My family often gets asked about the sacrifices we made while paying off over $20,000 in credit card debt. Usually, I tell people about how we canceled vacations, stopped eating out, and found ways to lower our utility bills. We also had to get creative with our free time, finding activities that didn’t cost any money.
Many of our traditional hobbies had to be put on hold since our cash flow was tied up in debt repayment. This meant there wasn’t enough left to justify spending on these activities.
Since childhood, I’ve enjoyed playing sports and have encouraged my children to share this passion. Sports are great for staying active, learning hard work, and teamwork. However, they can be expensive with league fees and required equipment. When we started our strict budget, I knew I had to give up some of my favorite sports like golf and tennis. Instead, I turned to cheaper alternatives like disc golf and table tennis. Even my kids had to scale back their sports and activities, joining less competitive leagues at the YMCA and local parks to save money.
My wife has a talent for design and loves DIY home decor, but even that can require spending money. We decided that she would jot down her ideas in a journal and put her hobby on hold until our debt was paid off. We also concluded that it made no sense to collect anything during this period, so we sold everything from baseball cards to musical instruments to speed up our debt payoff.
A surprising side effect of cutting costs month after month was that we began to see frugality as a hobby. Finding a new grocery item on Amazon subscribe-and-save or shaving $10 off the cable bill became small victories that we celebrated. During lean times, these small wins became sources of pride.
I also looked for side hustles in my free time, focusing on ways to bring in extra income. This meant cutting back on TV and video games to spend evenings and weekends blogging, creating niche websites, filling out surveys, and finding other income opportunities. This “hobby” continued to be a big part of my life even after paying off our debt, as I enjoyed using my free time productively.
When we finished paying off our debt in spring 2013, we gradually started reintroducing our hobbies. We signed the boys up for Tae Kwon Do, my wife resumed her home decor projects, and we finally took that family vacation. This time, we were armed with a better understanding of finances and the knowledge that if we couldn’t pay for something, it wasn’t going to happen.
Paying off debt may require putting your hobbies on hold, but this makes it even more motivating to clear your debt quickly!
