I've been visiting this site for some time now, and decided it was finally time to join in with my own story.

I'll start with the good news first. After years of having a very modest income and scrimping and saving every penny, my husband and I finally got ahead in our careers. Because of this we have no debt. We've paid off the mortgage, the cars, and the credit cards.

The bad news is... once we could stop worrying about money, that's exactly what we did...stopped worrying about money. For the last two years we've spent a huge amount of money on things we didn't need and we've accumulated a lot of junk. At the same time we've neglected to buy the things we actually did need (like new gutters). It's hard to admit I've become such a wasteful spender, because for most of my life that hasn't been the case.

I was watching "Till Debt do us Part" this weekend, and got the idea to make an inventory of our belongings and figure out what our actual needs are vs. our wants. I've already started with the kids rooms. That's an eye opener. A 7 year old does not need 8 baseball hats. Today I am taking 4 large bags to the Goodwill. There will be a lot more to come.

I plan on sharing my progress here. My goal is to streamline our home, our grocery shopping, and our day to day life. I also plan on tracking the money we save, and putting it towards something important (like college educations).