to have a beautiful new dining room table, we’d love to go ahead and get a fence installed in the back yard, buy a new SUV, and have a custom fireplace built, among a gazillion other things. But it’s not worth the debt. It’ll come, in time. Or maybe it won’t. But it’s not necessary to live a fulfilled life.

Contentment Challenge Recap