Idk, my BFF Dave?

So, it's no surprise to many people that I love Dave Ramsey.  I grew up listening to 1510 (yes, that's AM radio) WLAC in my Dad's car on the way to and from school.  I love the e-meals program he endorses (read about it here)   I knew we would have debt after we got married.  I was blessed to not have to take out student loans for my college education.  Jackson went to a technical school which is a lot of money right up front rather than $3k here, $1.5k there, etc.; so, he has student loans.  He is a diesel technician, which means he needs expensive tools to do his job. "Spend Money to Make Money" is the motto in regard to the tool debt.    We're in a hole, but hey, people start off much worse than we did!   That's where my BFF Dave comes in to save the day with his Seven Baby Steps.    Step 1: Build a $1,000 emergency fund Step 2: pay off debt using the debt snowball Step 3: 3-6 months of living expenses in an emergency fund   I only listed the three we are working on right now.  We're doing Step 2 and 3 simultaneously.  I was playing with the debt snowball the other day and figured out that we have three years until we are COMPLETELY debt free. May 2017. Frustrating and overwhelming? a tad. Exciting? VERY.   We decided to take this information and write out our four year plan:   Enjoy apartment living where we don't have to pay for expensive repairs (i.e. our broken faucet the first week we lived there, the rusted garbage disposal, the broken air unit, etc.) until debt is paid completely.    Live in our 1-bedroom apartment until our lease is up in October, then move to a 2-bedroom apartment in our same complex. This way we have room if babies become a thing before all debt is paid off; we won't have to scramble to find something with more than one bedroom.   Save everything we're paying toward debt for another 10 months after all debt is paid off for a down-payment on the house of our dreams.   Move and fill it with furniture and small humans.   Having a plan takes a HUGE weight off of my shoulders because I'm such a Type-A plan-it-all.  Yay for the future plans for the little hineys!   How did you manage newlywed debt if you had any?