Chris Espinosa, 29, and his wife Morgan, 28, from Oklahoma, paid off more than $123K in three years after setting a strict monthly budget of saving money and cutting back on luxuries.
The couple was going through some bad experiences and their marriage was in trouble, they had tensions in their marriage as they were always arguing over finances.
Chris Espinosa, 29, and his wife Morgan, 28, from Oklahoma owed over $88,000 (£67,000) in student loans, $29,000 (£22,000) in car debt, $5,200 (£4,000) on credit cards and $1,100 (£838) on wedding rings.
Chris and Morgan met at the University of Oklahoma in 2009 but were left with $88,000 debt at the end of their studies.
At the starting days of their relationship, they earned $28,000 (£21,335) collectively but couldn’t resist splurging on a brand new Toyota Prius, flashy iPhones, jewelry, and furniture in a bid to ‘keep up with the Joneses’.
Money woes were causing tensions, so they decided to set strict monthly budget and saved $2,000 a month, swapped to the cheaper car and sold belongings.
After three years of extreme budgeting, the savvy couple had wiped their $123,742.01 debt entirely – and are now celebrating being completely in the clear.
Through their hard work, they achieved their goal and they are debt free.
Chris said: ‘Every couple has a natural saver and a spender and I am definitely our spender.
‘I felt a need to keep up with the Joneses. In 2015, we just had to surrender to each other. The debt was becoming a weight on our chests.
‘We were fighting about our finances like cats and dogs. For my wife, in particular, it was really important that we start our lives together without owing anyone anything.
‘I had to surrender to that and start thinking about how we would achieve that.
‘We kept just $1,000 in our savings account for emergencies and threw everything at our debt, tackling our largest debt first.’