Repeat after me: My life is a journey to be enjoyed not endured.

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If you been around the personal finance blog block for a while you know that budgeting and cutting cable are the number one things suggested if you are working to achieve financial freedom or pay off debt. Well, I have a confession to make. I haven’t cut cable and I have no intention to do so.    And for good reason. My husband and I like watching TV. That’s it. My husband and both work deadline oriented jobs. Sometimes nothing compares to just coming home and relaxing on the couch as we watch one of our favorite shows together. It’s our guilty little pleasure. Sure, it may be a costly one, but it’s one that lets us unwind.

Of course, depending on who you ask some will tell us that our decision to keep cable is irresponsible. Or we’ll get constant reminders that TV isn’t a necessity and we can do so many other things with that money. And know what I say to that? I don’t care.

Let’s stop shaming people for keeping the non-necessities that bring joy in their lives. My debt payoff journey may be a difficult one, but I refuse to make life miserable in the process. So, yes my love of wine, sheet masks and pole dancing may be costly ones but it’s worth it. And it makes life just a little bit more enjoyable.

I know it’s hard to acknowledge when we follow so many debt free gurus, but we really need to stop counting other people’s money and telling people the only way to accomplish anything is through deprivation. We may never know the whole story of those who claim to be transparent about their money or have it all figured out. Sure you can offer advice and suggestions if it’s coming from a good place, but don’t assume and declare yourself better because you found success doing something else or eliminate a big ticket item from your budget.

So if you don’t want to cut the cord because its something you really enjoy, don’t feel bad about it and don’t give power to those who shame you for it. Instead, find alternative ways to slash your budget while holding onto the things you enjoy. (Or if you are on the fence about cutting cable, you can check out these reasons why it’s beneficial from Michelle at Making Sense of Cents.)

Just in case you are stuck on some alternative cost cutting measures, I came up with a few for you…

Save $200 a month without cutting cable

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Repeat after me: What I focus on becomes my future.

Remember when you made your new year resolution? You were pumped up and ready to dive in and make it happen. Chances are you would eat, sleep and breathe anything that had to do with your goal and would mention it to anyone who would listen. It felt like you were unstoppable and absolutely nothing was getting in the way of that goal.

Then things started to take a turn. You were no longer organized, going to bed without working on your goal, stopped talking about it and there were days when you don’t even give it a second thought.

The truth is, reaching your goals isn’t easy because it takes a lot of focus and a lot of discipline. Every single decision you make throughout the day can either bring you closer to your goals or take you further away from it. Don’t believe me? Here are a few examples of daily decisions that could make or break your goal depending on what it is.

• Should I go to sleep early or should I do an extra 30 crunches?
• Should I go to that bridal shower to see family or save the money to put it towards my travel fund?
• Should I indulge in my favorite fries just once or should I make sweet potato fries?
• Should I buy the pack of chicken that’s $9.85 or should I buy the one that’s $9.90?
• Should I go to that meetup or should I update my Linkedin profile?
• Should I fill up my gas tank or should I just put enough for half tank?

The list goes on and on and it can get rather exhausting. It’s not easy staying focused and disciplined 24/7, yet that’s exactly what’s necessary if you need to accomplish your goal. It’s extremely exhausting and not much fun. So it should come as no surprise why people quit or give up on their goals so often. It’s just not easy staying motivated, focused and disciplined all the time. Until now…

Yes, staying focused takes some effort, but once you figure out how to insert that reminder into your daily routine it gets much easier. Luckily, I’ve found several ways to do it. Here’s 10 Tips to Stay Motivated and Focused on your Goals all year long.

10 Tips to Stay Focused & Motivated on Your Goals All Year Long

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DIY pieces are atypical for this blog. But it’s not everyday you come up with a budget friendly, ornament, for the DIY challenged that happens to also help you with decluttering your home. So once I came across one that was easy for even the most common Pinterest fail culprit and takes less than 15 minutes to do, I knew I had to share. This DIY Dollar Tree Keepsake ornament is the ultimate hack in decorating for Christmas.

So as many of you know, I’m on a quest to live a debt free life which means getting control of my money and everything in my life. What you don’t know is that lately I’m into home organization and keepsake ornaments. Unfortunately, I haven’t exactly gotten the hang of either one of them until now. As much as I love those pretty keepsake ornaments from Lenox and Hallmark, they can get kind of pricey. And decluttering your home isn’t exactly easy when you have some kind of emotional attachment to everything. So I figured why not combine the two?

DIY Dollar Tree Keepsake Ornament

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Repeat after me: “My time is precious and I will do whatever I can to preserve it.”

How much free time do you have? Something tells me that most of you reading that probably retorted with a “What’s free time?” remark. Some probably can respond with, ” I squeeze in free time when I can”. And a lucky few may be able to say they have at least a solid hour of free time daily. Unfortunately, I’m not one of those lucky few but I’m working on it.

The truth is free time is what people usually have the least of and desperately want more of. Meanwhile, we are all caught up in saving more money. And if you follow any blogs about financial freedom, debt payoff, etc, you know what I’m talking about. They all give you lists upon lists about how to spend less money, save more money, or side hustle to make more money.

While it’s important to save as much money as possible for emergencies, travel, etc., it’s also important to remember that time is the most valuable thing we have. Our time is even more valuable than our money. We should be spending as much time as possible enjoying our lives. I mean, isn’t that why we’re all hustling to save up money, pay off debt and make more? So we can eventually stop wasting time worrying about money and having enough and spend more time doing what makes us fulfilled and happy. And dare I say, have more free time?

Now I’ll be honest; the things on this list aren’t necessarily inexpensive items. Some of them do cost a decent amount of money. However, when you consider how much free time you’ll have as a result, you’ll see that many of these suggestions are worth it.

So check it out and see how much free time you’ll have when implementing some of these suggestions into your life.

15 Simple Hacks to help you save time & reclaim your life

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Repeat after me: Friendship is a two way street, but being a good friend starts with me.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned there are several things grown folks never seem to have enough of. We never have enough sleep. There never seems to be enough money. And we never seem to have enough friends. While all of those things are important, only one of them makes life worth living and feel more whole. And while most people agree that this observation is true many of us ask ourselves silently how you make friends as an adult. And once we make those adult friends, we find ourselves asking how to keep friends as an adult.

In my opinion, it’s never difficult to find people to be friends with as an adult. People are everywhere. You can find potential friends at work, at the gym, the grocery store, etc. I actually found one of my closest friends at an eye check up. She went from checking my husband’s eyes, to shooting pool with us at the bar right after meeting at the appointment to becoming life long friends. See, potential friends are everywhere. The problem that adults run into is the follow through of keeping friends.

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Repeat after me: The money I need will be available to me once I choose to go after it. 

I love the debt free community! I love the inspiration they share about their own success and I love the tips they provide about money management. And I absolutely love that they are the people who “get it” when you are going against society to reach your financial goals.

However, there are a few things I dislike about the debt free community and personal finance bloggers. I don’t like that many paint extreme tactics such as never going to restaurants for a year as the only way to pay off debt quickly. I don’t like that they sometimes shame you for indulging in life’s simple luxuries now and then that help make life enjoyable. And I absolutely can’t stand that a majority of them constantly tell you places to cut back in your budget so you can pay off more debt. The reality is that many people really CANNOT cut back anymore than they already have. Hell, many are just trying to figure out how to pay their electric bill before it’s cut off and find the gas money to make it to work for the week. And thats after they’ve already cut out cable, fast food, and having a social life.

I think many bloggers in the debt free community sometimes forget that others need to focus on how to make more money instead of how to cut back. What they need are suggestions on how to make more money when they have very little time. And those that do, only seem to suggest the same things. I mean, how many times do you need to be told that uber, and Ibotta are great ways to make extra money? And I think we already know that blogging is a great side hustle, but it’s not for every one and it takes a lot of time before you see your first $100.

So I decided to take a different approach. I’ve decided it’s time to give you a list of ways to make side money whether you are trying to become debt free or make more money to go on a nice vacation. However, this list provides no gimmicks, no get rich quick schemes and no mention of signing up to sell Mary Kay, starting a blog or driving Uber. Just honest to goodness ways to make money when you have a tight schedule. Some of the suggestions on this list may not work for every one, and they may be no brainers. However, I truly hope it offers some constructive help for those struggling to find ways to make more money when you are short on time.

It’s possible to make money on the side that doesn’t involved selling Mary Kay, CBD Oil or starting a blog.

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Repeat after me: I own my things. My things do not own me.

While I’d like to think that simply thinking happy thoughts and speaking positively to myself is all that’s needed to take control of my life, it’s not. It takes action. One place I need to desperately take action? My home. I’ve come to the realization that being better with your money and paying of debt at warp speed means getting organized in all aspects of life – not just financially.

If my home is disorganized it’s no wonder my money is always all over the place. When I can’t find something, I end up wasting time and money buying it again. It’s a never ending cycle. First thing I need to do to rectify the issue is get organized. And that often means living with less, aka declutter and toss.

I don’t like to admit it but, my life is filled with junk. Junk that I don’t use. Yet, sometimes it’s still difficult to part with some things. Hence the reason, I’m not as organized as I’d like. It’s not always easy getting rid of baby toys if you think you’ll have another baby. And it’s not easy parting with a pair of shoes if you’re convinced they’ll come back in style.

Get rid of these 30 things without regret.

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If you haven’t accomplished your new year resolution this is for you. Today you have the power to change your health, finances and the environment and still be proud in a year!

If you’re thinking you’ve seen this post before, you’re right. I actually posted this story back in 2015. Since feeling deflated as you struggle to reach goals is a common feeling I figured it made sense to repost this baby. But this time, I’ve added even more simple ways to make yourself proud. Who said feeling proud and accomplished were limited to only 20 things? So read on and find out what simple things you can do to make a change in your life and be proud on even the busies schedule.

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While many people are awaiting the coming of the holiday season, others are excitedly wrapping up the end of their new year resolution challenges. The rest of you might be cringing as you realize that yet another year has come to a close and you still haven’t come close to accomplishing your goal. You are not alone. If you are one of the people in the latter thought camp, you’ve actually more company than you think. In fact,  only eight percent of people accomplish their resolutions according to Forbes magazine.

If you’re part of the 92 percent that didn’t accomplish the goal you set early this year you might just be wondering what you can do to turn things around for the following year. Of course, there’s probably one part of you that just wants to avoid the potential of disappointment completely by ditching the whole resolution idea. You can calm down because making yourself proud isn’t as difficult as you may think. There are several things you can do now that will make you feel proud and accomplished next year. The best part is most of them don’t cost much money, require little commitment and benefit yourself and those around you.

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Repeat after me: The future is mine.

You all know that I’m supposed to be done with doing all these lists. But this time it’s different. This one isn’t a list of over the top things that I’m pressuring myself to complete by a certain date.  Rather than making a list of lofty goals, I’m listing the things I’m most looking forward to experiencing during my 30th year of life. They’re the things that my personal nature tell me will most likely happen. They’re also the things I’ve decided to enjoy and savor as much as possible and be able to take something away from.

1. Watching my son grow and learn about the world
2. Hosting a wine related event
3. Moving into another place
4. Teaching Zumba overseas
5. Make my blog more profitable
6. Finding a group of local mommy friends
7. Celebrating my 6th anniversary with my husband
8. Growing my hair back
9. Building a stronger relationship with my family
10. Improving my writing skills
11. Taking a cooking class
12. Creating a new wardrobe fit for a 30 year old
13. Exploring more of the state
14. Taking more pictures
15. Getting more comfortable with talking about myself
16. Dancing more
17. Having an organized kitchen
18. Saving more
19. Investing more
20. Coming into my own
21. The new books I’ll read
22. The new people I’ll meet
23. Getting closer to financial freedom
24. More conversations with friends
25. The magic of summer
26. Learning about more wine varieties
27. helping more people
28. Learning new things
29. becoming a better driver
30. overcoming struggles

Repeat after me: I’m greater than my darkest moments.

“I can’t always be in control and that’s ok” It’s one of the things I’ve had to routinely tell myself to keep my peace of mind. Life happens and things don’t always go my way. Sometimes, it’s at the hands of the universe. And sometimes it’s because I screwed it up. Regardless of the outcome which I can’t control, I can control my reaction and overcome it.

Unfortunately, my reaction hasn’t always been that great; especially when I’m the one who screwed up. I’ve made so many mistakes over the years. And like most people, beat myself up about it for a while and then convinced myself that I’ll have life figured out soon. But i never do and the cycle continues. Of course, It took me nearly 30 years to realize  I will never have it all figured out. Not having all the answers. It’s what makes life interesting.

And as interesting as life may be, it  doesn’t make dealing with those mistakes any easier. However, i’ve learned that if I want to move forward, I need to stop looking at the past regretfully and dwelling on it. Instead, I must look back on it, forgive myself and acknowledge the lessons I’ve learned from them.

Forgiving yourself may not always be easy, but it’s necessary if you ever want to grow and move forward in life. In case you are having trouble, I’ve listed 30 of the common mistakes made and have trouble forgiving ourselves for. Read through them, remember the time and lessons, and use them to make better decisions. And of course, be proud as those mistakes made you the person you are now.

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