The big trade-off: Do you have what it takes to pay off your debt?

In five years, our personal finance expert and his wife paid off all their debts: some $280,000 all told. It wasn't easy. The family had to make very real and sometimes frustrating sacrifices, but the effort was completely worth it.

By Trent Hamm,?Guest blogger / July 22, 2012

As seen in this October 2011 file photo, Bernadette Llaga likes to visit her local Goodwill store in Quincy, Massachusetts several times a week and looks for bargains on used clothing and household items. Our personal finance expert and his wife made secondhand shopping part of their routine as they spent five very frugal years sacrificing various comforts in order to pay off all their debt.

Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor

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Over the course of about five years, Sarah and I managed to pay off two car loans, replace both of those cars, pay off several student loans, pay off seven credit cards, pay off three or four additional consumer loans, and buy a house and pay for it in its entirety. We?re debt free because of those moves.

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The Simple Dollar is a blog for those of us who need both cents and sense: people fighting debt and bad spending habits while building a financially secure future and still affording a latte or two. Our busy lives are crazy enough without having to compare five hundred mutual funds ? we just want simple ways to manage our finances and save a little money.

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Don?t get me wrong, we were aided by the fact that Sarah and I both had strong jobs and The Simple Dollar and my computer consulting work were both notable revenue streams for our family. However, you don?t pay off $280,000 or so in debt over five years without other serious changes in your life.

Along the way, we made a?lot?of sacrifices.

We made our own laundry detergent, our own window cleaner, our own bread, and countless other things.

We strived to make every meal at home, and strived to make as many of them under $10 as possible (with enough food to feed the five of us?with?leftovers).

We gave up many of our older forms of entertainment (like going to the movies and going to live baseball games) and sold off many of our collections, some in their entirety.

We strung up lines in our basement to hang up clothes so we could save the fifty cents or so it would cost to run the dryer.

We made most of our Christmas gifts from scratch.

We would spend long stretches ? more than a month at a time ? not engaging in any entertainment with additional cost. That meant no going out and no buying of new entertainment material.

A large portion of our wardrobes came from secondhand stores.

On top of that, Sarah and I both devoted a lot of our time to earning as much as we reasonably could. Together, we built up The Simple Dollar and the computer consulting work and Sarah was able to take advantage of a few additional professional opportunities as well. These choices ate up a?lot?of our remaining free time for?years.

These decisions (and many others) were not ones we?had?to make. They were decisions we?chose?to make.?We achieved our goal of debt freedom so quickly because we made a lot of sacrifices along the way.

Naturally, we could have rejected any of these things. If we had listened to the siren?s call of ?we deserve this? or ?oh, this treat is just a part of my morning routine? or ?it sounds like too much work? or ?I want it and I want it now? or countless other excuses to open up the wallet, we would have never achieved our goal this quickly.

Trust me, I know. I make similar excuses when it comes to working out and eating a healthy diet. There?s always a reason not to do it.

That means?I know firsthand how those excuses result in?not?achieving what you want and?not?making progress toward your goal.

If you want something in your life, you?re going to have to give up something else to get there.?You can?t have everything. It doesn?t work that way.

What are you going to give up to achieve what you want??It really comes down to how important financial freedom is in your life. For us, we finally came to the realization that it was paramount.

For others, it might be a high priority, but not the highest. For yet others, it might be pretty low on the priority scale (but, honestly, those folks aren?t reading The Simple Dollar).

The higher the priority you give it, the faster you will achieve it.?Keep that in mind every time you?re faced with a tough decision when it comes to your financial goals or other big goals you have in your life.

As for me? I think I?ll go jogging now.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on www.thesimpledollar.com.

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