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| this picture has nothing to do with debt, these are just some pretty flowers in my front yard that got no love on the gram |
I have been reading all of the money blogs and books and think pieces I can find. I once bought the Dave Ramsey money book
, but it's almost like it's a solution for people who are just starting out in the whole doing anything with money business. Cash only isn't a good option for me because I feel the opposite way most people feel about cash. If I have to swipe my card, I'm thinking about what I'm spending, but if I just have cash in my purse? It's free money! It's weird. I think part of it is *knowing* the interest rate on those credit cards.
, but it's almost like it's a solution for people who are just starting out in the whole doing anything with money business. Cash only isn't a good option for me because I feel the opposite way most people feel about cash. If I have to swipe my card, I'm thinking about what I'm spending, but if I just have cash in my purse? It's free money! It's weird. I think part of it is *knowing* the interest rate on those credit cards.
I'm not as worried about paying my student loans, house, or car off super early, because I have incredible interest rates on them. They're all simple interest under 5%. My main focus is the mountain of debt with the 25% compound interest. My current plans to tackle this particular goal are: obviously any money I can make from this blog, I'm studying to get my real estate license, and I recently applied for a bunch of a consolidation loan options, and finally found one I qualified for. That literally saved me $3,000 in interest, right off the bat and gives me an end date that I can literally mark on my calendar.
I also use a few cashback apps, Ebates, Honey, Dosh, and Ibotta. I absolutely recommend them all. I mean companies are going to track your spending habits no matter what you do, so you might as well get your cut of it. If you have any other suggestions, that I might not know about, pleeeeease hook yo' girl up. Obviously send me the link that gets you a bonus too. I always want whatever referral code helps us both out.
Now, I do want to get a little defensive here. In September of last year, the Wednesday before the Taylor Swift concert, to be exact, I was laid off from my job. Prior to that, I was essentially working two full time jobs, not using any credit cards, and paying them down. I had them so under control, I was super proud of myself. After I was laid off from my higher paying job, I started working full-full time for my dad's company again. It was a huge pay cut, almost $20,000 a year. There's room to grow and all of that stuff, but that was a huge shift, and some things had to be put on credit cards.
Anyways. I got my budget in order and have mostly everything under control now. It's just time to see if I can make some extra money on the side and eventually find out what it's like to be relatively debt free. I figured y'all might like to come along on this adventure with me. It won't be like the posts where it's all "See How We Saved $50,000 In One Year!" and then you find out that they make six digit incomes and have no outstanding debt whatsoever. It's going to be SUPER fun, right? Do you have any suggestions? Any hacks I might not know about yet?
I also use a few cashback apps, Ebates, Honey, Dosh, and Ibotta. I absolutely recommend them all. I mean companies are going to track your spending habits no matter what you do, so you might as well get your cut of it. If you have any other suggestions, that I might not know about, pleeeeease hook yo' girl up. Obviously send me the link that gets you a bonus too. I always want whatever referral code helps us both out.
Now, I do want to get a little defensive here. In September of last year, the Wednesday before the Taylor Swift concert, to be exact, I was laid off from my job. Prior to that, I was essentially working two full time jobs, not using any credit cards, and paying them down. I had them so under control, I was super proud of myself. After I was laid off from my higher paying job, I started working full-full time for my dad's company again. It was a huge pay cut, almost $20,000 a year. There's room to grow and all of that stuff, but that was a huge shift, and some things had to be put on credit cards.
Anyways. I got my budget in order and have mostly everything under control now. It's just time to see if I can make some extra money on the side and eventually find out what it's like to be relatively debt free. I figured y'all might like to come along on this adventure with me. It won't be like the posts where it's all "See How We Saved $50,000 In One Year!" and then you find out that they make six digit incomes and have no outstanding debt whatsoever. It's going to be SUPER fun, right? Do you have any suggestions? Any hacks I might not know about yet?
and how I have been defuzzing all of my Old Navy clothes to last so much longer. Also, I'd ask you if that makes me more of a grown up, since I'm excited about removing the fuzz from all of my cardigans. Just go ahead and check me into the retirement home.
and in the market for a new read. I did snag 
for Kindle when it came through on the "Kindle Daily Deals" email for $2.99 (ps, if you don't already subscribe to that one, I would definitely recommend it. It's not always stuff I want, but I've snagged a few of my "
: Okay. This was the 4th book in a series (The Celtic Blood Series) and holy cow did I devour those four books. I actually had to wait for this one to be published. The first book was recommended to me in Kindle Unlimited and I literally read the first three in maybe a week and a half. It's a different side of the story of Lady Macbeth. The first book gets off to a slow start, but once you really get into it, you won't be able to put it down. It's a lot of highland magic and I would definitely recommend this series to anyone who's a fan of Outlander or historical fiction in general. 
: This one was again recommended to me by my reading history with Kindle Unlimited (legit after I finished Highland Queen it was the first suggestion.) This one was a little bit hard to keep up with, there are several "main" characters and the narration changes to that person's point of view. I only finished this one because I kept reading expecting something to happen, and the book ended. That's what happened. This one might have been a little harder for me to follow because I was less familiar with Nordic mythology than I am with Celtic, or the whole multiple narrators thing. I wouldn't tell you not to read it, but I also wouldn't tell you oh my god you have to read this one.
: I flew through this one. I borrowed the entire series from one of my girlfriends in physical book form. I've been reading so many Kindle books that it was a bit of an adjustment for about five minutes. This story was great, following the main character and her boyfriend through all kinds of family drama, with an unexpected twist at the end. I cannot recommend this one enough. I didn't jump on the bandwagon with everyone else, and honestly I wish I had. I loved that the characters use their native languages for certain things and that there are footnotes explaining what they mean - I learned a lot of stuff from a fun, quick read. I'm trying to wait for the movie to come on one of my streaming apps, but might bite the bullet and rent it. I definitely recommend picking this one up (if, like me, you are waaaay behind on the bandwagon) 
before January ended too, but that will just have to be in the February books I read post. *Spoiler alert: I'll be reading Rich People Problems after that...* What did you read in January? Do you have something I should add to by "to be read" list (that somehow only seems to grow.)