Financial Freedom

When I graduated school May of 2011, I had $57,676 in student loan debt. I was lucky that I found a job in Southern California that paid me about $30,000 a year. I lived on an extremely tight budget. Even if I hadn't have been saving to pay off debt, I wouldn't have had much extra. I tightened my budget and was able to pay roughly $100 extra on my loans. 

Today, 1 year and 4 months later, I have paid of 9,520 of that student loan debt. This doesn't include not working and paying off about $2,000 in credit card debt. (I would pay a lot down and then would need it for something like a plane ticket home, or an oil change).

It is still crazy to think that here I am over a year later, and I have only paid off that much. My income did come up, I make a bit under $40,000 now. Cost of living is a little higher. But it feels great to have the ball rolling and to see some income. Its only going to go faster now. My projected pay off date is Fall 2015. But, I think I can do it sooner. I paid off my $3500 loan today. Tomorrow I start work on my next smallest, $6754.54.

When I do pay off my loan. I will be having a huge party that everyone is invited to. I don't care if we never have met, I want to celebrate the fact that I have become debt free and can begin to acquire wealth!

Thanks for everyone's encouraging words through out this time!

I hope that you all can be inspired or motivated to try this out for yourself and choose one small debt and decide to pay it off and get it out of your life. 

Let me know how it goes for you!

Mini DIY Project

So I have been having major depression about my apartment. It is totally safe and secure which is fantastic, but it is just dreary. So I am on a mission to do some totally cheap renovations to satisfy my craftiness and my need for a semi nice house!

So I had two tables that we had bought that were just plain and a little drab. One was purchased at Ikea and one at Target. I think that they were about $10 each. Here is what it looked like before. Plus a cat.

Then I bought these Gold Corners for them on Amazon...here is a link to them. They cost me just over $9 including shipping, but they come with 8 corners and all the screws for it! Our house is decorated in black gray and yellow, so I thought that the gold would be a great addition to it!

Then I added the gold corners. I found that the Corners didn't fit perfectly on my table, so they dont lay exactly flat on the sides of the tables. But I made sure that they laid as flat as possible on the top. 

Here is what they looked like done! The whole project took about 20 mins, and cost me at the time less than $10! Just need to add some flowers on my side of the bed and I will be all set!

I would also like to add a huge shout out to Kevin, because there was a moment when I was about to chuck our screw driver at the wall from frustration with the tiny screws and he came and helped me whip it out!