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The Racette family is on a cash-only diet for the next four years.

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Dale Racette, a truck driver, and his wife, a school bus driver, are trying to dig themselves out of a $45,000 hole.

It wasn’t any one thing. The day-to-day costs of raising two children just piled up over 14 years, Dale Racette said from Red Deer, Alta.

Two months ago, the Racettes sought the help of a credit counsellor to work out a debt repayment plan. The first step was to shred their six credit cards.

Racette says he’s optimistic his job at a distribution company is safe, but he’s lived through enough economic ups and downs in Alberta to know he can’t take anything for granted.