Extreme couponing wasn't going to work with my 40+ hour work week. I just didn't have enough time to research, plan, and stack coupons. Instead, I found ways I could still use coupons to my advantage but would fit within my lifestyle and work week. This way I could still save money on groceries but didn't have to take up a second job doing market research for items I may not even need.

We had a negative 6-figure net worth. We owed $120,000 to various banks, couldn’t afford a home, and were constantly broke. Today we have a positive 6-figure net worth and are in a much better place with our money. The first step in turning our finances around was saving $1,000.

How was saving $1000 the beginning of our financial success, and why is getting into the habit of saving money important? Our goal with this blog is to answer those questions, and lay out some basic steps you can take to get yourself organized and in a place to start saving money, just like we did.

One of the most consistent, largest monthly expenses my husband and I have is food. Whether that be food we purchase at the grocery store or food we consume eating out. Food accounted for nearly 30% of our monthly expenses.

We took drastic steps to reduce our food budget, which went from $800 to $400 per month. Here is what we learned to help us cut our grocery bill in half.

We went from living paycheck to paycheck and having very little financial sense, to paying off an average of $40k/year and being 100% debt free in less than 3 years.

If you’re wondering how we did it and how you can become debt free yourself, the fastest way possible, keep reading because we’ll be outlining step by step what we did and how you can do it too.

Regardless of what the economy is doing, being in a financial mess is never an easy situation to endure. Having bills and expenses pile up can be daunting and makes maintaining a clear mind almost impossible. No one is 100% rational under huge amounts of stress. However, that situation can be easily fixed in one simple step. Budgeting.

What steps can be taken to significantly increase one's income? That's the question on everyone's mind, and not surprisingly so - the more money you can earn and keep, the more flexibility you have with your choices and the easier many of life's aspects become.

My husband and I were no different, and unless we wanted to live a stressful paycheck-to-paycheck type of lifestyle for the majority of our lives, we needed to increase our income FAST. Our income went from $40,000 a year to $140,000, but it wasn't a microwave fix. So what changed? How did we increase our income by six figures?

To what lengths would you go to become financially free? The answer for us? Living on $27,000/year for four years, cutting out everything we didn't need in our lives, and becoming laser focused on getting out of debt.

At first, it was hard to breathe or think about the future when facing $120,000 in debt (student loans, car debt, and one credit card). I still vividly remember my husband saying, "We can do this." He had laid everything out on paper, all the numbers neatly in charts to show us we could be debt free in 2.5 to 3 years.