Last night my husband finished his degree. Now it’s all over but the ceremony. And when I say that I mean it—we won’t be bombarded with student loan bills.

We aren’t wealthy. Michael and I earn average incomes. So, how did we accomplish something that seems impossible?

It wasn’t easy and it started long before Michael found himself at the Christian university that touted a whopping $28,000 price tag for the last year and a half of his educational journey.

This story started nearly five years ago in the tiny apartment we shared when we first got married. One night as I was paying bills I realized we had more money going out than coming in. Our meager savings was going to take a hit again.

We didn’t live an extravagant lifestyle and we made decent incomes. So why we never had enough money was a mystery to us. But we were desperate to find out.

A friend told me about Crown Financial Ministries and in desperation I checked out their website, ordered some books and listened to their radio program. Within a few days it became obvious that we needed a spending plan.

The first few months were rough. Nobody enjoys cutting back. It was difficult to realize it was the small purchases like Starbucks and eating out that were draining our bank account. Those things were doing more damage than big purchases because there weren’t any big purchases. We literally saved thousands of dollars in the first year just by cutting back on small things.

At this time we also began putting Michael through the affordable junior college system. When he was younger he’d gone to a Bible college that allowed him the benefit of studying abroad in London, Scotland and Israel but left him with zero units to transfer in for a business degree. We knew that staring with the junior college system would give us the time we needed to save for tuition at the Christian university he wanted to transfer to.

As the time for Michael to transfer grew closer our cutbacks became steeper. I stopped getting my nails done. Michael worked longer hours. I picked up freelance writing work on topics that bored me to tears. We decided to skip a vacation. These were the hardest sacrifices to make. We were working harder than before and spending far less than what we made. I battled a sense of entitlement.

We make decent incomes and we work really hard, I thought to myself, we should be able to go out to a nice dinner or go on vacation. But each time we sat down and crunched the numbers we realized that living a cash only lifestyle wouldn’t allow us to do everything. We had to choose. 

I believe God provided for Michael’s tuition. But He didn’t do it in a way that had bundles of money falling from the sky. Instead, He forced us into a situation where we had to learn to steward money well. When we began accounting for every penny He gave us it was easy to see He provided enough. And sometimes He provided more than enough.

At the end of the summer we decided not to go on vacation, Michael won a six-day all expenses paid trip to Puerto Rico. So we got to relax with some fun in the sun. The magnitude of such a gift was not lost on our weary souls. That trip gave us the boost we needed to push through to the end of the journey.

I don’t tell you this story to brag. Instead, I tell it with the hope of inspiring you. There are people every day who make the choice to get out of debt and live a cash only lifestyle. The key to making such a life changing decision can be summed up by this old adage:

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

You have to start somewhere. So start with a spending plan.

The fact that we just put Michael through college without any debt is proof of one thing: living a cash only lifestyle is possible.

So what are you waiting for?