A Childless Couponer in a World of Clipping Mothers

I feel very alone on the savings blogs sometimes. I am a married woman now, but we are childless, by choice and circumstance. We lived off very little for the year and a half after I left school, but now, we *could* spend more, if we wanted to. But with the Dear Husband job hunting and my debt monster roaming the house after I fall asleep, it's best to stay frugal.

It's all Popou's fault. Now, you have to understand, my grandfather, while not wealthy, lived well below his means. As a railroad employee, he had a pension and insurance. He got a second pension from Centro. He died, after ten years of battling Emphysema, with 60 grand in investments, another 30 grand in the bank, life insurance, a paid off house and car. He shopped at three different grocery stores to get the best bang for his buck and kept a stack of coupons about the thickness of a phone book. I did his shopping from age 9, I was the youngest person to ever ask for my own Wegman's card. Now, back home they double coupons. Here, they don't, so I don't do as well as he did, but his training served me well. Not only do my husband and I eat pretty damn well for two people eating off $50 a week, but I also got a 5 on an AP Geography test because I knew grapes came from Chile in the winter. He was a miserable bastard, but I miss him.

I'll be blogging about my couponing adventures in addition to personal finance.

Personal Finance

I find myself, at 25, with over $6000 dollars in personal debt, plus another $130,000 in student loans. My grandfather is probably rolling over in his grave. I also find myself in possession of a husband (unemployed at the moment) and my first 'real' job, the kind with a decent salary and benefits.

The personal debt is the worst, the result of six months of unemployment after I dropped out of grad school and three root canals. It is the monster under my bed. I've decided to kill it.

The monster is so big, I will have to slowly suffocate it.

Starting tomorrow and running until next summer, I will pay down the credit cards, each week, at payday, before the money can run away. I'll begin micromanaging my budget. When I've killed that beast, I'll go after it's friend, the Wells Fargo 8% student loan. That will be another two years. I've been 'trying' to pay this stuff down for a long time. But, as Yoda said, "There is no 'try." Jill Connor Brown, the Sweet Potato Queen, agreed with him. Change happens in an instant. Change happens at midnight, when my paycheck posts.

I will do it this time.