I’ve been giving some thought about how we should celebrate our freedom from debt. While we aren’t quite there yet, the end is within sight. Early on in our journey, I set my eyes on going to Tennessee to check out Dave Ramsey’s headquarters*. I didn’t want to go to do a debt-free scream, more so to feel the finality of this leg of our journey. Since we are what some would call Dave-ish, I couldn’t quite justify going live on-air to tell our story. That, and I’m a chicken when it comes to that kind of stuff! Seeing a live show would be plenty enough. Tennessee is also a beautiful state (we visited some 20+ years ago) so going would also serve as a welcome vacation.
Strange as it may sound, right now, I’m good with not going! Why? Mostly because I don’t want to spend the money! I feel like spending money to celebrate freedom from debt would be much like a dieter celebrating weight loss by eating a candy bar! So what other options do we have? I feel we should do something to celebrate! So far all I’ve come up with is:
- Use the $50 restaurant gift card I received last Christmas (and then re-gifted to Hubs for his birthday!) to commemorate our journey? We were going to use it for our anniversary, but the timing never worked out. We’ve saved it this long; another few months won’t hurt!
- Go together to make a snowball deposit to our savings account. We could do this in conjunction with finally using the restaurant gift card.
- Plan out our next step. As I mentioned earlier, we are Dave-ish in that we have still contributed to our retirement. We want to continue doing a mix during baby step 3, which would also include paying more on our mortgage. Since we are already doing some hefty thinking about this step, Hub’s probably wouldn’t see this as a way to celebrate. Lol
Pretty lame that I can’t come up with more ideas! So then, the question remains: When the time comes to celebrate our freedom from consumer debt, what should we do? I have yet to ask Hubs, but knowing him, he would tell me to come up with something!
Any of you who have done this or are contemplating your own celebration, what are some of your ideas?
* Dave Ramsey’s new headquarters. You can read about it HERE.
We went out to dinner since we hadn’t been out to eat in a long time. Nothing out of control though. I was to eager to fully fund our emergency fund.
I’m thinking that going out to eat will be our best option, too. I’m eager to keep moving forward!
Kudos on your achievemnt! Dinner sounds nice. I am thinking of a concert or a play or a show or just the movies.If you are both interested in sports like basketball. May be you could gp tp a game.
Sorry for the typos and incorrect garammar! I meant: Kudos on your achievement! Dinner sounds nice. I am thinking of a concert or a play or a show or just the movies. If you are both interested in sports like basketball, may be you could go to a game.
Grammar! My keyboard is acting up.
No worries. We aren’t quite there yet. Still have (as of two days from now), $3300 to go. A play or a concert might be fun. Around the holidays, a lot of schools are abuzz with these types of activities.
Hi Lucy! I do think you should do something to celebrate, and that it should be something that would be memorable to the two of you, not something like the run of the mill Olive Garden or Applebee’s restaurant experience if you decide to eat out. Go to somewhere special. The concert or sporting event idea is a good one also, if there is something you have not been to that sounds fun. Or maybe play tourist in your local area for a weekend, getting a hotel room for a night. We have done all of these at one time or another for celebrating something special.
Thanks for the suggestions, Chris. I hadn’t thought about playing tourist. There are several places within driving distance (we’d do a day trip) that we’ve been wanting to see. Hmm, if the weather holds out, this might also be a good option!
Hi Lucy – My vote is the dinner, and have the ‘dream’ meeting. Go wild on the dream discussion, make it fun! But I agree, just make sure it is a reasonable amount, but you have worked so hard.
Thanks for your vote, Rhitter. Whatever we do will be budget-friendly. We’ve worked too hard to blow it now!
I’d say have a nicer dinner out. You guys definitely deserve something special. Or maybe a weekend at a B&B and just sight see.
I’m thinking dinner for sure and maybe combine it with a day trip.
I say go on a trip and pay with CASH! The whole journey has been about paying off debt. Not about not spending money. You are not violating the principle if you pay with cash. Dave Ramsey actually tells people that it is ok to spend cash once debt is paid off and emergency fund is funded. You aren’t expected to stay in penny pinching mode for the rest of your life. Just make wise financial decisions from here on.
At some point, we likely will take a short trip. For right now, though, we really like the idea of having additional funds in the bank. We’ve had a couple of scares since starting our journey (unplanned surgery and a furnace replacement) so having a bigger emergency fund ASAP is very appealing.
Since we haven’t taken a vacation in a few years, I think we might take a weekend trip to Monterey and go to the aquarium. After that it is back on track to save for a new garage door, a new driveway, new flooring through the whole house, bathroom remodel, bedroom remodel, fixing the area around the pool…….all in addition to retirement savings and mortgage pay down…..I could go on 🙂
I’m with you, there. We have so much we want/need to do to our house too. But first, get this Visa paid off, build a bigger emergency fund and work on paying down the mortgage.