A western Wisconsin family overcomes a mountain of debt—more than $100,000 in just five years. It's a happy ending that's the result of a tremendous amount of hard work and some extreme sacrifices.

Between homeschooling twin 14 year olds and entertaining a 3 year old, Kandy and Russell Hildebrandt have their hands full. But watching them today, you might never know how bad things were just five years ago.

"Over 16 years, we got to a place where we were $106,000 in debt," says Russell Hildebrandt.

Some was from medical bills, the rest basic living expenses required by a growing family on a single income. And, as interest rates on their 11 credit cards continued to rise, it was getting harder and harder to make minimum payments.

"We made a commitment to do whatever we can to save money," Russell says.

For Russell that meant cleaning a local grocery store from midnight to 4 a.m. before heading from New Richmond to the Twin Cities and his job as a chemist. When gas hit $4 a gallon, he would sleep in his car to save the gas money.

At home, it meant the end of eating out and all name-brand products. It meant shopping at thrift stores and not giving birthday and Christmas presents except to the kids.

"That became a pride issue,” says Kandy Hildebrandt. We “had to humble ourselves and say we can't afford to give out gifts this year."

It wasn't easy and it was hard to see progress. But, as year three rolled around, some credit cards started to get paid off and the family could see the light at the end of the tunnel. This spring bought a new home.

"They say families find strength in adversity and that is true. We've come through it much stronger as a family and certainly closer," Kandy says.

The $8000 first time home-buyer tax credit helped the family become debt free eight months ahead of their five year plan. They also used a non-profit credit counseling organization to get started. Go to www.nfcc.org or call (866) 481-6322 for more information.

While they didn't really like talking about their money situation at first, they've gotten so much positive feedback from people in the same situation that it's gotten a lot easier to share their story.