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On Saturday Vonnie turned the big 4-0. Forty is the age where people question their place in life, reflect upon what they have or haven’t accomplished, and question their mortality.
In other words, their 40th birthday can leave a person feeling old.
I wanted to give my wife a day of fun that would make her feel special, and help ease her way into her fifth decade on planet earth.
The night before her birthday I told Vonnie that she better get some rest because she was in for a very busy day. She started to ask questions, but I told her she would get details only as needed.
After breakfast the next morning, I informed Vonnie we were off to find her a new outfit that she could wear on her special day. After about ninety minutes she walked out of a store wearing her new outfit and looking fabulous.
Driving home, I informed her that the next event on the agenda was lunch with the kids at a family favorite restaurant. While we ate I kept staring at her curiously. Finally she asked why I kept on looking at her, to which I responded that she looked wonderful, but her look would be complete if she had her hair colored and styled.
And that she had an appointment at her favorite salon right after lunch.
While she was at the salon, I ran around town at full speed picking up decorations, food, and beverages for her surprise party. It took longer than I expected, so when I burst into the house 45 minutes before Vonnie would return I enlisted my rock star kids to help me set up. It was a whirlwind, but we got the house decorated, the beverages ready to go, and the grill started for the food.
That evening, about 40 people celebrated Vonnie’s milestone birthday at our home. We had food off the grill, shared some drinks, and had a great time with friends for several hours. While we were socializing I told Vonnie there was one more stop to be made on her birthday adventure. About half of the people celebrating with us would be piling into mini-vans and heading to the local comedy club for a show. After the show, a small group of us returned back to our home and celebrated for a few more hours. We finally collapsed into bed around 2am.
You may be curious about the point of my story. My wife’s birthday was an expensive day, and this website is generally geared towards helping people save money or taking control of their finances. I’m telling you this story for a different reason. You see, in addition to being my wife’s milestone birthday, it was a milestone of a different kind as well.
It was a symbolic milestone of financial freedom.
Vonnie and I have been working hard for 4 years to reduce our debt and take control of our finances and have been doing especially well over the last few months. Having the funds saved to treat my wife to a special day knowing that it would not break our budget was a great feeling.
This is only the beginning.
Having successfully planned, saved for, and executed a very memorable and enjoyable day for my wife, I’m even more motivated than ever to keep our finances under control. In eight more months we will complete our debt management program, and we will have a significant increase in available funds each and every month. Instead of wasting hundreds of dollars each month on credit card interest we can do wonderful things with those funds such as save for our kids’ college education, our retirement, or even the occasional splurge on a special event.
My first bite of financial freedom tasted great – and I have to admit, I’m hooked.
Awesome! It’s great how events like these wet our appetites for life w/o debt and show us the possibilities of being financially prepped and free.
Exactly, Aaron – we’ve been so focused on completing the journey that we really haven’t done a lot of thinking or had any experiences as to what it will really mean for our lives. We knew it would reduce financial strain on our lives, but man I had no idea how nice it would be to be able to really enjoy an event and not worry so much about money! Thanks for your comment!
Woo hoo! Go you two + happy birthday again to Vonnie! I’ll admit, I’m in this boat now… enjoying that I have a bit of extra cash and letting it take me wherever I want to go. Ok, with in reason, of course. But it’s a nice feeling to not have debt knocking at my door. Only a few more months for you guys 🙂 great post!
I enjoy your posts in a whole new way now that you’re out of debt Cait….I read them and cannot wait to be where you are!
So close, you can literally taste it. 🙂
First of all, good for you, Travis, for making Vonnie’s birthday a super special one. Second, SO happy for you that you are almost to that day of freedom!!!!! Congrats on all of your hard work. 🙂
Thanks so much, Laurie – I can’t believe we’re down to just 8 months….it’s gonna fly by!
Being able to spend some money on occasion without that nagging uneasiness and guilt about it going on a credit card is a great feeling! Great job anticipating your wife’s big birthday, planning some great activities, and SAVING for it–that’s the way to do it.
Planning ahead and saving for her birthday is our largest success thus far – looking forward to putting many more “notches on the belt.” Thanks for the encouragement, Kurt!
WOOOHOO this is awesome!
I think a fist pump is in order, don’t you Michelle? Hells yeah!
That’s awesome Travis! Way to go on making the day so special for your wife. I am actually turning 40 in January and we have a trip planned for it. That said, that taste you got is awesome, especially knowing that you worked hard to save and make it happen. That is an awesome feeling with no guilt at all – which is the best!
Wow, John we’re almost the exact same age….I turn 40 in December! We were originally going to try to save up and go on a trip between xmas and New Years for both of our 40th bdays….but we have a trip planned for when we complete our DMP in the Feb/March timeframe so we want to sink all our savings from here till then for that very special trip. 🙂
What a great way to spend her day! I understand completely the financial side. We’re just about two months away from being debt free but both of our birthdays take place earlier in the year, so we worked extra hard to cash flow them. I slowly pulled out money from my personal cash budget to pay for my husband’s birthday gift and dinner (he’s an introvert). For my birthday (as an extrovert) I love having a big party with friends at our place. So to make financial space for it, we budgeted out the costs early in the month and then ate out of the pantry for the rest of our meals so we could have a big party with special food at the end! Totally worth it.
Congrats on being only two months away from being debt free, Jennifer!!! Sounds like you’ve been tasting that financial freedom a little bit too! Please come on back and let us know how you’re doing once you make that last payment…and please consider clicking on that “Debt Free?” tab above and telling your story – I’d love to feature it here on EOD!
Sounds like you did an awesome job! We can’t wait until Tori’s student loans are gone for the same reason. We don’t even have plans for the money yet, but it will be awesome once the loans are gone and we have even more cash flow!
Right on, Lance……it’s like looking forward to a guaranteed raise, right?
What a day! This is what financial freedom is all about – being able to spend money on the people you care about.
Exactly, Lisa….the money I spent was essentially on memories. Although the outfit would classify as “stuff,” what I was really going for was the feeling of specialness throughout the entire day. Having her look back on her bday with a smile is worth every penny!
Glad to hear that you got to experience the taste of debt freedom and that you are hooked. I got hooked pretty quickly after getting out of credit card debt and I have not looked back!
I’m hoping it has the same effect on us, Grayson – no more credit cards for us!
This is so awesome and inspiring! It’s reading this that helps push me forward with my goals and remind me exactly WHY I’m working towards financial freedom.
Thanks so much, Michelle G – comments like yours are the reason I keep writing – thanks so much for your kind words! Keep on working, you’ll get there!
Okay you know this, but you are an amazing husband! You just nailed it! I am sure Vonnie had the most amazing weekend of fun ever and thank you so much for sharing, I had fun just reading about it!
Oh sure, Suzanne, make me blush! 🙂 I was soooo worried that my planned activities would not go over as well as I’d hoped. I took a risk with the shopping, and to be honest with you it didn’t start off well. The first 30 minutes was filled with outfits in which she hated how she looked. But once we turned the corner all was well. Big risk, big reward!!! Thanks for reading, friend and I’m happy you liked the post!
Wow! What a great story. I’m sure she had a really special day. I can assure you that I would LOVE that! For me, being the nerd of the family, it makes me even happier that you saved up and paid cash for the gifts and party.
What a wonderful meaningful expression of how far you two have come in your financial journey. Just as a side note, I’d love to know the breakdown of all your expenses. That may be too personal or maybe your wife reads the blog, but seeing the nitty gritty details makes it even more real.
Ooooh, you want details? I guess I can spill the beans….
New Outfit : $206.20
Family Lunch: $ 50.88
Decorations: $103.10
Alcohol $101.67
Comedy Tickets: $ 28.00
Charcoal and wood for grilling $ 8.72
Food $121.00
1 drink each at comedy show $ 10.00
Total: $629.57
Couple of notes here:
A.) The outfit was a bit more expensive than I had thought, because she purchased a new bra with the outfit. I become a slobbering “YES” machine when we start talking intimates.
B.) I had a hell of a lot of alcohol left over – mainly because my guests decided to bring their own without telling me they were going to do so. Oh well….I’m sure I can find a way to put it to good use.
C.) Decorations are freaking expensive.
D.) You may notice that my wife’s trip to the salon isn’t on the list of expenses. One of my wife’s best friends actually owns the salon, and she called me asking if I would mind if she paid for the services she was having done (hair color and toes painted) as her present. What a generous friend!
I had saved up $650 for the activities, and with the generous present from our friend, I was able to come in just under that.
A huge happy birthday to Vonnie!! What a great hubby you are to remember to celebrate your wife, her presence in your life, and to celebrate the success of you two working together to create success, calm, and a metaphoric space to grow your dreams.
I have to admit, Michelle, that in the middle of her birthday party I did a toast to myself for the way the party was handled financially. This sort of success WILL become the norm as we continue to improve how well we work together as a team. The sky is now the limit for what we can accomplish – which IS truly something to celebrate. Thanks for stopping by Michelle!
Happy belated to your wife and you did a great job Travis! This is the reason we all work so hard and believe in savings and getting ahead. We want more (that girl from the AT&T commercial) of these types of day when you can spend a little money and not worry. But not in the not worry and waste it but knowing that you are doing and have done things the right way and they are paying off. Heres to a full plate of financial freedom in the future.
Exactly, Thomas – I LOVE the idea of a full plate of financial freedom! 🙂
”I become a slobbering “YES” machine when we start talking intimate” hahaha.
I am so happy for you guys. I CANNOT wait to experience this. We will have a small taste of it on our upcoming vacation. We’ve budgeted everything including fun and I can’t wait to enjoy it. First time, probably in our whole marriage I won’t be thinking about money the whole time. The money is sitting in our bank account waiting to be spent.
We’re all only a few mins away from reading your debt-free post!!!!!
Congrats on your upcoming vacation, Catherine! We (those of us struggling to get out of debt) work SO HARD every day to keep our finances above water AND pay down our debt….we deserve a little break to recharge those batteries, right?
I’m glad you liked my comment about being a Slobbering YES machine…..it’s totally true though – I’m just a 14 year old boy at heart. 🙂