I was working full time (and then some) in advertising sales and had racked up $40,000-$50,000 in debt from student loans, car loans and credit cards, not to mention my mortgage. But it didn’t really worry me at the time -- I thought it was just how life worked.

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Then I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

It was the last thing I was expecting. It never crossed my mind that I could get diagnosed with something like MS. In fact, when I was diagnosed, I was training for a bike ride to raise funds for MS research!

As I started learning more about the disease, it became clear to me that my excessive lifestyle -- spending too much, running around like crazy -- had contributed to my illness. So I started changing things. First my money, then my lifestyle.

Phase One: Money

First, I looked at our money situation. Our lifestyle simply wasn’t sustainable. I couldn’t figure out how my husband and I could both work full-time jobs and still live paycheck to paycheck. We had 401(k)s and were paying our expenses, but we also had a lot of debt.

Because we were working so much (my husband is a service director in the automotive industry), we had this mentality that we deserved to be rewarded. I was constantly spending on clothing and accessories; my husband and I would treat ourselves to dinners out and expensive vacations. Otherwise, why work so hard?

Sparked by my diagnosis, I made the decision to simplify my life, and paying down our debt was one of the first ways I did it. We stopped using credit cards and started saying no. Recently, we were invited on a European vacation with our family. In the past, we might have just charged it, but instead we stayed home.

We started chipping away at over $30,000 of student loans, car payments and credit card debt by paying off the smallest debt first, then used that momentum to keep paying the rest. My diagnosis means I do have significant medical costs, but we use a Health Savings Account to stay on top of that.

And our measures have paid off: As another benefit of living debt-free, I was able to leave my job in 2011 to concentrate on my writing, photography and business consulting.

Phase Two: Downsizing Our Possessions

Next, I started paring down my clothes. That effort was connected to my project of saving and paying down debt, since a lot of my money was going to clothing and accessories and gorgeous purses I thought I couldn’t live without.

I started Project 333 through my blog, which encourages participants to scale down their wardrobe to 33 items for three months at a time. I chose the threes because a) I live in a four-season state, so thought it made sense to plan three months at a time and b) I wanted to choose a number that was low enough to challenge me and blog readers, but not so low that it seemed too extreme.

With my own pursuit of Project 333 going so well for two years, I came across Dave Bruno’s 100 Thing Challenge, in which he challenged himself to pare down his possessions to only 100 things, to break free of American consumerism and prove that he could live with less.

I amended his rules to suit my own life (which he encourages) and decided to take part in the 100 Thing Challenge, myself. My version of the rules were:

As long as the total is 100, it’s okay to lose one thing and gain another–I can change my list any time.

If someone gives me a gift that I mean to keep, it must replace an existing item.

Underwear collectively counts as one item and so do another few groupings, like electronic chargers.

I would only reduce my personal items to 100 (clothing, makeup, accessories, gadgets), not household items.

I’ll continue to live within the parameters of Project 333, as I’ve been doing for two years.

If it’s too much, then I’ll modify it further or discontinue. Though after about four months, I still haven’t had to!

If you’re interested in which 100 things I chose to keep, you can see the complete list on my blog.

How Living With Less Changed My Family

People always ask how my family dealt with my paring down, and I answer that you don’t force your family to come on board -- they have to make that choice themselves.

My daughter is 17, and one of the best things that’s come from this is the open dialogue about money in our family. She will be heading off to college soon, and we’re being realistic about what we can and can’t afford, and what kind of grants and scholarships we might need. Student loans are a non-option (it took me almost two decades to pay off my student loans, and I don’t want that for her). With our new spending habits, my husband and I can put my daughter through school at a reasonably priced institution.

My daughter knows that I budget every two weeks, and if she wants or needs something within that time, she has to talk to me about fitting it into the budget. A lot is going to change for her as she becomes an adult, but hopefully we’ve instilled the lesson that you spend what you have, and no more. (Inspired? We have tips on setting up your own budget.)