I have been debt free my whole life and now that I am married my husband and I are completely debt free! The way we do it is that we are extremely careful on how we spend our money.

Most people probably think we are tight wads for it, but seriously we only go to the movies about once a year (unless we get gift certificates), we only eat out at a sit down restaurant about twice a year (unless we get gift certificates), we rarely ever eat at fast food restaurants, etc. We also never go on vacation unless we have a significant surplus of money that would pay for the whole vacation and if there is nothing else we would need that money for in the near future.

Now I know life happens and sometimes you need to buy a car if one breaks down and such, so in situations like that we buy used cars (not from car dealerships). The used car we would buy has to have great milage and be at price in which we could put down more than %50 of the cost. After purchasing a big ticket item like that (that is a necessity) we make it our goal to pay it off immediately within less than half a year.

Basically we only buy what we truly need. Maybe once a year we buy something like a camera or piece of jewelry that is a little pricey (not too pricey though). We also buy small Christmas gifts for family and friends, but we don't buy gifts for each other on those occasions. The only present I get is one for our anniversary, but my husband would rather me not by him anything. We don't buy gifts for Valentine's Day either.

We also don't have cable, only have one T.V. in the house, we use the lowest form of Netflix, we find the lowest provider for our cell phones and only get the free phones they offer, we don't have a land line, but we do have the internet. By doing these things we can keep our monthly bills down and that really helps.

The bottom line is to live within your means and don't buy things you don't need. Save most of what you have for a rainy day. Only put things on a credit card that you will pay off that month. If there is any big ticket item you had to buy on credit, make sure that is your top priority to pay off immediately. It is hard to get used to at first, but after a while it becomes second nature. Live a humble life and you will be debt free (until you buy a house and then that can take a long time to pay off).

I wish you all the best of luck! You can live debt free!