Imagine being a newlywed couple, late 20s, completely debt-free, with money in the bank. Too far-fetched, right?

That’s not the case for Emily and Al, a young couple from Minnesota. Just over a year after getting married, they were able to pay off all their debt and completely take control of their money.

Here’s how it happened.

Within their first month of budgeting with EveryDollar, Scott and Joanna F. found an extra $400 to put toward their emergency fund. What they found in money, they lost in stress.

“When EveryDollar came out, we were really trying to finish up our emergency fund—and it just felt like it was taking so much longer than we wanted.” Joanna says. “I think the visual nature of EveryDollar is what really helped us, because we could see the numbers better.”

Little did they know, they were about to unlock a world of freedom with a better budget!

Keeping up with your budget can be a challenge when you’re a busy family. Just ask Jimmy C. and his wife, who live in South Carolina. With two boys and a hectic schedule, they struggled to keep up with their money. In fact, they’d gotten off track with their spending, too.

Then Jimmy found EveryDollar.

“I looked at a couple of other budget tracking apps, but I didn’t find anything like what I wanted. When it [EveryDollar] finally came out, I got it pretty quick,” Jimmy said.

And it was exactly what the couple needed to get back on track. With the app on their phones, they could keep up with their money in real time.

Before they started using EveryDollar, Rachel and Shawn G. didn’t really budget. They sort of planned what they were going to spend for the month, but they didn’t stick to it. And they definitely didn’t pay more than the minimum on their $26,000 worth of car debt.

All that changed when this Charleston, West Virginia, couple discovered the free budget app. For the first time, they began planning and tracking their spending together. And they soon realized how much money they were wasting each month.

They found enough “extra” cash to bump up their debt payment from $670 to $1,400 a month! That’s more than double their original payment! And after 14 months of hard work and smart spending, they are now completely debt-free (and heading to Disney World with cash in their pockets!).

Jessica I. from Seattle was able to trim $600 from her budget each month using EveryDollar—and it was all coming from groceries!

“We spent so much on groceries without even realizing it. So when we first started with EveryDollar, I plugged in what we had spent on everything the previous month to see how much we actually spent on groceries. We were spending $600 more than we do now! All because we got on a plan and became more intentional.”