Week 1

 Welcome!

Things I am not: Fancy. Frugal. Financially Fit.

Things I want to be: Fancy. Frugal. Financially Fit.

I am a single mom with two kids, one dog, one cat, one small house, and $95,000 of debt. That's a lot. More than I've racked up in the past. Previously, my record high was around $68,000 and I whittled that down to $10,000 over the course of about three years. 

For a long time, I blamed my husband. We were both bad with money. Now we're divorced, and here I am, drowning in debt all alone. It's okay though - I don't mind doing this alone. 

Here are the biggest challenges I think I will face:

1) My kids and I enjoy doing expensive things. They are 10 and 7, and they love going to indoor playgrounds and putting together new Lego sets and getting treats from the coffee shops. Hell, I love getting treats from coffee shops. This probably comes from Unresolved Childhood Trauma (TM) of having frugal parents and some bitterness I still hold on to for missing out on a lot of childhood experiences because I wanted to do things (and we had the money), but my dad's retirement fund was more important. I'll need to come up with a lot of fun, free things for us to do AND still make room in the budget for some fun things that do cost money. 

2) I currently have a lot of unfinished projects that I'm itching to finish, but I need supplies or materials to finish them. I think I'll make a list of what I need to do and highlight the ones I can do without spending any more money. I also follow a lot of lifestyle blogs where the interiors are decorated so beautifully and I want that for my home. I think I can make a lot of headway by tidying up and purging a lot of my possessions. 

3) My dog and car are both getting to that age where they're going to get very expensive. My dog is fourteen years old and he's starting to fall apart a bit. My car is hitting around 80k miles, which is also the point where things will need to be replaced. I'll need to set up a nice savings account for planning for these expenses, which is hard to do when I'm trying to pay off debt.

Things currently in my favor:

1) I have found a system that works really well in keeping me conscious of how much money I am spending. Over the past two months, I've been using Erika Kullberg's budget spreadsheet to track my spending and set goals for the upcoming month. I'm not great at hitting my goals yet, but the important thing is that I DID BETTER THIS MONTH THAN LAST MONTH and it's December, which means lots of Christmas presents. If I can get better a little each month, I will get closer to a budget where I'm not in the red. To track my overall progress on my goal, I'm using the Get The Hell Out of Debt program. I already paid the $50 so I just have to finish the program, which I will do later in 2023.  

2) I've already started purging my home of items. This means selling a lot of things and making a little extra cash. I need to find more ways to make extra money - every little bit helps. I will go through my basement this coming month and find more things to sell on Facebook marketplace.

3) I have discovered the art of Manifesting Things in my life. Every night before I go to bed, I listen to a meditation about manifesting money. Does this really drop money into my lap the next day? No (unfortunately). But it does keep money at the front of my mind and helps me remember what is truly important. When making money is on my mind, I tend to prioritize the tasks that help me get money - like returning things at Amazon before the return window expires, or submitting rebate requests when I don't really feel like it. 

I am giving myself 3 years - I want to pay off all of my debt before I turn 41. It's going to be challenging. I am using Undebt It to measure my snowball payment method progress and forecast, and right now, I'm projected to pay off my debt in September of 2026, which is about 3 months after my 41st birthday. 

Starting debt: $95,889.69

Current debt: $94,542.15

Progress: $1,347.54