When Your Vows Get Tested...

I cant get into all the details, but I'll share some. In any marriage there are ups and downs, and finances could be a big part of those ups and downs. When my husband and I first met I was already in a sticky situation and I truly feel like he was sent to save me. I was at a crossroads in my life, where things could of turned out really ugly for me. We dated and worked through certain issues, got married, and went on our honeymoon. All in all everything turned out well, right? Well, the week we got back from our honeymoon two things happened that led to our financial rollercoaster... My husbands home was being foreclosed on, and he got fired that same week. So just last week we were in our happy home and employed, fast forward to the next week we were facing things I never imagined would happen so soon!!! We were married for a week!! What happened! So not only were we facing normal married things like "why is this person around all time now" but now we were facing financial issues... My husband had to quickly remind me of those vows we just took a couple times lolol. The foreclosure moved fast and we had to move right away, not to long after (maybe 2 months) I lost my job too. We were slipping more and more into debt and to be completely honest I didnt have the best history with money.

Being in a situation like that when you have a little baby that depends on you could be so hard emotionally for both parties. Although I dont think my son ever felt the lack, as adults you feel like you should meet certain criteria. As a wife and mother, I wanted to do my best to work with what we had and start becoming more money savvy. Whatever it took to lighten the burden that we were facing. As i'm sitting here typing, theres one thing that rings true about this situation we faced, we had to learn to solely depend on God and lean on eachother in these hard times. There were moments, where our needs were covered and you just knew it was God being our provider. I started learning how to coupon (which I still do and it saves me tons), budget, set goals and prioritize. I cant emphasize enough on setting up a budget, regardless of what your situation is be it good or bad. A close friend of mine shared their excel budget sheet with me and it changed my life! Seeing where all my money was going on paper (or excel sheet) was life altering... I was spending money in areas I had no business spending money on and I was able to apply that money to certain debts. Luckily we are both employed now and have been tackling our old debt monster and trying to be smart with our money. Not every week is peachy, but we've learned to manage. In hindsight, I am thankful for those hard times because it taught me a lot about myself and my husband. It also taught me how to lean on God, manage my money, and value what I already have.... Needless to say, our first year of marriage was our biggest learning experience :)