During the first week of August, Alan, E and I made a paper chain to help us countdown until we are debt free.
Each link represents $1,000 owed. With 99 links, it’s a long chain y’all!
Hopefully, it will be encouraging to watch it shrink slowly but surely over the next 2 years. Honestly, so far it’s been a bit of a downer to see such a long chain greeting you in the morning and sending you off to bed each night.
But, I am proud to say, we cut off one link. I am so glad to see that one link gone that I considered building a fire in August just to burn the damn thing.
Alan called the girls and me into the living room. We let E cut off the link. Alan and I jumped around dancing and hollaring. The kids joined in a bit, but they were primarily amused at us acting silly.
They are so little, but we want them to be a part of accomplishing our dream of being debt free. We want them to know this is a good thing and a big thing for our family.
Here’s to next month when a few more links will meet their fate…
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Hello, Old Blue 
That’s a great idea! Getting the whole family involved will definitely help.
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Thanks, Maria!
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I was just recently thinking about making a chart or something for the little ones to participate more in our debt free journey. I like your idea much better! Very cool!
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Oh yay! I’m glad you like it!
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I showed the kids this post and they went crazy for the idea! They are hard at work chopping up paper strips as I type! It’s bitter-sweet to watch their excitement knowing they are excited over representing our debt. I may never be able to make one of these chains at Christmas time again 🙂 I’m trying to decide, do we just do our debt without mortgage or include the mortgage? Or a separate one for the mortgage?
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Ours is debt without the mortgage. Lordy, I wish it included the mortgage…but it would be way to long to really be encouraging!! We are taking a family trip after we pay off our school loans. Then, we will start working on the house after retirement and college savings accounts are set up and in full force.
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And I’m so excited that your kids are excited!
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We decided to do one for the other debt and one for the mortgage (if we have enough construction paper!) Already I have to say, it has me wanting to tighten our budget as the chain keeps growing and growing and growing and…. This is a really great idea, thanks again!
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