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

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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 more frugality than I would have otherwise. (Granted I was always the most frugal person in our friend group.)

Over the past 23 months, my life has changed from feeling hopeless about my student loans to being free from them.

Last night I had dinner with some friends and we realized that between our three families we had less than $3,000 in debt. Less than $3,000 in debt between six millennials, 1.5 babies, and three masters degrees sounds crazy! And none of us are bringing in 6-figures.

Living out our goals has drawn us closer to like-minded people and cultivated a community that builds us up. That knowledge was a great way to turn the page to start this new chapter.

New Life, Who dis?

So now we’re on to baby step 3, building our emergency fund. We’ve changed around a few things but we’re staying on a tight budget this month to ease into our new lifestyle. (Though we did splurge by ordering chips and queso two nights in a row.) I got a little anxious about going off the deep end so this budget makes me feel better.

It should take us three months to build our emergency fund to $10,000 since we already have $1,000 in there. You’d think I’d be ready to burn the budget but I’m actually more into it than I’ve been all year because now I get to see numbers go up instead down all the time!

What’s Next for SwS?

First up is FinCon at the end of October. I’m excited to network, make new friends, and soak up all the knowledge I can in four days. I have a long list of bloggers I want to hug.

Next is my book launch. November 14th I’ll be launching The Ultimate Guide to Quit Spending Money on Crap (working title of course.) Being a published author has been a dream of mine for years and while I’ve been published in some major publications, this will be the true fulfillment of my goal.

I’ll be involving you and anyone who’ll listen to help me pick out the final title and cover art for the book before it goes live on Amazon.

In addition, I’m still designing shirts for Merch by Amazo as Shirts with Spunk. I’m hoping to kick into high gear with that to maximize revenue during the holidays. I’ve finally made it to the 500 Tier with only 73 designs up and my goal is to break 400 by Cyber Monday.

So with all that’s going on, I’ll be posting here once a week and on Instagram at least five times per week. My goal is to motivate, encourage, and equip you with the resources you need to sustain the debt pay off journey so if you have any struggles or suggestions please tell me about them!

What Can I Expect From Starting a Blog?

Blogging has changed my life. It’s opened my eyes to all the ways I can make money by simply having my own website and it’s a portfolio of my work that I can repurpose as many times and wherever I want. But most of the time what bloggers make is a little deceiving.

So I’ve been at this a year now and while I consider myself a pretty successful blogger you should know some real life stuff about this site. I’m averaging around 11,000 page views per month with over 400 subscribers. I’m actively revamping my opt-in strategy but things that make me money always take priority so I’m a little behind.

I make very little money on affiliate marketing because my page views are so low and I have little to no interest in social media marketing so no motivation to increase them.

I’ve discovered in the last year that I like writing more than anything. Creating content that helps people is what I love, hence I make money freelancing and the venture into self-publishing. I’ve decided to use my blog to gauge interest in topics and monetize by building a library on Kindle.

I have a bunch of ideas for “quick read” books (because who has time to read a lengthy self-help book when you’re working three jobs?) and rather than branching off into all the different personal finance topics I’m gonna stay narrowly focused on paying off debt and saving money.

No one’s journey will look exactly like mine so I love to hear other’s stories. If you want to share what you’ve learned while making a side income or paying off debt shoot me an email at savingwithspunk @ gmail dot com.

Can’t wait to share more and have more fun over the next year with you.