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Baby Step 4 Investing

Things I Learned About Investing When I Got to Baby Step 4

Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover is the book we used to learn about personal finance and ultimately get out of $78,000 of debt in less than 2 years. We followed his system, dubbed “The Baby Steps” almost perfectly (TBH, I don’t think there’s anyone who does the baby steps perfectly.) One of my first posts on Saving with Spunk was explaining the baby steps. Baby Step 1: $1000 in an emergency fund Baby Step 2: Pay off all debt using the debt snowball method Baby Step 3: Save 3-6 months of expenses in an emergency fund Baby Step 4: Invest…

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Living_to_be_debt_free

Debt Free Stories: Kyle & Jeanette Paid Off $55K in 16 Months!

I started Saving With Spunk with the selfish intention to stay motivated through our debt payoff journey. And nothing motivated me more than hearing other people’s debt-free stories. I troll Instagram for these stories. I am personally horrible at social media but Kyle and Jeanette from Living to be Debt Free are some of my favorites. They live in Grand Blanc, Michigan with their two-year-old daughter, Lindsey and another bb on the way! Kyle and Jeanette just finished paying off $55,000 in student loan debt in 16 months on a starting income of $100K that dropped to $91K due to…

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Meal Prep Essentials

The Best Meal Prep Containers and Other Meal Prepping Essentials

One time I prepped 12 freezer meals in a single day. It was a bad idea. I wouldn’t recommend going that route but even casual meal prepping can be an undertaking. That’s why it’s so important to have the right tools to make it as painless and quick as possible. So here are the things you need, and the stuff that’s nice to have, to make meal prepping a part of your weekly routine. Best Meal Prep Containers When it comes to meal prepping you ideally want a few different types of containers. You don’t need all these containers but…

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How To Meal Prep To Save Money

How to Meal Prep to Save Money, Eat at Home More, & Do Fewer Dishes

I’m not the world’s greatest cook. It’s not that I make bad food (albeit, my dishes are not always a home run) I just hate cooking. When I get home from work the last thing I want to do is pull out a cutting board and prepare a healthy meal. But cooking at home is essential if you don’t want to drain your bank account on food. So I started meal planning and shopping at Aldi to save money, reduce my food waste, and get better at cooking. But to my dismay that still didn’t motivate me to wait over…

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Financial Change

The Only Constant is Financial Change

Today's post is from my friend Kara at Bravely Go. If you're a woman with a business then Kara's blog and events are a great tool for you to grow in community with like-minded women. She also has a new podcast for my fellow podcast lovers! So without further adieu, here's Kara. One of the reasons I started Bravely was because when I say to people “I paid off over $25,000 in student loans on less than $30,000′ people look at me like I’m the second coming. I created drastic financial change in my life and people are fascinated. People…

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Hurricane Irma Fallen Tree

How to Regain Motivation After Murphy Hits Like a Hurricane

Hurricane Irma hit us hard last week. I’m still adjusting to the destruction she left in her wake and the personal assault she made on my house. You can never prepare perfectly for a hurricane. Meteorologists hype up a storm for a week but you really only have a few hours notice on where it’s going to go. First, we thought it was going into the Atlantic, then the gulf, then right up the state. The day before Irma hit we woke up to reports that the eye was heading straight for our city. We evacuated to Atlanta at the…

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We're Debt Free

We’re Debt Free + Saving with Spunk is 1!

Today is a special day y’all. Saving with Spunk is one-year-old! And it just so happens that we also became debt free last week! This journey has been so different than I anticipated. I mean, I guess I didn’t know what to expect going into it. I had nothing to compare it to. We were the first people we knew to go full throttle to become debt free. Two years ago today I was a month out from getting married. I knew this journey was coming and I was riding out my last few weeks of freedom with a little…

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Thoughts and Feelings on the Start of our Last Month in Debt

We are officially in our last month of being in student loan debt. I thought this month would never come, but here it is. How I’m feeling about being almost debt-free. I’m not good at writing about feelings. If I take the time to write something I want it to help people, not give them an inside look at what’s going on inside my brain. But I see a lot of posts about people “in debt” and “debt free” but not many about being “almost out of debt.” We're one month away from completing the journey of paying off $78,000…

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Ways To Do A No Spend Challenge

9 Ways to Customize a No-Spend Challenge to Kick Start Your Financial Goals

Completing a No Spend Challenge can do more for your finances than keep a few dollars in your bank account. Which of these 9 ways to do a No Spend Challenge is right for your financial goals? We’re on the cusp of paying off $78,000 of debt in less than two years. I’ve incorporated No Spend Months a few times over the course of our journey, usually after a big budget flop. I’m really bad at moderation. I’m very all-or-nothing, which has made it easier to commit to paying off our student loans but also makes me a horrible budgeter.…

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Free Get-togethers

11 Get-Togethers That are Better Than Going Out

Sustaining your debt payoff momentum can be difficult and isolating. Since I’m all about journey over destination, here are 11 get-togethers that can bring friends to you and not affect your budget. 1. Game Night Games are the gifts that keep on giving. They’re reusable (as long as you can keep track of the pieces) and always a new experience. Everyone has a copy of Monopoly but oh my friend, games have evolved since we were kids. Some games we love that are good for groups big and small are Saboteur, Catan, and Munchkin. You’ll be arguing about game playing…

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