Ok, this is where the rubber meets the road.
As we continue to educate ourselves on how to pay off our debt and start growing wealth, the money mistakes that caused us to get into debt in the first place are becoming more and more clear. This “clarity” has been tough to deal with as we’ve worked to battle guilt and wanting to smack ourselves for our mistakes 🙂 , but we are working to focus on the fact that we’re changing our situation now, and now is what matters, both for your financial situation and for ours. Read more
The other day I shared on Fruclassity about how debt payoff isn’t all about discipline. I shared some stories about my crazy perfectionist psyche and how it really messes with me as I work on controlling spending and budgeting properly. I shared that debt payoff doesn’t just involve discipline – that you have to learn to work with the messages in your head and with the mindsets you’ve adapted so that you can re-train yourself to think about money in a healthy way.
These same rules apply to losing weight as well, and last night I had an experience that reminded me that although discipline isn’t everything, it is vitally important that we do work to stay disciplined during debt payoff, weight loss goals or reach any other goal we might have set. Read more
There’s been some talk lately, both here and at other sites, about how to find that balance between treating your debt as an emergency and kicking it to the curb ASAP no holds barred, andpaying it off in a timely manner while still allowing yourself some “cheats” or fun money or whatever else you want to call it. Read more
Hey, Frugal Farmer friends! I wanted to share with ya’ll a little bit today about the income I make blogging and how I make money writing for blogs as well. Often times, when I tell people that I have a “career” as a blogger, they look at me with that look. You know: the “Yeah, I KNOW that’s a scam” look. As if I were part of a pyramid scheme in which a secret society finds some hidden, illegal route to making the big bucks and alienating family and friends in the process. 🙂 However, making money blogging and writing for blogs is a real and valid source of income for thousands and thousands of people. Read more
Greetings, Frugal Farmer friends! Today we share the story of my freelancing pal Bill. It will inspire, encourage and motivate you to make your life your own. Enjoy!
”Better safe than sorry” –that has been my mantra in the past. I thought, “It’s always better to hold on to something I’ve got for as long as I can, than to take chances and lose everything.” I grasped the old me tightly with both hands, instead of giving myself room to grow. I knew it wasn’t supposed to be that way, I was not being me at all, but I persevered. Until I became too unhappy to function properly. Read more
When a person is overwhelmed with a large amount of debt, the thought of continuing on with a debt payoff goal is, at times, nearly unfathomable. This, my friends, is called debt fatigue. Most people working toward a debt payoff goal or any other goal toward financial success have to deal with battling debt fatigue at some time or another, so if you’re in the throes of dealing with debt fatigue and are feeling like giving up on your goal of being debt free, don’t despair. It happens to the best of us. We’ve been on our journey toward debt freedom now for nearly 2.5 years. I can’t count the number of times that one or the other of us have wanted to give up. Last summer, after a particularly hard month, Read more
I’m honored again this year to be a part of The Heavy Purse’s Financial Literacy Awareness Carnival. For more information on this spectacular annual event, you can check out this link to The Heavy Purse. The subject for this year’s carnival is Getting Financially Real. Dave Ramsey refers to this as “facing the man (or woman) in the mirror. Getting financially real is often the most difficult part of a road to debt free, and often the reason so many people stay broke for so long. Personally, we had tried to get out of debt several times prior to our “real” attempt in January of 2013. Read more
I started my first job in banking in January of 1989. I was excited to go from being in retail sales (my former job as a cosmetologist lost its luster quickly and I went into retail sales) to having a “real job” as a bank teller. I moved up within a year, even though I was only 24, to the position of teller supervisor at the small local bank chain and was loving learning about money and lending. Read more
The first time I heard the term value based spending was while reading a post written by Shannon over at The Heavy Purse. Shannon has a heart for teaching financial literacy for the masses. It pains her to see people struggling with money when they don’t have to be, and as such, I grabbed onto her to be a mentor like super glue sticks to everything when we first started our journey to pay off debt.
All my life I’d bought things because they made me feel good. I mistakenly thought that “stuff” was the way to happiness, and I was determined to be “happy.”
I grew up a poor kid in a lower middle class section of the city. After my parents’ divorce, our financial situation went from “struggling” to “we’re screwed”. For a girl just entering middle school, this is NOT a good place to be.
Read the rest of this post over at Fruclassity.
It’s highly unlikely you’ll find anyone commenting that being in debt is fun.
For most of us, it’s seems like a never-ending uphill battle. We’re fighting for our lives. Our values. Our future.
It’s a huge challenge, especially when you’re facing six-figures of debt, and trying to balance paying for the necessities in life.
However, there are always lessons to be learned from difficult challenges, and debt is no different. Read more
