Speaker 1: Episode two twelve is episode paying off a hundred and
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars of debt in thirty five months with
Speaker 1: Kate from Living That Debt Free Life. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity,
Speaker 1: and live with your life. Here your host Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmmmm. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name
Speaker 1: is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are
Speaker 1: re airing one of your favorite debt payoff stories, our
Speaker 1: friend from the Instagram handle Living that Debt Free Life.
Speaker 1: We love these debt free stories, debt payoff stories, and
Speaker 1: anything that's going to keep inspiring us to pay down
Speaker 1: whatever kind of debt it is that we have. So
Speaker 1: we're coming at you again with another one because we
Speaker 1: still think it's important and relevant. Another one, but for
Speaker 1: another one, but first our sponse jomps us I Heart
Speaker 1: Podcast Network. You may notice something a little different about
Speaker 1: the show. That's because we're over the moon excited to
Speaker 1: announce that we have joined the I Heart Podcast Network.
Speaker 1: What does that mean, Well, it does take a huge
Speaker 1: load of off of us because my Heart is taking
Speaker 1: care of all of our advertising. So we still have
Speaker 1: final say in our advertisers. You'll never hear a rando
Speaker 1: ad that we wouldn't read ourselves, but you will hear
Speaker 1: more ads. This will allow us to focus more on
Speaker 1: the show and bring you, guys more free and low
Speaker 1: cost resources that we know you love and we love
Speaker 1: bringing to you. So we hope that you're as excited
Speaker 1: as we are about the smoove and just know the
Speaker 1: impact that this has for Jen and I and our families.
Speaker 1: We're just we're just thrilled about it and what what
Speaker 1: this means for our time, energy and capacity. Again, we
Speaker 1: know what means more ads, but it also means that
Speaker 1: we have more that we can give to you all
Speaker 1: because it frees up time, energy and capacity for us.
Speaker 1: So I know that ultimately we hope to bring you
Speaker 1: even more great and amazing things because of this move. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: we are proud and excited because nothing else is going
Speaker 1: to change from the show. We will bring it to
Speaker 1: you on the same day every week, bill of the week,
Speaker 1: every week, even our fake sponsors will remain the same,
Speaker 1: and nothing else will change except for we actually can
Speaker 1: do more of the podcast. So yeah, we are very
Speaker 1: very excited, and we thank you for your support. We've
Speaker 1: shared this privately with some of are with our members
Speaker 1: and then some of our other listeners, and everyone's just
Speaker 1: been so supportive and like gracious. UM. And so we
Speaker 1: have the best listeners in the world, and we just
Speaker 1: we love you guys so much. We thank you, um
Speaker 1: and we're excited for what this move means for us.
Speaker 1: So uh yeah, so thank you. And uh if you
Speaker 1: love debt free stories as much as we do, which
Speaker 1: we know that you do, here are a few other
Speaker 1: episodes that you can queue up to listen to after
Speaker 1: this Episode one eight, we actually share three of our
Speaker 1: listeners debt payoff stories. This is when you should definitely
Speaker 1: hear because you are very used to hearing polished debt
Speaker 1: payoff stories from people who have told their story a lot.
Speaker 1: But like these are people like you, just our listeners
Speaker 1: that don't have like businesses or blogs or YouTube channels
Speaker 1: like behind their debt payoff Like these are our frugal
Speaker 1: friends listeners. And so episode for Sure Episode one seventy
Speaker 1: nine paying off thirty three dollars of debt with el
Speaker 1: Martinez that her and her husband lived on one of
Speaker 1: their incomes to pay off their debt. And then episode
Speaker 1: one seventy one. Should you focus on paying down debt
Speaker 1: right now? So one seventy one real good ones to
Speaker 1: key up after this excellence. Let's get back into it, y'all.
Speaker 1: We are sitting here with Kate from that debt free life.
Speaker 1: How are you, Kate? I am so good. How are
Speaker 1: you guys doing? Wow? Thanks for asking. Good. Happy Valentine's
Speaker 1: Day as we're recording this for Valentine's Day. Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to be here with you girls. So
Speaker 1: much love today, so much love, and I love that
Speaker 1: we're having you on. I'm very, very in love with that.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. Nice. We're
Speaker 1: excited to talk about your story Kate and hear your
Speaker 1: perspective and your journey with paying down debt. And we
Speaker 1: want to hear to kick us off. We know that
Speaker 1: your debt was all student loans. It wasn't from overspending
Speaker 1: or financial crisis. Not to say that there's something better
Speaker 1: or worse about that at just as your story is
Speaker 1: student loan debt, what was the breaking point for you
Speaker 1: to commit to paying off your debt? So a lot
Speaker 1: of people, you know, reach that kind of I've had
Speaker 1: a moment that I'm sick, entired, moment that like propels
Speaker 1: them to take action. I kind of had more of
Speaker 1: an epiphany moment. So I had a hundred and five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars of student loan debt, which was all undergrad
Speaker 1: and law school loans, everything combined. And I was happily
Speaker 1: just paying the minimums living my if, not thinking about
Speaker 1: getting out of debt until we suffered some job layoffs
Speaker 1: and some things that kind of just made me open
Speaker 1: my eyes. And even after we recovered from the job loss,
Speaker 1: I still did not get myself in gear. Happened was
Speaker 1: we bought a new house in the middle of debt,
Speaker 1: right and in the middle of buying that new house,
Speaker 1: I thought, oh, well, we've got to redecorate it and
Speaker 1: you know, make it, you know, all the things that
Speaker 1: you typically do when you get a new house and
Speaker 1: not be financially smart. But one of the things that
Speaker 1: we did was we hired a contractor to repaint our
Speaker 1: kitchen cabinets and that took three thousand dollars to do
Speaker 1: and I took three thousand dollars out of my savings
Speaker 1: to do that. And then after I did it, I
Speaker 1: panicked and I was like, I've got to put this
Speaker 1: money back in quickly. And so then I got intentional
Speaker 1: about putting the money back into savings. And when I
Speaker 1: did that, I realized I started paying attention to my money,
Speaker 1: and I thought, oh, my gosh, what have I been
Speaker 1: doing with my money all this time? Like I need
Speaker 1: to get serious about paying off the student loan debt.
Speaker 1: And then about that same time where I kind of
Speaker 1: started realizing, Hey, maybe you want to pay attention to
Speaker 1: your income a little bit more. Things at work, we're
Speaker 1: getting really stressful, and I mean I was kind of
Speaker 1: on the verge of a complete mental breakdown. There were
Speaker 1: days where like it was just all I could do
Speaker 1: to get up and shower and like force myself to
Speaker 1: drive to the office and deal with the office stress.
Speaker 1: And so I knew that I would never be able
Speaker 1: to leave my job as a practicing attorney with all
Speaker 1: of this debt, with this mountain of six figure student
Speaker 1: loan debt. So I kind of had this combination of
Speaker 1: realization that I wasn't I wasn't using my money correctly,
Speaker 1: it wasn't paying attention to my income, coupled with the
Speaker 1: fact that I wanted to be able to leave the
Speaker 1: practice of law and do something else, which I knew
Speaker 1: I would never make happen, you know, if I kept
Speaker 1: on the path that I was going. All from painting
Speaker 1: your cabinets, love many other purchases in there you purchased
Speaker 1: at home, you did decorate and it was kind of
Speaker 1: painting of the cabinets. You know why. It's because I
Speaker 1: had to take money out of savings to do the cabinets,
Speaker 1: which is so ridiculous, Like that's an emergency to paint
Speaker 1: your cabinets, right, So do you like the cabinets or
Speaker 1: do they represent they are? The funny thing is, before
Speaker 1: we did it, like I didn't realize how much I
Speaker 1: talked about painting the cabinets, And when we finally did it,
Speaker 1: you know, my family was like, you know, you talked
Speaker 1: about that like every week. I didn't. So obviously I
Speaker 1: loved it, obviously, you know, it was a good expenditure,
Speaker 1: and I look at the kitchen and I love it.
Speaker 1: But it was a call wake up call. So wow,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh. So how do you feel about practicing
Speaker 1: law now that you're debt free? Is it different? Are
Speaker 1: you still kind of feel the same way about it?
Speaker 1: So it's a really good question. Um, of course, it's
Speaker 1: still stressful. That you know, doesn't change whether I'm debt
Speaker 1: free or not. But what really does change because I'm
Speaker 1: still practicing. I have not left the practice of law,
Speaker 1: which is something people always ask me about. You know,
Speaker 1: are you are you actually going to leave now? And
Speaker 1: the thing that I've learned after becoming debt free is
Speaker 1: that now I'm going to work as an attorney because
Speaker 1: I'm choosing to, not because I have to because I
Speaker 1: have no other choice because I have debt to pay off.
Speaker 1: When you're doing something that you're choosing versus doing something
Speaker 1: that you're forced into doing because you've made poor financial
Speaker 1: decisions in the past, it's a it's a total game changer. So, yes,
Speaker 1: there is still stress. Maybe one day I might leave
Speaker 1: the practice of law, but I've learned to look at
Speaker 1: it totally different because now it's um something that I'm
Speaker 1: choosing to stay in, and now all of that salary
Speaker 1: that I earned I get to keep for me and
Speaker 1: for my future and for investing in doing what I
Speaker 1: want to do. So I've been suffering through the law
Speaker 1: right for all these years for my creditors, but now
Speaker 1: it's like I want to keep that money for me,
Speaker 1: you know. Like, so now the moment that I finally
Speaker 1: get to keep my money for myself is not the
Speaker 1: moment that I want to leave yet. You know, the
Speaker 1: keyword is choosing you to choose, and that that can
Speaker 1: make all the difference. When you suddenly feel a freedom,
Speaker 1: then things may not seem as daunting or as overwhelming.
Speaker 1: It seems more manageable because you can leave at any moment.
Speaker 1: But I also like that that's your mindset, that it's
Speaker 1: not as if great, I accomplish this goal. All right,
Speaker 1: now I'm just gonna go relax on the couch. It's well,
Speaker 1: now I see the momentum and what this could do
Speaker 1: for other aspects of my life, and this is something
Speaker 1: I can choose to do. I have the freedom to
Speaker 1: do that. Yeah. And one of the things that I
Speaker 1: learned from finally paying off the debt and becoming debt
Speaker 1: free that becoming debt free is really kind of the
Speaker 1: beginning of my journey, you know, My whole it to
Speaker 1: pay off this debt. And for all those three years,
Speaker 1: my mindset was like, Okay, that's the end goal in game,
Speaker 1: pay off the debt. That's the end and once I
Speaker 1: got there, I realized there is so much more financially speaking,
Speaker 1: that I want to accomplish that the free will allow.
Speaker 1: And so really paying off the debt and becoming debt
Speaker 1: free is kind of just the the beginning of my
Speaker 1: financial journey. Yeah, people don't understand that when they are
Speaker 1: paying off their debt because it seems like such a
Speaker 1: big task. They're just looking towards the end of the
Speaker 1: debt payath and they're not thinking beyond. But yeah, that's
Speaker 1: so true that because we didn't realize it either, But
Speaker 1: when we paid off our debt was really the like
Speaker 1: point zero of our financial journey. It's when we were
Speaker 1: able to start making decisions for ourselves about what we
Speaker 1: were going to do with our money, because before the
Speaker 1: decisions were made for us. And yeah, it's such an
Speaker 1: exciting time. You're in such an exciting time right now,
Speaker 1: that's right, because you just paid off your in November,
Speaker 1: is that correct? Congratulations? I mean, we're relatively on the
Speaker 1: cusp of that, although I'm sure four months feels like
Speaker 1: you've been able to do so many other things, But
Speaker 1: that's amazing. It still feels kind of unbelievable. Each day,
Speaker 1: each paycheck, I get like, oh my god, and there's
Speaker 1: such a by the time you finished, there's such a
Speaker 1: momentum built up. And I think when when we were
Speaker 1: paying off our debt we paid off seventy eight thousand
Speaker 1: in two years, we were ready to like take a
Speaker 1: step back, and I think, like Dave Ramsey says, like,
Speaker 1: once you're done paying off your debt, you like don't
Speaker 1: have to be gazelle intense anymore. But once we were
Speaker 1: done is when I was like, yeah, now I'm ready
Speaker 1: to be gazelle intense. Like I was tired before and
Speaker 1: I was worn out, but now I have all this
Speaker 1: income and I'm ready to be gazelle intense about something else.
Speaker 1: I just have to find what at it is right
Speaker 1: because you've been working for a goal for so many years,
Speaker 1: you know, or you know your case in my case,
Speaker 1: and it's like, okay, well what what now I'm going
Speaker 1: to throw all that focus energy into, Like what is
Speaker 1: my next goal that I'm going to get excited about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So when people are just starting out, what are some
Speaker 1: of the things that you did to get that ball rolling?
Speaker 1: So like expenses, side hustles, like what did you do
Speaker 1: to get your ball rolling. So we cut a lot
Speaker 1: of expenses that we were using, um that we decided
Speaker 1: it wasn't worth paying for anymore, that we would rather
Speaker 1: send that money to debt instead. And so some of
Speaker 1: the things that we cut. We had a family membership
Speaker 1: to the y m c A. We really weren't using it.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're using it, that's one thing, but
Speaker 1: like nobody ever went. So we dropped it and we
Speaker 1: don't really miss it, which was kind of surprising, you know.
Speaker 1: Some of the things were like, oh, we're we can't
Speaker 1: cut this, we can't live without it, and when we
Speaker 1: finally the plug was like no, no turning back, you know.
Speaker 1: So we got rid of the y m c A membership.
Speaker 1: We had a storage facility where we just had tons
Speaker 1: of junk, you know, mainly my husband's not mine to
Speaker 1: treasures to him. Sure, right right, that's that's debatable. But
Speaker 1: so we got rid of that. We started kind of
Speaker 1: on a minimalism kick, selling everything out of there, selling
Speaker 1: things around our house, you know, realizing that like once
Speaker 1: we started selling a bunch of things to get out
Speaker 1: of debt, we started thinking, like we don't really need
Speaker 1: a lot to be happy, um, And so we just
Speaker 1: started selling everything in sight. Um, you know, like I
Speaker 1: switched to eyeglasses, so I was wearing contacts before and
Speaker 1: I switched to glasses, so I don't have all that.
Speaker 1: You know, I was wearing daily contacts and it was
Speaker 1: just buying contacts all all that good stuff. So that's
Speaker 1: we saved money that way. I quit getting my nails done.
Speaker 1: Every month, we did a fifteen day no spin challenge,
Speaker 1: So every month, fifteen days out of that month, we
Speaker 1: decided we would not spend anything that was discretionaries. So
Speaker 1: if we had to like buy a medical prescription or
Speaker 1: pay the utility bill, certainly you know that that did
Speaker 1: not count. But in terms of just spending just discretionary spending,
Speaker 1: we committed fifteen days every month to just do no spending.
Speaker 1: And what I love about doing that is after we
Speaker 1: did that for a year, it equates to six months
Speaker 1: out of the year of not spending. I love that.
Speaker 1: I love that because I talked about no spend challenges
Speaker 1: a lot and how to customize them, and I think
Speaker 1: you should customize them so you don't have to follow
Speaker 1: rules that somebody else has made for your no spend challenge.
Speaker 1: You could do what works for you and just fifteen days.
Speaker 1: They don't have to be consecutive. They can be. It's
Speaker 1: whatever you want. Not equates to six months and not spending, Yes,
Speaker 1: that's easy. If you started out and you said, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go six months without spending this year, like
Speaker 1: that would be an amountable impossible task, like I would
Speaker 1: never be able to do it. But when you just
Speaker 1: take it day by day and when they're not consecutive,
Speaker 1: for me, I found that like not having to do
Speaker 1: them consecutively was helpful because if I spent one day,
Speaker 1: let's say I went and got some Starbucks, Like my
Speaker 1: whole plan was not tanked because of that spending night
Speaker 1: had several days left. I could you know, hunker down
Speaker 1: and not spend. And so it that's what worked for me.
Speaker 1: So with you, you know, it's asked me like what
Speaker 1: are the rules, And my first rule is like you say,
Speaker 1: like there are no rules, Like just divide thing that
Speaker 1: works for you, that you challenged and that you know
Speaker 1: you can stick to it, that's not too difficult that
Speaker 1: you just give up and throw in the town and
Speaker 1: it's a manageable challenge, almost even gamifying it a bit
Speaker 1: that it's like you said, it's breaking it down into
Speaker 1: bite sized pieces. It's not saying six months out of
Speaker 1: the year, I'm not going to spend. It's just every month,
Speaker 1: find two weeks or a day here and there until
Speaker 1: it adds up to fifteen days that month. Like there's
Speaker 1: something kind of fun and alluring about that approach, and
Speaker 1: I like it. I like it even more because I
Speaker 1: doing a no spend challenge allows you it forces you
Speaker 1: to take a step back and think about your spending
Speaker 1: in your actions, and when those days aren't planned out,
Speaker 1: you have to actually take another step back and think
Speaker 1: about your days and planning in your schedule, and then
Speaker 1: you start evaluating, like how do my days look, how
Speaker 1: do my weeks look? What can I cut out? Stuff
Speaker 1: like that, And so it just adds this another like
Speaker 1: mental layer to explore and I love that absolutely. So
Speaker 1: I'm going off script here a little bit, but because
Speaker 1: it's Valentine's Day and we're all about love, I'm so
Speaker 1: curious about the dynamic between you and your husband during
Speaker 1: this time, being that this debt was all yours. And
Speaker 1: I know everybody approaches money differently in marriage. Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: it's all ours, All the money's ours. All the debts ours,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter how it came to be. And then others
Speaker 1: it's like, no, you've got your bank account. I got
Speaker 1: my bank account, good luck. How how did that go,
Speaker 1: especially with how serious you all had to be with
Speaker 1: cutting things, out selling things, doing your own version of
Speaker 1: a no spend? How did that go with your husband?
Speaker 1: So he was on board from the get go, you know,
Speaker 1: he understood how just devastating having this debt was on
Speaker 1: me and how it affected me emotionally so much, just
Speaker 1: the weight of it, and so he understood that. But
Speaker 1: I think throughout our journey, you know, because it really
Speaker 1: was my debt, something that I brought into the marriage,
Speaker 1: he didn't have anything, you know, like he didn't have
Speaker 1: a car payment, like he had nothing. So I think
Speaker 1: that he didn't really feel ownership over it as much
Speaker 1: as I did. Like he was on board like, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's pay it off, but I don't he felt the
Speaker 1: pressure of paying it off like I did. Um, it
Speaker 1: was always supportive like of that being our goal and
Speaker 1: wanted that to be our goal, because I think he
Speaker 1: understood like once that is done, he really as much
Speaker 1: as I'm like a lover of paying down debt like
Speaker 1: that was just so fun for me, and I really
Speaker 1: love that he's like an investment guy, like he wants
Speaker 1: to invest, and so didn't get to where we wanted
Speaker 1: to be in terms of investment until we um until
Speaker 1: we got the debt out of the way. So, you know,
Speaker 1: I won't say that he was excited about paying off
Speaker 1: the debt nearly as much as I was. And I
Speaker 1: think it's just because he didn't have that ownership of
Speaker 1: it like I did, but not just you know, he
Speaker 1: was supportive. He was supported. He probably like, you've got
Speaker 1: to be on board when you're cutting the y and
Speaker 1: selling his his treasure around the house. Go through this
Speaker 1: box in the garage. What can I sell? Oh, it
Speaker 1: sounds like you found a good one. Cave. I hope
Speaker 1: you guys are able to celebrate Valentine's Dady. Is that's
Speaker 1: what you want? Yes? Up. But it's funny. It's it's
Speaker 1: a similar story to Jen and I as well. Both
Speaker 1: her and I are the ones who brought the student
Speaker 1: loan debt into our marriages. Thankfully we found some supportive husbands,
Speaker 1: but man, we're a group of ladies bringing in the
Speaker 1: buying things we couldn't afford. Cheers to being educated. Travis
Speaker 1: brought Travis brought a little bit of debt. He'll listen
Speaker 1: to this. We don't want to leave him out. He
Speaker 1: brought a little bit of He was much more fiscally
Speaker 1: responsible than me. But I also still have to tell
Speaker 1: him to sell things out of the garage. So he's
Speaker 1: a he's a borderline horder. He loves Yeah, he loves stuff.
Speaker 1: So it took you three years to pay off all
Speaker 1: this debt, And even as an attorney, I think sometimes
Speaker 1: we look at attorneys and doctors paying off their student
Speaker 1: loan debt like maybe a little differently. That's just like
Speaker 1: a bias that some people have of But your story
Speaker 1: was so so normal, so similar. Sometimes I think we
Speaker 1: just think of it differently, especially in the financial independence community,
Speaker 1: that it's maybe a little bit more attainable for people
Speaker 1: that have certain incomes, are not even incomes, just certain professions,
Speaker 1: Like we don't know how much the like people are making,
Speaker 1: and we just assume that they're making a lot more.
Speaker 1: But three years to pay off a five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: of debt is the same as I've seen other people
Speaker 1: do it in the same amount of time. You know,
Speaker 1: on teachers salaries and other stuff like that. So this
Speaker 1: is so doable no matter what your occupation is, um,
Speaker 1: But it just takes motivation and persistence and staying with it. So, like,
Speaker 1: how did you maintain motivation over those three years? So
Speaker 1: I did a lot of different things, because you know,
Speaker 1: three years is a long time to stick with the goal.
Speaker 1: It's a long time to sacrifice financially to meet a goal. UM.
Speaker 1: So one of the things that I did was I
Speaker 1: always broke up what I wanted to accomplish, kind of
Speaker 1: like in those bite sized chunks, like we were talking
Speaker 1: in terms of no spending. So every month, I set
Speaker 1: a goal for myself of what I wanted to accomplish
Speaker 1: that month, and then I kind of zoomed out and decided, Okay,
Speaker 1: if I'm going to make this goal in three years,
Speaker 1: this is what I've got to do for those three years,
Speaker 1: and this is what I've got to do on a
Speaker 1: monthly basis to hit it. And every month I would
Speaker 1: set those goals and check in on myself and make
Speaker 1: sure that I was hitting them. But you know, kind
Speaker 1: of in terms of motivation, some of the things that
Speaker 1: I love to do was I used visuals, so I
Speaker 1: made like total nerd here, but I made, you know,
Speaker 1: charts and graphs and all kinds of visuals to track
Speaker 1: my progress so I could just look at it and
Speaker 1: see how far I've come and how much I have
Speaker 1: left to go, which was really motivating for me. And
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people do like those charts
Speaker 1: where they color them in so they can visually see
Speaker 1: their progress. I didn't really do that. What I did
Speaker 1: do was I made something called the Chains of Debt.
Speaker 1: I loved that. I loved watching you do this so
Speaker 1: on Instagram. Yes, so the Chains of Debt is just
Speaker 1: like a paper chain, like you'd make it Christmas, you know,
Speaker 1: the paper chain, and each piece of paper was two
Speaker 1: fifty dollars. I think it's it's been a few weeks
Speaker 1: since i've I've done. I've already forgotten it, so I
Speaker 1: can't remember. But I made each chain a dollar amount.
Speaker 1: And this chain, you guys, was so ugly. Make it ugly.
Speaker 1: That will get rid of me. But well, it's nice decoration.
Speaker 1: I'll just leave it up. It looks cute. It was
Speaker 1: so hideous, and I hung it in my bedroom, so
Speaker 1: it's like one of the first things I supped every
Speaker 1: moment and I'm like, I can't wait to get this
Speaker 1: thing out of here. It's so hideous. But what I
Speaker 1: love about doing the pain as opposed to like the coloring,
Speaker 1: And this is really kind of my husband's idea, is
Speaker 1: that the paper chain get smaller and smaller and smaller
Speaker 1: over time, so you can see your debt finishing, whereas
Speaker 1: like if you're coloring something in it's getting bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1: So for me that I could just watch my debt
Speaker 1: disappearing before my eyes and fully motivating to just see it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a little overwhelming at first when we
Speaker 1: when we hung it up, and it was like, you know,
Speaker 1: seventeen miles long, but the length of your small intestine
Speaker 1: you can wrap around the world a few times. So
Speaker 1: so I really loved that. And then one other thing
Speaker 1: that you know, I would recommend to anyone that we
Speaker 1: did or that I did, was I started this Instagram account, right,
Speaker 1: So I started an Instagram account at that Debt Free
Speaker 1: Life specifically designed just to document my journey. Like when
Speaker 1: I begin that account, it wasn't really to like help
Speaker 1: people or inform them or teaching them. I don't even
Speaker 1: consider that, you know, is just to keep me on track.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you, like the first year that I
Speaker 1: did this journey, I was not on Instagram, and I
Speaker 1: only paid off seventeen thousand dollars that year, and then
Speaker 1: the other two years I paid like forty five thousand
Speaker 1: or forty something like that. So it was a significant
Speaker 1: difference because I had that accountability. That's why I love,
Speaker 1: you know, social media for that reason. Like, if you
Speaker 1: can't get a good accountability partner in your life, you
Speaker 1: can get a fantastic team of accountability partners if you
Speaker 1: turn to social media and just are comfortable putting your
Speaker 1: story out there. Yeah. Wow, I love so much of
Speaker 1: the tips you just gave. That paper chain is brill Ye.
Speaker 1: It almost reminds me of the cash envelope system. Bear
Speaker 1: with me, the idea that we do better with finances
Speaker 1: if we have physical representations of it and we kind
Speaker 1: of feel it. You don't have a physical representation of
Speaker 1: your debt unless you're looking at it all the time
Speaker 1: and you have that reminder. So this really provided a
Speaker 1: physical reminder, which it sounds like, helped to keep you
Speaker 1: on track phenomenally. Absolutely. Yeah, that's a really good analogy.
Speaker 1: Thank you got them all talking about the small Intestine reminders. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in your Instagram, you have over a hundred thousand followers
Speaker 1: on Instagram. People have just like loved what you've been
Speaker 1: saying because your Instagram is super helpful. Like you may
Speaker 1: not have intended to start up this way, but you
Speaker 1: definitely got there, like you're Yeah, a year into my
Speaker 1: our debt payoff, I started my first blog for the
Speaker 1: same reason. I just needed some accountability. I needed to
Speaker 1: put it out there, and to me, helping people was
Speaker 1: my way of maybe staying motivated. And and it did.
Speaker 1: And I felt that second year went by a lot
Speaker 1: quicker than the first year, and it was mostly because
Speaker 1: I was trying to invest in people to get you know,
Speaker 1: to help them get where I was. And and yeah,
Speaker 1: that is what you've done on Instagram. You've done such
Speaker 1: a great job. If you were on Instagram, choose kids
Speaker 1: at that debt free life and you will not be disappointed.
Speaker 1: And you can see the paper chain, and I have
Speaker 1: the chain of debt. And the thing I'll say about
Speaker 1: social media and doing you know, kind of what you
Speaker 1: and I are doing in terms of our social media
Speaker 1: is that for me, I made a goal on my
Speaker 1: Instagram to post every single day something finance related, something
Speaker 1: about my journey, something that would maybe help other And
Speaker 1: when you were thinking about it every single day and
Speaker 1: people are asking you questions and you're talking about it
Speaker 1: all the time, it's hard to fall off the wagon,
Speaker 1: you know, Like it's stay disciplined and to stay where
Speaker 1: you need to be when you're constantly when it's constantly
Speaker 1: on your mind and in your conversations and surrounding yourself
Speaker 1: with it. Yeah. Oh, for sure, You've given us so
Speaker 1: much good advice already, Kate. But what is the best
Speaker 1: piece of advice you might have for someone who is
Speaker 1: just starting their debt free journey right at the beginning,
Speaker 1: right at that Painted the Cabinet's Last Week stage. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's really such a difficult question, and it's one
Speaker 1: that people ask me all the time, and I quite
Speaker 1: honestly never really know how to answer it. There are
Speaker 1: so many different advice you can give. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: one piece of advice I would say is just too
Speaker 1: believe that it can happen. You know, your mindset is
Speaker 1: so critical to your success. I know a lot of
Speaker 1: people in that, you know, painting the Cabinet stage they
Speaker 1: think like I will never be out of debt, and
Speaker 1: I became debt free. I did a live debt payoff,
Speaker 1: my final payment. I did it live on Instagram and
Speaker 1: it's safe there to my Instagram TV stories. You can
Speaker 1: see it if you want to. But during that broadcast,
Speaker 1: I pulled out my journal from those painting the Kitchen
Speaker 1: Cabinet moments and I went through and I read my
Speaker 1: journal to you guys, and it was filled with things
Speaker 1: like this debt will never be paid out of debt?
Speaker 1: Will I ever be able to do this? Like just
Speaker 1: total discouragement because I didn't think that it could be
Speaker 1: the beginning. But I just want to say that, like,
Speaker 1: no matter where you are, single income, single mom, dual
Speaker 1: income earners, no matter if you've got six figures of
Speaker 1: debt or you know less than that or more than that,
Speaker 1: Like anyone can do it. It absolutely can be done.
Speaker 1: Whoever is listening to this podcast, like you, Yes, you
Speaker 1: can do it if you will just stick to the plan.
Speaker 1: So make your plan, stick to it. And you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of times and we talked about today, A
Speaker 1: lot of times we talk about motivation. And one of
Speaker 1: the pieces of advice I give people who who are
Speaker 1: asking about how to get out of debt is Honestly,
Speaker 1: motivation really doesn't matter. You've got to learn to be disciplined.
Speaker 1: So if you yes, like you don't want to do it,
Speaker 1: Like you don't want to spend you know that money,
Speaker 1: you don't want to send it to student loan, you
Speaker 1: want to go blow it on a shopping spree or whatever. Like, Honestly,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter what you want to do. You just
Speaker 1: have to do what you have to do. So if
Speaker 1: you can devise a plan and be disciplined, you'll get
Speaker 1: out of debt. That's all you need. Knowledge and discipline,
Speaker 1: that's all you need. Yes, good word, Wow, I can't
Speaker 1: top that. Nope, other than just go into the best
Speaker 1: time of the week. Yeah, that's a perfect segue to
Speaker 1: the Bill of the weed. That's right, it's time for
Speaker 1: the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby
Speaker 1: was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid
Speaker 1: off your mortgage, Maybe your car died and you're happy
Speaker 1: to not have to pay that bill anymore. To bill
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week, Kate.
Speaker 1: Every week we asked our listeners or our guests to
Speaker 1: share with us their favorite bill. Do you have a
Speaker 1: bill for us? I have a bill and it is
Speaker 1: kind of a play on words, so I don't know
Speaker 1: if this will county girl break in. My favorite bill
Speaker 1: is my play bill from The Lion King in New York.
Speaker 1: So when we get came debt free in November. That
Speaker 1: very next month, in December, we did a bucket list
Speaker 1: item which has been on my bucket list for a
Speaker 1: hundred years, and that is to go to New York
Speaker 1: City at Christmas time. And while we were there, we
Speaker 1: saw The Lion King, which is something I've been wanting
Speaker 1: to see on Broadway for a while. So if that
Speaker 1: counts yet, we've never had that one. Yes, well done.
Speaker 1: And how was it the Lion King on Broadway? That
Speaker 1: sounds amazing? Gosh, I loved it. It It was spectacular, spectacular.
Speaker 1: Oh that's amazing. How long were you in New York
Speaker 1: City for? We were there for about five days? Glorious glory. US.
Speaker 1: Traffic is terrible that time of year, but glad you went.
Speaker 1: The beauty overshadows it. Traffic is always terrible, let's be real,
Speaker 1: but even more terrible if you can imagine that, But
Speaker 1: amazing when you get to see the Lion King on Broadway. Hey,
Speaker 1: even Christmas songs talk about it. So I feel like
Speaker 1: that's okay. Traffic is how do they say ridiculous? That's
Speaker 1: not it? I don't know traffic. Well, if you have
Speaker 1: been through the traffic and you have a bill to
Speaker 1: share with us, please visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com
Speaker 1: slash bill to leave us a voicemail or speak pipe
Speaker 1: and uh we will play your bill on the air.
Speaker 1: Whether it took you hours of traffic to get to
Speaker 1: or not. We'll play it focusing it on the wrong things.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. That's what we're here for, to go off
Speaker 1: the rails. All right, and now it's time for our
Speaker 1: second favorite time of the week, the lightning Round. I'm
Speaker 1: not wasting any time. Nope, we are shooting off our
Speaker 1: favorite or the things we're looking looking or looked forward
Speaker 1: to buying the most after debt freedom. So we are
Speaker 1: all in different stages of debt freedom. I've been debt
Speaker 1: free for two years. Kate's just step free. She'll still
Speaker 1: working on it, and so there soon, guys, you're going,
Speaker 1: you're going getting there. You'll get a different perspective on
Speaker 1: everybody's answer. Um so Kate as our guests, please go first.
Speaker 1: But first thing thing you're looking forward to most about
Speaker 1: buying or that you have bought. So the big thing
Speaker 1: that we are looking forward to buying is new kitchen floors.
Speaker 1: If you've been a long time follow our mind on Instagram,
Speaker 1: you have seen my horrible kitchen tile floors that are
Speaker 1: legit broken like a hundred pieces, like terrible, But we
Speaker 1: didn't want to replace them while we're on our debt
Speaker 1: free journey because we had a mission. So now that
Speaker 1: it's done, it's going to be several thousand to replace them.
Speaker 1: But that's one of our um first things that we
Speaker 1: want to do in terms of you know, uh, fixing
Speaker 1: up the house after after having freedom, so home renovations.
Speaker 1: So this has nice floors to go with those nice cabinets.
Speaker 1: Since the cabinets, ye don't dip into savings. It's like
Speaker 1: wearing a really nice top and sweatpants, right, you gotta.
Speaker 1: The first thing that we did do second after we
Speaker 1: became debt free was take that trip right to New York.
Speaker 1: So that was like the bucket list item, crossing off
Speaker 1: the item. Now that that dream other things, Yeah, there's three,
Speaker 1: four or five, six, seven things down the list to do. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So for me, this is gonna sound like teacher's pet answer,
Speaker 1: but it it's honest, it's real. For where I'm at
Speaker 1: right now, I'm looking forward to putting the money that
Speaker 1: we are accustomed to putting towards debt into savings. I
Speaker 1: don't I travel a ton with my job. We've been
Speaker 1: able to go on really inexpensive vacations. Like that's just
Speaker 1: that doesn't hold much for me right now, as far
Speaker 1: as you know what your typical what you hear, typical
Speaker 1: goals might be. For me, it's really just putting that
Speaker 1: money towards savings and kind of getting up over that
Speaker 1: hump and the excitement for seeing exponential growth in that
Speaker 1: direction for long term goals like possibly buying a house
Speaker 1: if that's even what we want to do. Let's be honest,
Speaker 1: living in a camper is fun and cheap fruit well,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's inexpensive. So yeah, that's that's my boring,
Speaker 1: honest answer. Goodness, No, I think so many people can
Speaker 1: relate to that though, Like you know, every particularly when
Speaker 1: you go back and you look at and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I spent X thousands of dollars on death. This year,
Speaker 1: everyone thinks of themselves. I can't wait till our money.
Speaker 1: You know. I think it's a great, great response. Thanks Kate. Yes,
Speaker 1: I love You're so easy to please. That's why it's
Speaker 1: why we work well together. I require a lot, and
Speaker 1: you are. You are pleased by the simple things, minimalist
Speaker 1: that heart. Yeah. So speaking of uh m, a little bougie.
Speaker 1: The first thing we bought was a cruise because I
Speaker 1: wanted to go on a cruise. I love cruises. I
Speaker 1: am not a big world traveler. Um, I don't enjoy that.
Speaker 1: We had an Airbnb guest the other day that said
Speaker 1: they went to they visited Honduras, and I was like,
Speaker 1: that sounds horrible, and I just I like cruises. And
Speaker 1: we stated at our first all inclusive resort in December,
Speaker 1: and I still think about it. I still miss it.
Speaker 1: It was for four five days and all I want
Speaker 1: to do is go back. So we we took a
Speaker 1: cruise and that was great. And it's another Travis and
Speaker 1: I don't travel well together unless everything is included, because
Speaker 1: we'll fight about money. I love that you know that
Speaker 1: about yourselves. That's so brilliant. So that's another reason. I
Speaker 1: don't enjoy traveling unless it is a cruise or an
Speaker 1: all inclusive resort, or if you find any other ways
Speaker 1: to travel where everything is included, just like, let me know,
Speaker 1: because I will also try those things. So that's mine.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's bougie or if like I've
Speaker 1: just been in Florida for so long, like I have
Speaker 1: a retirees mindset. You can get cruises right from where
Speaker 1: you're at. We just drive twenty minutes and we're at
Speaker 1: the port. Don't get me wrong. I am going to
Speaker 1: still travel. I enjoy it, It's just not the first
Speaker 1: thing I'm gonna do. Yeah, you did go to You
Speaker 1: did go to Wine Country, and I was jealous of that.
Speaker 1: I did. I did. I don't want to take the
Speaker 1: wine train. I do have some feedback on that though
Speaker 1: it might not actually be all that you wanted to be.
Speaker 1: But we'll talk about that later, right, Yeah, Okay, let's
Speaker 1: talk about the wine train later. Kate, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for hanging out with us, Yes, morning, Thank you
Speaker 1: very I loved it. Where can people find more about
Speaker 1: you and what you're doing this year so they can
Speaker 1: check out the blog? And that is www dot Living
Speaker 1: that Debt Free Life dot com and then I am
Speaker 1: also on Instagram at that Debt Free Life. Those are
Speaker 1: the two main places where I hang out. So thanks
Speaker 1: so much, thanks for having me. Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for listening to this play. We hope that you
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. If it was your second time around, you
Speaker 1: got more out of it. If you had never heard
Speaker 1: it before. We hope that you enjoyed it. And uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean to follow up on that lightning round, we
Speaker 1: did buy another cruise. We had not been on another
Speaker 1: cruise since we became debt free, but we did go
Speaker 1: on another one because I love them. Oh, it's so
Speaker 1: fun to look back and see what we've journeyed with
Speaker 1: you all. It's interesting to me to think about those
Speaker 1: who binge our podcasts episodes like what Happens as you
Speaker 1: see four years of our lives. We've gone through a
Speaker 1: lot of shifts. So that's a crazy journey for you all,
Speaker 1: but for me looking back, it has literally been a
Speaker 1: long time and and I think I have really experienced
Speaker 1: that joy and excitement and I've seen that pendulum swing
Speaker 1: from going hard at debt payoff to now all having
Speaker 1: surplus of money that although it doesn't always feel that
Speaker 1: way because we're cash flowing renovations on our home, but
Speaker 1: that's what being debt free has afforded us to be
Speaker 1: able to do some really amazing upgrades to our home
Speaker 1: without going into further debts. So that's my update on
Speaker 1: that lightning round. Oh that's so awesome. So yeah, thanks
Speaker 1: for listening. Many of you know we actually have a
Speaker 1: private community where we do um monthly money challenge challenges
Speaker 1: to help people sustain motivation to pay off debt, because
Speaker 1: one of the hardest things about paying off debt isn't
Speaker 1: actually transferring money to the account, it's staying focused and
Speaker 1: staying motivated. And so we have a membership that helps
Speaker 1: people with motivation, and then we also offer accountability groups.
Speaker 1: And we actually want to congratulate one of our members
Speaker 1: for a big win. So this is from Julie l.
Speaker 1: And we have a we have a course inside called
Speaker 1: Personal Finance Plified. It's just a personal finance one on
Speaker 1: one course that is totally optional. But she was commenting
Speaker 1: on module one of the course. She said, my small
Speaker 1: in parentheses big to me things. For module one, she says,
Speaker 1: I've been feeling like I don't know where to start
Speaker 1: this journey. So I just dove in with these things.
Speaker 1: I shifted some money into my savings account, I canceled
Speaker 1: to credit cards that were hanging out in my wallet.
Speaker 1: I wrote down my quote unquote financial vampires, she says
Speaker 1: in parentheses, things I spend money on each month, but
Speaker 1: kind of forget about um. I just wanted to know
Speaker 1: what it all added up to. And then I got
Speaker 1: my free credit scores. That was super hard for me,
Speaker 1: but as it turned out, it was a pleasant surprise.
Speaker 1: Who knew. So congrats Julie for making these small little
Speaker 1: steps so early on in the program. Yeah, well done,
Speaker 1: and thank you all for listening again. If you want
Speaker 1: to check out our monthly challenged community and the Personal
Speaker 1: Finance Simplified Course, had to Frugal Friends podcast dot com
Speaker 1: slash club to see what challenge we have coming up next.
Speaker 1: See you next week. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric
Speaker 1: Syrian Jill jan. When this comes out, you'll be in
Speaker 1: Mexico right What day is? It will be one day
Speaker 1: after our ten year anniversary or ten year anniversaries on
Speaker 1: the twelve, So h yeah, we're about to return from
Speaker 1: Mexico shortly. If you're listening to this on the day
Speaker 1: it airs. But how was Mexico? Yes, Mexico has enomenal.
Speaker 1: I'm going to name it and claimant beautiful weather, awesome
Speaker 1: food time. Celebrating ten years of marriage to Eric, He's wonderful. Yes,
Speaker 1: ten years. I mean, I'm glad you guys got married
Speaker 1: because that's how I met you. So thanks Eric, I'm
Speaker 1: glad we got married to I mean, who who knew
Speaker 1: we We didn't. We didn't hardly know. I mean we knew,
Speaker 1: we weren't. We weren't stupid. We definitely obviously made a decision.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, like we were so young, you know,
Speaker 1: like I feel like it could go. It could. It
Speaker 1: was like it's you know, but turns out like I
Speaker 1: really did make a good decision, had like three and
Speaker 1: you can't say that a lot about a lot of
Speaker 1: decisions at twenty three. No, but that's great. But my
Speaker 1: twenty three year old self chose a solid person who
Speaker 1: is developing into an even more solid person, and that's phenomenal.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful gift. Sometimes you just get lucky and
Speaker 1: I feel that. So yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean
Speaker 1: I think I made an informed decision. It's just like
Speaker 1: you still don't know. There's always an element anything, right,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I I still don't know who am
Speaker 1: I going to be in ten years from now. I
Speaker 1: could be awful. Yeah, you've seen it. You've seen it.
Speaker 1: You might be just leaned into that side of myself.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try that's I'm gonna try real hard to
Speaker 1: keep you from that side of yourself, Joe. I'm going
Speaker 1: to make that a priority in my life, uh, to
Speaker 1: keep you from that edge. Yeah, so that I can
Speaker 1: see twenty years with Eric and ten years business partner
Speaker 1: with you. Absolutely, Okay, pays do it. Yes,