Ditchin' Debt

After five years at the same company, I was laid off. It came as a real shock, but I was getting the feeling something bad was going to happen. I was asked to come to a meeting room and two people from HR were there with a folder. They gave me information about cobra and asked if I had any questions. Obviously, I was still in shock so I said no. They asked for my badge and told me I had to leave and couldn't go back to my desk, which was filled with pop toys, my 8-month-old basil plant, and pictures of my daughter. Just like that, I didn't have a job or income. That happened on the 19th of February. A week has gone by and I'm getting into a rhythm of breakfast, games, applying for jobs, lunch, cleaning the house, repeat. But I'm really missing going to work. There's a saying, "you don't appreciate something until it's gone." and I feel that.  Being laid off also threw a huge wrench in my "get out of debt" plan. The plan is being ...

Being able to control what you spend is crucial in getting out of debt. The easiest way to cut costs is to find out what you can cut and what you can't cut.  Let's take my budget for example. There are three items that I can't cut because of how fixed they are. Those items are my mortgage, my daughter's daycare, and my debt. Now, there are ways to lower these amounts whether it's refinancing your mortgage, finding an alternative daycare provider, or consolidating your student loans or other loans. But assuming you've done all you can do like we have, then we're sitting at about 83% of my spending I can't touch or do anything about. Now, this number may scare some but we're working on getting out of debt right? So that percentage will slowly go down over time. We got this! Now, the other 17% we can move around and change to an extent. That percentage consists of Utilities, Cable, Groceries, and Gas. Some ways you can cut these cost is by l...

This week we focused on staying on budget. I also applied and was accepted to an affiliate program which I'm very excited about! I'm looking up a lot of information on affiliate marketing and best practices. Some of the info I've learned is how to market the products on Pinterest. I plan on doing most of the affiliate marketing on there, and maybe sprinkle some cool products on twitter and the blog. Right now I am using ShareASale to find affiliate links to try and make money. My strategy is to find programs that will help people get out of debt. So far I am doing affiliate stuff for a Cashback website called DollarDig ( https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=569535&u=2292638&m=51865&urllink=&afftrack=  ) and a discount jewelry store called Balla.  (https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=785753&u=2292638&m=52317&urllink=&afftrack= ) For those of you interested, the way I can make money with these company's is if you click on the links and register ...