Late last year, as part of our resolution to get our finances under control, I joined the Women in Red message boards over at msn.com. The (mostly) women on these boards provide moral support, good advice, and help hold me accountable to our financial goals.

I am an active member on two boards, the West Region Racers, which is all about paying down debt, and the Controlled/No Spend board, which is about sticking to your budget and finding those little leaks in your spending. Both are helping me to stay focused on long term goals and allow the occasional rant.

I like talking about money and finances. It’s an area that interests me greatly, and it bugs me that as families, that we don’t talk about money more. I get that parents don’t want kids to worry about where the next meal is coming from, but once they are older, how are they supposed to understand balancing a checkbook, budgeting, credit cards, if their parents never teach them?

I never want to seem like I am bragging or whining when talking about our financial situation. I just want to learn for other people, and maybe help them learn something, too.

My husband was laid off a year ago. Today, we are better off financially than we were then. This is not a story of a get rich quick scheme, taking internet surveys, or doing direct sales. The only income he has had is unemployment.

How did we do it? We put ourselves on a budget. We powered through credit card debt, then the car payment (which was our biggest non-mortgage mortgage bill) to pay it off. I got my first raise in two years (despite earning an MBA in the interim), and now we can live on my salary alone.