Debt Reduction and Real World

I sat in church on sunday and listened as the priest spoke about some old friends who are involved in a debt reduction contest. He spoke glowingly of how they able to reduce their debt by $92,000 by selling one of their houses and no longer eating out and only doing family recreation that was free. He enthused about how these people would have did well living in the time of Christ, because they understood the message of *living simply*.

But what I heard was a story of a family who was blessed with material wealth. Their *sacrifice* did not seem like a sacrifice to me, or an example of living simply.

What the priest apparently doesn't realize is that most people don't have an extra home they can sell to reduce their debt. They have one home, either with a mortgage or rental payments.
And as the economy has spiraled downward and jobs and salaries have done likewise, as the cost of living has climbed. Most middle americans and those below the middle mark already don't eat out. They don't take family vacations and they only do family activities that are free.

The lifestyle he was enthusing about is the reality of much of the real world.

I would have been much more impressed if his story had been about Mr. & Mrs. Average American who were now growing their own food, making their own clothes, cutting their own wood for heat and walking or riding a bike to work and/or school.

His example was simply of a family blessed materially who had fat that could be easily cut w/out any worries about how to pay for the medicine that the doctor prescribed for a sick child.

Don't get me wrong, some of the stories on the website are inspiring. However the one the priest held up as an example, to me, was not one.

The website he referred to is: http://www.totalmoneymakeover.com/challenge/vote/