We Paid Cash: A New Roof

A testimony from Abbygail

Seven years ago, when my husband and I bought our house, we knew we would need to replace the roof (it had 4 layers including the original cedar shakes from the 1870’s). We didn’t think too much of it, figuring when the time came, we would get a loan or use a credit card.

That was before we heard about Dave Ramsey and our financial world flipped upside down. In the last four years, we have paid off almost $60,000 in debt, paid cash for two older cars, become a single (small) income family, and had two beautiful daughters.

We knew we didn’t want to add anymore debt, so last December we set a goal of saving $10,000 for our new roof by the end of May.

Some of the money was from our tax return, and our church also gave us a portion; but the majority came by hard work and prayer. We really didn’t do much differently than we had been doing since we began our debt-free journey, we just refocused where we were putting our money (saving rather than applying it to the debt.) My husband worked as much over-time as he could, and picked up a few yard mowing jobs and other odd jobs once the weather warmed up.

When I became a stay-at-home mom two years ago, I began babysitting to help pay extra on our debt. So during those 6 months, all that income got put in a jar in our bedroom to serve as motivation. God has been so good at providing opportunities for us. We have been so blessed.

By May, we had the money saved and started getting quotes. We bought the materials ourselves (to take advantage of sale prices) and chose a contractor. They did excellent work and finished in a week. (We are usually DIYers, but this would have taken us months of doing it a weekend at a time.) After returning unused material and getting the final bill from the contractor, we were $2,000 under budget! God is so good!

We gave the contractors a little bonus, gave some back to our church, and went ahead and paid cash for four windows that we hadn’t yet replaced. We also took a mini-vacation for the first time since the start of our debt-free journey (our 4-year-old was SO excited to stay in a hotel/waterpark!)

It is truly amazing what can be accomplished when you are a little frugal and a lot faithful!

Abbygail is a stay-at-home turned work-at-home wife to Robb and mama of two beautiful girls Melea, 4, and Graciela, 1. She does in-home childcare where she not only gets to love on and tell about God to her own babies, but to several other children and families. She loves rural, simple living, walking through the grass barefoot, baking, and above all, serving God.

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