We started the year $214,000 in debt. We are on track to pay at least half of it off in just 12 months.

• Sammy and Zach Wedemeyer accumulated $214,000 in debt
• They decided to start documenting their journey to pay off the debt on social media.
• The couple has paid off over $75,000 of the debt so far this year.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sammy and Zach Wedemeyer. It has been edited for length and clarity.

We knew we were in debt. When we ran the numbers around New Year's, we realized our family was $214,000 in debt.

We decided to make some serious changes and use social media to both hold ourselves accountable and try to make a bit of extra income.

We set a goal to pay off $100,000 in debt in 2026. Through a combination of different things, we've already been able to pay off over $75,000. It hasn't been easy, but we know it will be worth it.

Our debt came from 'normal' places

Yes, we were definitely careless when it came to things like getting coffees out and grabbing fast food. But that was a small part of our debt. The bulk of it came from our truck and SUV, our Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) loan, and student loans.

It felt like we had been doing everything we'd been taught, like getting a car loan, a house loan, and taking out a loan for repairs. It's so normalized in today's culture to have a lot of loans. The debt just snowballs, though. You don't realize how much interest you're paying, and it just gets out of hand.

We didn't make any big mistakes. It wasn't a gambling problem or anything like that. It was just normal day-to-day living and things happening that could happen to anyone.

Selling our truck meant $41,000 off our debt

To start, we sold our truck. We actually tried dropping down to one vehicle a couple of years ago, but it only lasted about six months. And we weren't putting the savings from not having a car payment toward our debt.

But now that we've put our journey on social media, we have to do what we said we were going to do. Selling it cleared $41,000 of our debt immediately. We're also saving on monthly insurance and gas costs. It is very humbling to have to catch rides with friends, though.

Our life looks drastically different now

Little things have made a big difference. You don't realize how much it all adds up, spending $30 here and $40 there on random things. We've realized small decisions will continue to dig you into a hole, or they'll slowly bring you out.

Our grocery shopping habits have been completely overhauled. We used to spend $1,500 to $2,000 on groceries a month because we didn't plan and just kept buying. Now we're really strict about what we're buying, and have given up things like buying alcohol and Spindrift, too.

There's no eating out or getting coffees out unless we've been blessed with a gift card. We don't have the money to go do fun indoor activities with the kids. Being in the house all day, every day, is rough. It does feel like we're living a very mundane life right now and can feel like Groundhog Day.

Earning extra income is also a big goal of ours

It would take a long time to pay off our debt just by eliminating expenses, so we're also focused on earning extra income. Our family has been living on a single income, so social media has been an amazing way to open doors to many potential income streams.

Our main account, Sammy's account, is already monetized on Facebook, so we earn money from views. We're working to reach the monetization thresholds on other social platforms, too. We've also been able to collaborate with a hat company and a clothing company and are earning money on those drops. Sammy has an Amazon storefront. And we're now creating our own digital products to help our audience and exploring brand deals.

Social media has become a job, but in a beautiful way. We have to work for it, but it's been a great way to figure out how we can pay this off quicker.

We thought it was wild to set a goal of paying off $100,000 this year, but now we just want to see how much we can pay down. Through this process, we're learning how to live well below our means.