People often ask us about the sacrifices that my family had to make when we were paying off over $20,000 in credit card debt. I usually respond by telling them about how we cancelled vacations, stopped eating out, and figured out ways to slash our utility bills. We also found ourselves having to get creative to find ways to spend our free time that didn’t involve spending any money.
Even many of our traditional hobbies that we used to pour ourselves into in our free time were no longer an option for us. With so much of our cash flow tied up in your repayment efforts, there was just not enough left to justify these expenses.
For the Sport of It:
Ever since I was a kid, I have enjoyed playing sports, and I have tried to push this same passion onto my children. Sports are a fantastic way to keep yourself active and fit, and they can help teach you the value of hard work and help you learn to work well with others. However, many sports are also very expensive when you consider the league and tournament fees and the required equipment that has to be purchased.
I knew right away that I was going to have to give up some of my favorite sports when we started our austerity plan. I loved playing golf and tennis, but both of them are clearly sports for people with money. Instead, I had to choose cheaper alternatives like playing disc golf and table tennis! Even my kids were forced to dial it back a bit with their sports and activities. My wife and I made a promise to them long ago that we would make it work if they ever wanted to try any sport, but during our 14 months paying off debt– we steered them towards cheaper (but less competitive) leagues at the YMCA and the local county parks.
Designing our Future:
My wife has always had an eye for design, and DIY home decor has always been a passion of hers. However, even when trying to decorate a house frugally, it still involves spending a bit of money. My wife and I agreed at the start of her journey that she would simply start writing down all of her ideas in a journal and would put her hobby on hold until our debt was paid off.
We also agreed that it just didn’t make sense to “collect” anything when we were paying off debt. In fact we decided to the opposite, and ended up selling everything from baseball cards to musical instruments in an effort to reach our debt payoff goals more quickly.
Frugality As a Hobby:
One interesting side effect of spending month after month finding ways to shave money off of our bills, is that we started to view frugality itself as somewhat of a hobby. If I found another grocery item we could switch to Amazon subscribe-and-save or if we discovered another way to slash $10 off our cable bill, we both celebrated a bit. In lean times, found ourselves taking pride in the small victories.
Similarly, I found myself looking for side hustles in my free time, always trying to find new ways to bring in additional income for my family. This meant that I stopped watching television and playing video games, and instead spent my evenings and weekends blogging, creating niche web sites, filling out surveys, and looking for other income opportunities. This “hobby” of mine has actually continued to be a big part of my life even after paying off debt. I have just learned to enjoy spending my free time doing something that enhances my life.
The Payoff:
When we finished paying off our debt in the spring of 2013, we stopped putting our hobbies on hold so much and started to catch back up with them. We signed up the boys for Tae Kwon Do at a nearby dojo (which isn’t cheap), my wife started again working her magic to make my house stylish and beautiful, and we finally got to take that family vacation. Of course, we did it this time armed with a self-taught financial education, and the realization that if we didn’t have the money to pay for something– it wasn’t happening.
While it is true that paying off debt may involve putting your hobbies on hold, this ends up being an even bigger incentive to work on paying off debt more quickly!
Jefferson and his wife Michelle write for the finance blog “See Debt Run“, a site dedicated to helping families get and stay out of debt.
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That’s true. Sometimes we do need to adjust are hobbies to our finances. Just think of it as a sacrifice for the better, right Jeffereson?
Glad thing are balancing out a bit and you can get back to some of the things you love. I often hear people complaining about debt, but aren’t willing to make any sacrifices. That’s totally fine, but then don’t turn around and complain about your debt again. It may be no fun to give up some things, but being in debt is no fun either.
Well said, Tonya. You have to be willing to make some sacrifices in order to meet your goals, and we definitely wouldn’t have made it without making those changes.
My blogging, even though it earns me money and so is technically a business, I consider a hobby because I love it (even when it stresses me out). I’m grateful my other hobbies aren’t expensive- running, reading, cooking. In fact, they all probably save me money in the long run- no gym membership and fewer meals out.
Yeah Stefanie.. Blogging definitely became our biggest hobby (certainly the biggest time eater).. It probably still is.
I have been through this experience first hand. My partner and I are big fans of reading – not just books but also magazines. Over the course of a few years we found that we had subscribed to manner of publications – that we enjoyed receiving.
However when it came to getting serious about saving money it became clear that many of these subscriptions would have to stop. What followed was an interesting period analyzing our reading and figuring out which magazines we could drop without feeling too much “pain”. Surprisingly it was actually a lot easier (and less painful!) than I initially expected!
So much so that since paying off that debt we have kept our subscriptions to a minimum.
Since my wife and I started getting serious about getting out of debt, I’ve started shifting my attention away from “expense hobbies” (things like video games, which only come with expenses) to “revenue hobbies” that can generate a little bit of income — things like web design, poetry, or blogging. Most of those have few or no costs, and with a little work, they can actually bring in some additional income to help me increase that next student loan payment.
Love this, Jefferson. We too, have traded in our hobbies for free ones, and have also made frugality a hobby, and even the kids are having a great time at it. It really can work out to be not such a sacrifice if you get creative about it.
Great post, Jefferson! This just drives home how important it is to maintain frugal habits after reaching a financial milestone. It’s the only way to keep yourself out of debt in the long term.
I’m missing snowboarding this year and golfing. May still make it happen I just have to think about paying the least amount possible.
Completely agree with u Jefferson and I also pay respect to u for the sacrifices u have done for ur family.
In our younger ages when we were single and we dont have so much family responsbility,we have lot of our hobbies
Those days we spent money without bothering a bit.But after getting into a family, it should be our first priority to keep our family members happy and provide them a debt free life.
We can switch from our worthless hobbies to an earning one as you do
and it”s very important to aware the kids about the value of money from their childhood.
Congrats on your achievement…for some reason I have always been debt adverse…not sure why altho I did hear the word “”no” frequently when I was a kid…can remember in about 1985 when I had first apt., that I read an article that half of U.S. households owned a VCR and I really wanted one…I had a few thousand dollars in the bank but a new VCR was $400 so that was a big expense…so thought about it for a few months and then finally got one at xmas…glad I got it but I just had to be sure I had enough money for emergencies, car repairs, etc. before I could spend the money…seems like there is a trend for young people to be physically fit which is great…hopefully being financially fit is catching on as well.
Unfortunately my hobby is exceptionally expensive restoring vintage cars. There isn’t much profit in it either.
I’ve had to cut back my spending dramatically so that I can hit my $10m goal.
Now I’m just stretching my budget further by not rushing to get cars finished, instead doing more and more work myself that I would normally outsource.