I am just thrilled that I could make you laugh too because although I know that debt is a serious matter I cannot help laughing out loud every time I think that all it took to give me back my giddy, giggly sense of humour and sense of financial well being were Gail’s rules and a bunch of canning jars – that weren’t even filled with Home Brew.

Who would have thought it? I used to get all hot and bothered over a virgin credit card, a 50% off shoe sale, photos of Antonio Bandaras and the sweet nothings the Hubster would whispered in my ear as we were charging up yet another extravagant night out on the town. How times change. Now all the Hubster has to say is “Savings Account” or “Emergency Fund” and call me his “Cheap Little Tightwad” and I just go all weak at the knees. Especially when he says it with a Spanish accent.

Money is sexy - especially when you’ve got some at long, long last. Maybe it’s the feeling of being free and in control. Maybe it’s getting a little power mad! and - as Gail wrote - being able to tell anyone to go to Hell.

We (the Hubster and I) use nearly all the information and tips we have learned on the show and are doing well and even have a nest egg for the first time EVER. Even though we have watched for years we are still learning something new every week. I am so comfortable with trying new things now that I have even started to be venturesome on my own –fly little bird, fly.

All of our financial lives we lived from pay check to pay check, spent up to and way beyond our means and for some strange reason (da!) were stressed and unhappy and felt that no matter how hard we worked we were always running behind and could never get ahead.

That is until I discovered “Til Debt” and he had his mid-life crisis - left a great job and went back to school. Believe me it would have been a lot cheaper if he had just gotten the red sports car and the blonde but also believe me that although this was really stupidly unplanned it turned out to be the best budgeting education that no money could buy. Living on my self employed earnings and his student loans taught us the value of tracking every penny and planning ahead and the show showed us how. It was hard work, we were dirt poor, but have never been happier or more relaxed about money.

Getting a budget sorted and the jars (we actually used envelopes because we have a cat whose greatest joy is to smash things by pushing them off the counter) started takes work and lots of tweaking but is sooooooooooooooo worth it that once you get it done you will never look back.

By actually being present in our financial lives we did better (and are doing better) than we could ever have imagined. In fact – like the old Doublemint gum commercial said “Double the gum, double the fun” we were able to “double the jars, double the funds.”

The “spare jar” (made up from what was left over in the other jars) filled up after 6 months and we were going to put it into savings when we had our first idea. Create another set of jars so that we were always running a month ahead and would never have to play catch up again. You see even with careful budgeting we had a few close calls because of time issues – pay checks not coming in until the very last day before bills were due and a power outage that took the phones, computers and ATMs down – so the fear of bouncing checks was still always present.

This save ahead system worked so well that over the next year we deposited every dollar we could get (scrimped, sold stuff and rerouted tax refunds and overtime) into our checking account until we had a whole extra months worth of expenses just sitting there. Now at the beginning of each month all the money we need for that month is already sitting in the bank (and jars) so what we earn during the month is for next month. Makes budgeting even easier.

Both my best friend and our banker made the comment that having so much “extra” money in a checking account was silly because we were losing out on the interest it could be earning. My reply to my friend was that the peace of mind this afforded us was worth every penny in lost interest and my husband’s reply to our banker was that no amount of interest paid to us by his bank would equal the cost of a single NSF check or the monthly interest rate charged on our credit cards.

We think of it as budget insurance that buys us extra security and at the same time is just another form of savings.

Admin: I have 2 consolidation loans that we are sticking with, no missed payments. After using your budget, I found out that our debt repayment is 45% of our income. I will definitely check the past blogs for job ideas.