Marek and I met in middle school at the tender age of 13. We “dated” for about a year during the 8th grade and Marek told me at one point that he would make me his wife. After that year of dating we broke up over silly middle school drama and went our separate ways for the next few years.
We were friendly with each other throughout high school but both of us were dating other people during those times. We lost touch with each other for about two years and reconnected in our sophomore year of college. Over thanksgiving break we met up for a movie date in our hometown of Kansas City, Missouri and that was the beginning of our happily ever after. We dated for a year and a half in college.
On May 25, 2013 Marek planned the most romantic, intimate day for me at Kauffman Memorial Garden with some of our close friends and family where he proposed to me. July 25, 2014 he fulfilled the promise he made me in middle school and made me his wife.
In 2016 we decided to move to Jacksonville, Florida for me to pursue my career in teaching. I was teaching high school and Marek was working as a loss prevention supervisor for a retail store. During our short time as a married couple we have accomplished some pretty amazing goals together.
We have done things from traveling together to buying our first home together and many more, but our biggest accomplishment would have to be paying off $125,000 of debt in 24 months. In May of 2017 we received a settlement of about $9,000 which sparked our interest in Dave Ramsey and we began working his debt snowball plan. We created a budget and started throwing all of our extra income at our debt.
As we made progress with this plan we started to pick up several side jobs and at one point had a total of 6 jobs between the two of us. We worked this plan for 2 years and in April of 2019 we became completely debt free. It was during this process that we decided to “go tiny.”
We heard about the tiny house movement from HGTV. I spent a countless number of hours watching different home shows but the tiny home shows always peaked our interest the most. At the start of our debt free journey we would always talk about how our 1100 sq.ft. loft downtown Jacksonville would be our one splurge item. But after a few months into our journey we decided that we no longer wanted to spend $1200 renting an apartment that was not an asset for us.
We decided on a tiny home because we wanted to own property but also be able keep the flexibility that an apartment would grant us since we have not yet decided where we will settle. With the large amount of interest that the movement receives, we also wanted to have something that we will be able to rent out on a platform like Airbnb once we decide we no longer want to live in this house. Our home was the last debt account we paid off in April of 2019. That same month we moved to the Dallas, Texas area for Marek to pursue a promotion at his job.
In September of 2019 we decided to start a YouTube channel called “Living Tiny with the Bushes” to share our story of how we were able to become debt free in hopes that we would help motivate and encourage others to do the same. We also wanted to share our tiny home journey with others to let them know that tiny living can be for anyone regardless of their race or background. Our channel is focused on being informative but fun at the same time. We live our lives intentionally but make a point to laugh every step of the way.
If you would like to support us, you can follow our journey on YouTube at “Living Tiny with the Bushes” and FOLLOW us on Instagram.
Initially published in Issue 91 of Tiny House Magazine
