In 2008, Ja\'Net Adams\' household income dropped from $90,000 to $25,000 when she was laid off from her job as a pharmaceutical rep.

In 2008, Ja’Net Adams’ household income dropped from $90,000 to $25,000 when she was laid off from her job as a pharmaceutical rep.

And that wasn’t the worst of it: They hadn’t looked at a student loan bill in years, and they were overspending on everything from cars to clothes to entertainment. After running the numbers, Ja’Net and her husband, John, realized — for the first time — that they were $48,000 in debt.

So Adams, who was 27 at the time and living in Kernsville, N.C., set out on a journey to financial freedom that required a complete life change and ultimately helped her achieve her dream career.

Here’s her story:

‘McCormick & Schmick’s for lunch’

Adams attended South Carolina State University on a tennis scholarship that paid for all her schooling and living expenses. So when she got an eight-month-long internship that paid her $3,000 a month, she treated it as spending money.

When the internship was over, she’d spent $14,000 and saved just $10,000.

“I spent money at Gap. I flew people to see me. I went to McCormick & Schmick’s for lunch,” Adams says. “And when I was lonely, I’d buy shoes.”

When she got married, her husband had $25,000 in student loan debt that they just ignored. They didn’t even open the bills.

And the reckless spending continued. Instead of fixing an old car, they got a loan for a brand new Chrysler 300, bringing their total debt to $48,000. They built a $230,000 house.

Though they weren’t relying on credit cards to live, they were spending money they should have been putting toward the debt they were ignoring, Adams said.

For instance, Adams and her husband ate out regularly. They also sent Adam’s mother to an island for vacation every year — just because.

And when it came to their son, born in October 2007, Adams spared no expense. When Black Friday rolled around just a month after their son was born, Adams hit Carter’s at the outlets.

“I spent $400 on clothes for him in one hour,” she said. “I was like, ‘This is my first son. Who cares?’ ”

Fewer minutes, cheaper meat and pawn shops

Once Adams and her husband committed to paying down their debt, they changed their lifestyle drastically. They started recording their transactions with pen and paper, but later learned to navigate Quicken so they could see their budget in real time, Adams said. (Now they use Legacy Bank’s free tracking system.)

Then came the push toward a leaner lifestyle.

They dropped the premium cable package and went to basic. They reduced their minutes and data on their phones. They told all their friends and family they were taking a break from gift-giving.

And Adams didn’t see the inside of a mall for two and a half years.

If they did buy secondhand clothing at thrift stores like Goodwill, the couple only looked at clothes that could be washed in a machine, Adams said. No more hefty dry cleaning bills.

They also avoided eating out for two and a half years. Even their grocery lists got a makeover.

“We got cheaper meats — chicken and pork-chops, instead of steak,” Adams said.

Next, they found new ways to make money. Adams walked around the house, noticing for the first time how excessive it was to have 5 TVs for two adults and a 1-year-old. So they took three of them, plus a stereo, to a pawn shop.

Then they hosted garage sales, one almost every Saturday in the summer, Adams said. They sold the microwave they’d gotten as a wedding present that stayed in the closet for three years untouched. They sold a blender, DVD player, CD player and children’s clothes.

Adams found a temp job as a pharmaceutical rep a few months after she was laid off, which also helped pay down debt. But she and her husband also decided to monetize their hobbies. Adams began giving tennis lessons for $25 an hour, while her husband, who played basketball in college, taught kids how to play for $25 each per hour, netting as much as $400 each session.

‘Running in the same direction’

One of the most difficult sacrifices was nixing their vacations for two and a half years, Adams said. But to boost their spirits, the couple made a “dream sheet” with their short-term, intermediate and long-term goals, ranging from opening a savings account for their son (short term) to going on a two-week trip to Europe (intermediate), and saving enough for their children to attend college debt free.

They laminated the list and stuck it to the fridge to be a daily reminder.

A critical component to making it work, though, was uniting as a couple. Before, Adams and her husband lived separate financial lives. They each had their own bank accounts and rarely talked finances.

These days, their accounts are combined, Adams says, and their priorities are the same.

“We’re running in the same direction together,” Adams said. “That makes it a lot easier to eat that one more bowl of spaghetti. It’s easier to go re-heel those shoes one more time, instead of buying new shoes.”

‘Debt Sucks’

Soon after Adams and her husband celebrated being debt free, she started her own business: Debt Sucks, which largely targets college students entering the workforce. Her story really resonates, she said, because many students today are saddled with tens of thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of dollars in student loan debt.

And if they aren’t budgeting, they could fall prey to the same spending habits she did, Adams said.

Now, she flies around the country to talk about how to beat back debt. And she’s written a new book, “Debt Sucks! A College Student’s Guide to Winning with Money So They Can Live Their Dreams,” which comes out this week.

Last summer, nearly three years after Adams and her husband paid off their debt, the family — their new daughter, Adams’ mother and mother-in-law in tow — traveled to a private island, engulfed by a rainforest, in Costa Rica.

Adams bought the vacation at a silent auction for 90 percent off the original price. (Instead of paying $1,300 per night, the group of six stayed the whole week for only $1,000.)

It was a liberating vacation, Adams said, because they were debt free and had saved for it. And it was the perfect example of her new mantra: Don’t pay full price for anything.

“The vacation isn’t coming back with us,” she said. “That’s what we worked two and a half years for.”

And now her lean living is catching on. Friends ask her to help them draw up a budget. She’s inundated with feedback from students who find her story resonates with them. Even their children are buying into the lifestyle.

Her daughter, now 2, has a piggy bank and when she sees loose change, she drops it in. And at a recent birthday party, her 6-year-old son was given a dollar. He said he’d be depositing it in his bank account.

“They said, ‘You aren’t going to spend it?'” Adams recalled.

“And he said, ‘No, it’s for my college fund.'”

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