I was challenged by Money Advice Service to create a guide on how I survived January (was it just as crazy for you?). See my recap below.

It’s February, which means we’ve made it through the first month of the year. How did you do?

I have to say 2015 kicked off with a bang. Some new opportunities came my way, I side hustled at a dog show (a la Best in Show — very funny), and then I got really sick.

Like being sick isn’t bad enough, it was right before I was slated to travel to NYC for an event. With that, and the predicted storm, I was worried I wasn’t going to make it.

But a small miracle occurred and I did! So as you read this, I’m recovering from a whirlwind trip to NYC. My lovely friend and collaborator Tonya from MyFabFinance and I co-hosted the #SavewithSoFi happy hour and invited a ton of amazing personal finance bloggers to hang out.

SoFi, an awesome student loan refinance company, and Betterment, an automated investing tool, sponsored the happy hour. It was great to get some many amazing personal finance bloggers together!

I saw Shannon and Shannon, Erin, Stefanie (and got my signed book!), Jason, Miranda (one of my writing idols), and more. Overall, everything was great and we had a lot of fun. Expect to hear more about SoFi from me soon as I think they are a great resource for people battling high interest student loans.

Aside from the eventfulness of it all, I have to say that I was pretty proud of myself for the first few weeks of January. I started to feel a little bit spent, both physically and financially from the holidays, so I decided to have a mostly dry January (no drinking) and restrict myself to cash.

Now, I like to enjoy a beverage now and again and am a regular drinker. I like to have wine with meals and find my tastes to be rather epicurean. So, I was so impressed that I went over three weeks without a drink. I admit, I caved once I got sick and got a hot toddy for some relief. And of course, had a few drinks in NYC.

I was so thrilled with my willpower and resolve though, that I am going to be significantly cutting back on drinking alcohol, drinking coffee, and eating out this year. Those aspects have always been my weaknesses, but I think I’m finally ready and able to cut back. Before my head wasn’t there yet, but now it is. I see all my goals of travel, and debt repayment, and I’m ready to enjoy those extra things as a luxury and no longer as a lifestyle.

The cash diet was also so helpful! I can definitely say that it made me think twice about what I was spending money on and I didn’t get in the pattern of mindlessly swiping. I broke the diet on my trip to NYC to keep track of expenses, but starting fresh, I am going back to detox mode — back to cash, and very limited coffee and alcohol.

I am very happy with January because it was a breaking point for me — I made progress and was able to put a substantial amount of money to debt by saving money. I also stopped believing that I couldn’t cut back, and I started taking action and challenging my assumptions instead.

It’s easy to get into bad habits, especially financially. We grow into a lifestyle of comfort and convenience. Even for frugal people like me who hate shopping, and keep expenses low, my one area of weakness always felt like an uphill battle. But now it’s one I’m ready to fight and reclaim my strength. Like I said, I look forward to indulging myself with coffee, drinks and eating out as a luxury — but no longer a lifestyle.

On the income front, things are steady and improving. I’m starting to take charge and ask for what I want, and am getting pickier about what work I do. I’ve realized that if I want people to value my work, I have to value myself first.

So, I’m breaking down walls and plowing through to break this income barrier. I am, can, and will make more money this year than I did last year working for someone else. It’s possible and will happen. Just you wait.

It all starts by asking for what you want and being authentic. Hard work is a part of it, as well as talent. For me, it’s about writing and planning good shit that makes people feel something.

It’s about making things happen. It’s about delivering. And most of all, it’s about providing value. I’m doing the work, and making it happen — growing pains and all. Speed bumps ahead.

How was January for you? Any cool plans for February?

I am probably echoing many others out there, but I can’t believe we’re nearly a week away from Thanksgiving. This year has been the fastest to date and I feel dizzy with how much has happened.

I’ve been on the hustle, continuing to make sure that my self-employment is a viable and lucrative option. Because of this, my own blog has taken a backseat and for that I am remorseful. I want to try to build both things concurrently as I truly love the blogging community and writing in this space.

Somehow with securing new clients, writing until my wrists are sore, and trying to maintain that elusive work-life balance, I’ve neglected to update you all about my debt repayment journey!

As happy as I am with self-employment, it does affect my ability to consistently put over $1,000 to my student loans. This is not necessarily an income issue, but a cash flow issue (when payments get received). Also, I had some extra expenses this past month that I’ll go over.

In total, I was able to put $698 to my debt in the past month. My current debt totals are:

Undergrad $5,882.94

Grad           $29,377.73

Total         $35,260.67

This is so much better than the $81k total I have amassed — and much easier to handle than the $68k that was staring me in the face after I graduated from NYU in May 2011. I’ve paid off $33k in about 3.5 years — while making a low salary.

After all this time, it finally feels like I’m making progress. I will be happy once my debt total is below $30k.

So, what prevented me from putting $1,000 to debt?

Well my 30th birthday was part of the culprit. As some of you might remember, I initially wanted to go to Iceland Airwaves, a rad music festival in Iceland for my big 3-0. Well, with FinCon, and job changes, I just couldn’t justify it. Instead of traveling, I went a few hours away to the Oregon desert (I didn’t know it existed!) and spent a weekend away with my sweetie. My mom also decided to come up for a few days. In total that cost around $200.

Then I also had a scary situation arise, where my computer decided not to turn on. I have an oldish Macbook from 2010 and it had been slowing down, then one day it decided not to turn on. I immediately started to freak out. I now make my living on that thing! I was paranoid all my work would be lost and I’d have to drop mad cash for a new computer right then and there. I took it to the Genius bar (so clever aren’t they?) and they diagnosed the issue and I forked over $160. It was a hard drive issue — I later found out I could have fixed the hard drive myself, but I’m just so bad with that kind of stuff, I just let it go. I was seriously thinking the worst, so $160 to fix my computer wasn’t bad. Bonus: I didn’t lose anything!

Then after reading this and this post, I decided I needed to be an adult and get renters insurance. After having my computer snafu, I was determined to protect myself. Not only that, but my partner is a musician with tons of instruments and equipment, so it seemed too risky to not have renters insurance. Without his stuff and my laptop, we’d both be out of making a living, so I forked over another $167 for a year of renters insurance. I instantly felt better.

So that was $527 that was unexpected. Because I live on a bare bones budget and throw any excess towards my student loans, unexpected expenses like this just means I have to lower my payment a bit. I have decided to start a ‘Computer’ targeted savings account with Capital One 360 though as I imagine I might need a new one in the next few years.

Aside from that, I’m getting into the groove of self-employment. My inner night owl is in full flight and I enjoy the flexibility it gives me. I’m excited about trying new things in 2015 and really trying to make Dear Debt even better. I want more dear debt letters, to create an e-book, and ramp up my side hustle coaching. I’m also interested in doing more Twitter chats and hosting events with brands and bloggers.

Yeah, I have a lot of dreams! So I better keep working on my own goals, while still creating kickass content for others.

In case you missed it, here is a sprinkling of my writing around the web.

Conferences: How to Make Them (Literally) Worth Your Time via FeeX

5 Alternatives for People Who Can’t Go Home for The Holidays via The College Investor

The Art of the Follow-Up: How to Get a “Yes” Without Being Pushy via Careful Cents

When Being Frugal Backfires via Retire By 40

5 Things to Consider Before Taking the Leap into Self-Employment via NarrowBridge Finance

How to Have a Cute Wardrobe in Any Weather via Money Saving Pro

What I Learned From Getting My First Credit Card at 28 via GoGirl Finance

What’s new with you? Tell me: what are you enjoying spending money on or feeling guilty about spending money on? Or tell me new and exciting ways you are making that money!

It’s October! My favorite month, ever.

I love fall so much. I love pumpkin everything, crisp weather and the change in seasons.

It’s also my birthday month. In a little over 2 weeks I turn the big 3-0. WOW.

I am happier than ever though. I remember just six months ago thinking to myself that I was itching for a huge change by my 30^th birthday. Well, I got what I wanted.

I quit my job and have been getting more opportunities since FinCon, which was so worth it. How did I do it? I followed up with every single person I got a business card from. Sometimes it’s just a matter of telling people that you are looking and are open to new opportunities.

September was quite busy work wise, but I also had some fun adventures thrown in there. I went camping for 48 hours and completely disconnected from technology and I also went to New Orleans for FinCon and managed to work only 2 hours while there (though I was working furiously the days prior, working many late nights).

I am so happy to report that even with taking 7 days off in September, my income increased 10% from August.

My income breakdown is as follows:

58% Writing

7% Virtual Assisting

3% Sales (sold some books)

27% Event work (includes brand ambassador work and my part-time job at a Jewish congregation)

2% Side Hustle Coaching

3% Advertisement

As you can see, my income doesn’t come from one place. I like it that way. It will be interesting to see how this shifts in the next few months as brand ambassador work slows down – but as I mentioned, I have some new opportunities, which will hopefully put me in a better place. The goal is to steadily increase my income every month.

Now on to the debt…

But first, a confession. At the risk of getting verbal stones thrown at me, I have to let you know I committed a cardinal personal finance sin.

I withdrew $1,700 from my already pathetic retirement account to pay off one of my loans. Yep, I borrowed from my future to pay for my present. What prompted this?

I wrote this article on Joe’s site and asked the readers what I should do regarding balancing my retirement and student loans. Joe has a great group of readers, but because Joe’s site is about retirement I thought people would pat me on the back and say “great job on being more balanced and putting more to retirement!” Nope. The overwhelming response was to pay off my crazy high interest debt.

Before you think I did anything too rash, I sat on it for a while. I looked at the numbers.

Do you know how much my retirement has made this year?

Interest Paid Year to Date: $9.93

My student loan payments cost me hundreds of dollars in interest per month, which results in thousands per year of interest. The math looked at me right in the face. I couldn’t deny that my money would do more going to debt.

I understand I’m looking at a 10% penalty for this, but what’s done is done and I still think it will work out financially. If you want to read some great information on Roth IRAs, check out this post at Finance Girl.

This debt journey has its ups and downs and moments where things change — moments where I make big decisions that seem both right and wrong. Although I was previously craving more balance, I realize that for now I really want to focus on my emergency fund and debt. I have changed my retirement contributions to $20 per month, mostly so I can keep the habit. I think automation is great for creating positive habits to achieve financial success.

So there you have it. My confession. But look at what a nice number I put to debt:

$2,341.51 to debt.

Current balance:

Undergrad loan – $6,317.52

Grad loan – $29,429.73

Total: $35,747.25

My graduate loan is now under $30k! I want to scream from the rooftops about it. For some reason, psychologically, being in the twenties seems much more manageable. It feels like I’m making progress. This is a far cry from when I graduated in May 2011 and I had a balance of $58k on my graduate loans.

Here’s to hoping that I continue to grow my work and can continue to put more to debt, without getting out money from other places.

I am motivated and inspired!

Also, someone anonymously gifted me a Starbucks eCard. Literally, I got an email that said, “Anonymous has given you a Starbucks card!”

I thought it was a scam at first, but I looked at it cautiously. There was even a note. It said, “Melanie, Just because you are awesome and wanted you to have a special day!” By golly, that was one of the sweetest things someone could do. It did make my day! To anonymous, thank you!

Kayla had a great idea of paying it forward! So if you comment on this post, I’ll randomly choose someone this Friday and give out a $5 Starbucks gift card too. Go get your pumpkin spice latte on.

How is October going so far?

Update: Thanks to some friends who are smarter than me, apparently I won’t have to pay a penalty as I withdrew from my Roth IRA. I swear I read a lot of info on the matter when I made my decision, but the language wasn’t very clear, thus my confusion. Either way, I’m not a financial expert as you know — just someone sharing my journey out of debt.

This is a bit late but I wanted to share my juicy news first!

July was pretty great on all fronts, but also stressful. I had to tie up loose ends at my old job and keep everything together, giving 100% to my job and my freelance work, which I have to say was tough.

Side note: During the last week of my job, I got stopped by a street fashion blog during my lunch break. MY RESPONSE WAS PRICELESS.

I got a little break though right after I left, as my parents came to town and we all went to Seattle. It was nice to have an adventure that didn’t cost a lot of money.

I successfully started my cash challenge and the results were shocking — my spending went down 30%!  I am going to keep up with it for a while as it really worked. Kinda bummed that apparently I suck with credit cards, but I think I will ease back into it and will just use it for necessary things, like my new health insurance (which is only $218 btw).

Now for a glimpse at the money…

This month I put:
$1,180 to student loans
$500 to EF
$100 to retirement
$75 to targeted savings

My student loan totals are now:

Undergrad $6,504.27

Grad Loans $31,471.48

Total: $37,975.75

I’m finally starting to feel like I’m making progress! This is a far cry from the $81,000 total I had amassed (23k undergrad, 58k grad).

Usually I’m a fan of the avalanche method of debt repayment, which means I focus on my high interest debt first. Considering my grad loans are a mix of 6.8% and 7.9%, and my undergrad loans are at 2.5% it seems like a no-brainer. At my highest, I was paying $11 a day in interest (UGH!). But, I saw that one of my undergrad loans was chillin’ at $636.25. I saw that and my inner debt huntress emerged.

I AM GOING TO SLAUGHTER YOU! (I swear I’m not that violent usually)

So I paid it off and felt GREAT!

Another win for me is my retirement. OK, I’m kind of embarrassed to admit this. Considering that I’m 29-years old, my retirement is pathetic. I started it at 26 in graduate school, added $20/mo, then stopped when I graduated and couldn’t find substantial work. Also note, NOT ONE of my jobs has ever had a retirement match, so I was never encouraged to start saving early. Even though, of course, now I wish I did. All this to say, my retirement account now has over $2,000! As I said, I know this is nothing to celebrate, but considering I’ve mainly focused on paying off $43,000 in debt, this was a nice milestone!

I’ve been saying for months I want more balance in all aspects of my life and this includes my finances. I can’t just focus on debt, so as I mentioned a few months ago, I’m putting $100 per month towards retirement. I can’t wait to be debt free and max it out!

July was such a great month and now I’ll be changing things up yet again. I have a fairly good idea of what my income will be in August as a freelancer. But everybody pays at different times, so I need to see when I actually receive payments to see how the budget shakes out.

My number one priority is getting out of debt, but I hope you understand that a close second will also be saving, so my EF is flush and also my retirement. I feel more balanced and happier this way.

Even though I may have to tone down some of the payments, I am already seeing a noticeable difference in my happiness. I am sleeping more, spending more time with my partner, and feeling a little more sane.

I also have a lot of ideas on where I want to go and projects I want to accomplish.

First one? Getting a site redesign! You will see the new and improved Dear Debt in the next few weeks…something that reflects my personality a bit more.

Lastly, I have to thank everyone for all the supportive comments about my new adventure in the freelance world. It truly means the world to me. It feels awesome to have people rooting for you and WANTING you to succeed. You all inspire me so much!

Here’s to a great August my friends! Let’s hustle and make that money! Pay off debt! Save! Live life to the fullest!

p.s. I won’t be around much this weekend as I’m working as a Brand Ambassador 8-hours a day, Friday, Saturday and Sunday! MONEY! It’s a pretty easy job, but there is a special sort of exhaustion with standing on your feet all day and chatting with people. Luckily, it’s a food festival, so I’ll get tons of free samples. HA!

Ah, Summer. Here in Portland it is time for the most glorious three months ahead. People suffer with rain and gloom for nearly nine months, just to enjoy the perfect summer, filled with bike rides and beer, music festivals and iced coffee, and lots of ice cream.

I have enjoyed all of those things over this holiday weekend. I hope you all had a wonderful, restful weekend, too.

At the expense of sounding trite, I can’t believe it is July. And I know I seem to say something similar every month, but this year in particular is flying by.

In June, I worked a lot – I’m really happy with the direction things are going and no matter how busy I am, I hope no one thinks I’m complaining. I’m having fun, paying off debt, and learning new skills!

So how did I do in June? Well, first let’s remember that in May my student loan payments were abysmal. As in, the lowest I’ve paid since I started the blog. But as I mentioned, I was waiting on a large reimbursement. The money came and I think I did a good job at evening things out.

In July, I was able to put $1,300 to my student loans and $800 to my emergency fund. I mentioned before that I was feeling a bit vulnerable with my lack of savings, so I wanted to pad it a bit for sanity’s sake. I am very happy with those numbers, but a bit sad as I could have done better. I got a little swipe happy on all the convenience food, energy boosting coffee, and stress busting drinks.

This has been a pattern for months, which I’m not proud of.

So this month, I’m putting away the credit card, and going on a cash diet. I’m only spending cash, so if I don’t have the money at the time, I’m not buying it. I can easily see how you can spend more money with credit cards.

While I’ve been a good pf blogger and have paid my balance in full every month, I’m still spending more. Of course I’ll have the money to pay for it two paychecks later (i.e. at the end of the month), but if I don’t have the money NOW, then why should I buy it?

I’m excited about this cash diet, as I need to be more frugal as my parents are coming to visit in a few weeks and we will spend the weekend in Seattle.

Aside from Seattle and a music festival, I don’t have much planned for the summer. I am however counting the days until FinCon. I am so freaking excited! I can’t wait to meet everyone and get the chance to explore New Orleans.

So far, I’m slated to have a pretty awesome summer. How about you? What are your plans?

Whooooooaaaa, living on a prayer! (I’d be ashamed to admit how long I’ve been waiting to write that.)

I am officially halfway into my journey. After calculating my current numbers, my debt total is at $40, 205.61!

This is a far cry from the $81k total I have accumulated; $23k for my undergraduate degree and $58k for my graduate degree.

I have been paying off debt since 2007, but decided to go back to school in 2010, at which point my debt increased exponentially. It’s been a long process.

I am now in the middle. I look back and see how far I have come. I can’t believe I’ve walked so far. I want to cry in excitement. But then I look forward. I have the same distance looking ahead of me, as I do looking back. There it is. Again. The journey is trying, with tests all along the way. Rewards too, which I am seeing more of lately. I best put on my walking shoes and keep going.

So, what sexy number did I put toward debt this month? $1,441.52

It is now April, and I’ve finally reached my original goal of $1,300 per month toward debt. It is the second highest number I’ve put toward debt, since the Year of Being Uncomfortable began and I put $2,000 to debt in one month (when I had a savings account I was happy to deplete.)

This was only possible because of my work load in April. I lied, I did end up working almost every day. For May, I am completely focusing efforts on online work and select brand ambassador work.

I’ve had some really cool, and interesting things happen lately. Good things. Expect to see me other places on the web 🙂 I hope you will follow me there. In addition, some of these good things have forced me to come out. Like out, out. Like, it’s on my Facebook and LinkedIn, with my full name. I nervously slept last night and woke up this morning before my alarm. Although I feel nervous, I want to open myself to possibilities. I want to live up to my full potential and not be hiding in a shadow of fear. Darkness can be comforting, but I need the light to keep going.

Overall, it was a pretty good month, even though my going out spending still sucked. I truly believe working less/working from home will allow me to not feel like I need/want to go out to eat/relieve stress/feel like I have a life.

How was your month?

It’s my favorite time of the month…..er, don’t know if that sounded right? 🙂 In the personal finance world, end of month updates are a great time to sneak a peek at people’s net worth updates, cheer on fellow debt bloggers, and generally keep up with what’s going on in the community. I love it!

I knew March was going to be a crazy month as I worked every single weekend. I thought the work was coming to an end and told myself I’d relax in April.  However, the late night carnival-esque side gig got extended through April. I’ve decided to only work three days for them the entire month. Going to bed at 4am on weekends, and then waking up at 7am during the week isn’t really working out too well.  I’m getting by, but that’s exactly what I’d call it. Yes, I’m making the money honey, but I’m pretty exhausted and have had moments where I felt like I was losing my mind (see downsides of side hustling).

I confidently scaled down on those hours because I happily booked other gigs! I have some freelance writing gigs in the queue and I can’t tell you how excited I am. Compared to always being on the go, juggling transportation, and eating when I can, I prefer the low-maintenance quality of writing at home.

In addition, I got a part-time job. In December, I worked a holiday party and had a great time. I sent my standard thank you, letting them know I am always available should they need my services again. Radio silence. Oh well, I thought. Some of these gigs are really one-off. Three months later, they contacted me and said they want me to be their part-time events assistant! It’s at a Jewish congregation (and I’m not Jewish), and it’s really fascinating to learn more about the culture and their celebrations. You never really know what one side gig will lead to (see the benefits of side hustling). The work is only 2-5x per month, so it won’t be too consuming.

All in all, I’m juggling my real job, carnival, congregation, and writing! Part of me wants to apologize here for not being as active/supportive to my friends, but I have to remember I’m not doing anything wrong.

The best part of all of this, is that I got some more work for my partner, too! Both the carnival and congregation were in need of more people, so I told them I knew the perfect person. The couple that makes money together, stays together?

Overall, It’s been a pretty good month. I made $778 in side hustle income, and more of that will hit in April. The first half I also spent a lot on food. In addition, my taxes were withdrawn and I had some other unexpected bills.

I know what you are thinking…..SHOW ME THE MONEY!

I put $1,206 towards my student loan debt this month.

I am hoping to continue at this pace, but won’t be too hard on myself as I’m looking forward to a break. In two weeks, I am taking the whole weekend off (gasp) and going wine tasting all weekend. We’ll even be staying at a hotel (that was free from credit card points!) an hour outside of Portland. At this point, it’s much-needed and the one thing keeping me going.

Aside from all the work, I did have some fun. I got to meet Mackenzie in person, which was a dream. She is such a talented writer and amazing person. Meeting people in real life motivates me to no end, so I’m thrilled about FinCon.

How was March for you? What do you have to look forward to in April?

March, is that you? Could it really be? So soon? I feel like yesterday was Christmas, yet in no time it is now March and so many things have happened.

I survived February, which was kind of nutty. After having a three-month dry spell of work from November – January, I am now working my little booty off in February and March. I worked every single weekend in February, and will do so in March (on top of my full-time job) as well. I’m also trying to not fall off the face of the planet here on the blog, as you guys seriously keep me going. I love your thought-provoking comments and encouragement.

February was awesome work wise — however, those checks won’t hit till this month, so it seemed like I worked a ton with little pay. I also went out to eat far too much because I was exhausted and lazy. I can get into this really destructive workaholic mindset, where I just stop caring about money, and I need to eat, so why not go out? I need a balance between cooking, cleaning, working, and eating out. This month it was all out of whack and luckily my partner helped a bit. We both have irregular, crazy schedules, so it’s something we are constantly working on. I’m determined to be better in March!

I must say though, I’m pretty tired. Coffee is no longer working like it used to. Sleep is but a short reprieve of my daily hustles. This weekend, I worked till 3am both Friday and Saturday, which means I was in bed by 4am. For the first time in my life, I woke up at 1pm on Saturday. It felt good. Now that I’m back to the 9-5, I feel unbalanced. Going back and forth is definitely affecting my circadian rhythms. But I know it’s temporary and once these checks start coming in (got my first one today!), I will be reminded why I do this.

So, enough of my semi-incoherent blabbering. On to the numbers!

I paid off $1,100 in debt in February. Once again, not my $1,300 goal, but I think I’ll be happy from now on if it is over a grand. I’m paying my taxes this month, so we’ll see how that shakes out. Baby steps.

Current Numbers:

Grad loan: $34,500.48

Undergrad loan: $7,860.31

Total: $42, 360.79

I feel like I’ve been lingering in the 40’s forevah. Seriously. I’m so eager to see it under 40, so hopefully I can throw a nice chunk of change at my debt this month and keep going. I’m about halfway into my journey and sometimes it feels overwhelming, exciting, and boring. Going through the motions, but it’s not going as fast as I want.

Ask my mom, or my boyfriend: I am not a patient person, and it’s something I try to work on everyday 🙂

I guess debt is a great test for that!

What are you looking forward to in March? I’m excited about a Mardi Gras party at my job! Free food and fun!