These days Chris Groegler is feeling a bit more like a character on “SpongeBob” than someone who’s near the top of the yearly earnings ladder.

Go ahead, call him Mr. Krabs, he won’t mind. For those who don’t watch the popular cartoon series, Mr. Krabs is a little, uh, stingy with his money.

Groegler and his wife Mara say that since they started plucking those green bills from an envelope and paying cash for things like groceries and pizza, it doesn’t slip through their fingers so easily.

Paying cash is new for the couple; like most people, they had gotten used to debit and credit cards.

“We bought whatever we wanted when we wanted it,” Mara Groegler said. “‘No’ was not an option for us.”

The Cary couple are beginning to say “no” a lot more these days. That’s because, like many Americans, they want to get out of debt.

They are determined to teach their children, Caleb, 8, and Molly, 5, a better way of handling money.

They are so motivated that they have taken a course in personal finance and sought additional guidance from a local financial coach. They’ve begun to climb their way out of car loans and credit card payments.

The Groeglers’ debt-free resolutions began long before the new year started. About five years ago they began to realize that “buy now, pay later” is a futile cycle. They began to pay down their debt and close out some of their accounts; within a year and a half they went from 14 open accounts to seven or eight.

Then they got stuck.

“We know what to do, we just haven’t followed through fully,” Chris said. “It’s just the way we are as people. We need someone to say ‘Here’s a plan — stick with it.’”

That someone was Justin Lukasavige, a financial coach who helped the Groeglers set up a plan to become debt free, except for their mortgage, in two years.

Lukasavige says he teaches couples not how to scrimp and save to the point of depravation, but to form an entirely different mind-set about money.

It’s a mind-set that many Americans need to change if they want to take charge of their financial future, Lukasavige said.

“The society we live in is really a microwave society. We want what we want now. That’s how we get into debt very quickly,” Lukasavige said.

Now, think about trading in that microwave for a slow cooker.

Lukasavige says that getting out of debt — and staying there — is that same kind of trade-in. It’s done slowly, patiently, on a “crockpot basis. Develop a plan and slowly, over time, crawl out of [debt],” he said.

How they got there

The Groeglers didn’t get married until they were 30. By then, they had a combined debt — from school loans and credit cards — of more than $30,000.

He works in computer gaming; she works for their church. Their combined income is well above average for American families. The median household income in the U.S. in 2006 was $48,201 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Lukasavige said the median in this area is roughly $70,000.

The Groeglers’ kids came along, and in between the couple bought a ranch-style home in north Cary.

Like many dual-income families, the Groeglers ate quick meals out several times a month, planned mini beach vacations and didn’t realize how much things such as Friday night pizza added up.

“Our eating-out bills were just crazy — $300 a month on fast food,” Chris said.

But they did some things right. All along they had been saving for retirement through company 401K plans.

Climbing out

“Once you have a plan, even if you have run yourself near bankruptcy,” it’s possible to climb out, Lukasavige said.

The Groeglers weren’t exactly headed for bankruptcy court. In fact, when they took a 13-week personal finance course at their church last fall, they had already begun to change their attidude toward money. They were determined to pay off their remaining debt. “Our mind-set is, we don’t want to borrow money,” Mara said.

Lukasavige gave them some planning tools. The couple gathered all their financial information and he helped them create a spreadsheet of monthly income and expenses: his salary and hers versus expenses ranging from mortgage and car payments to summer day camp for their children, gift purchases and haircuts right down to $6.67 a month for their BJ’s membership. If they wanted to track their spending, they had to include everything.

The process was a real eye-opener: “Look at the grocery bills. That’s outrageous,” Chris said. Eight hundred a month. Lukasavige helped the Groeglers come up with a plan and a time frame: pay off their credit cards and cars within two years.

Once the couple puts enough away in an “emergency fund,” they’ll take the money they have left over each month and pay off their smallest debt. Then they’ll whittle away at their next smallest, and so on. As the debt is reduced, their discretionary income rises — enabling the couple to plan for those things they really want, such as being able to give more, save for their children’s education and even take a trip to Disney World.

They’re combining that “snowball” debt payment process with trimming spending on things like eating out, groceries and clothing. They plan to cut their spending on pizza by about two-thirds this month.

One step forward

The process may sound simple, but day by day, month by month, it’s hard work, Lukasavige said.

He encouraged the couple to pay cash for things like groceries and going to the movies.

Mara said she’s much more aware of her grocery spending after handing actual money to the cashier. She has even begun clipping coupons.

“It’s triple coupon day January 4!” she said, adding, “I have friends who can triple coupon like you can’t imagine.

“I personally think that with the envelope system,” placing cash in an envelope for spending, “we will do great with our money,” Mara said.

Two steps forward, one step back.

The Groeglers had an unexpected car repair bill right around the holidays that set them back just a bit — but not enough to discourage them.

If all goes as planned, a year from now they should have their credit cards paid off, plus one of their cars (we’ll be checking back with them).

By summer 2009 they’ll be debt free and headed to Disney World. And they won’t be putting the trip on a credit card. They will have saved for it the old-fashioned way, by setting the money aside in a savings account.