About me (livingfrugalsavingmoney.com)
My name is Dinnetta and I’m 31 year old reformed shop-a-holic. I have a beautiful son, Lucian, who is 5 (he will be 6 in September 2009, which is hard to believe he’s growing so quickly!) and an amazing fiancée, Sean. I am step-mother to 2 lovely children, Kourtnee, who is 12 and Taylor, who is 15. (Scroll down for some pictures of all of us!) They’re spitfires, I’ll tell you that. So we have an average household size. We make an average household wage. So, we are not rich. We’re not “well off”. And we don’t have rich parents. We’re just… average. And, I am a Frugal Fran!! I clip coupons. I scour fliers for deals. I search the internet. You name it. I’m getting a deal on it. I HATE to pay retail for anything and I love to share and give! Now, a little background on me…
I was in debt over $30,000 with a credit score of less than 600. I made money working 2 jobs, but I didn’t make it work for me. I let it control itself and it got me into trouble. I finally decided that I did not want to live like that and if I needed to buy something big, I wanted the credit to do it. So I started to clean it up. And I started small. I started with calling some creditors with the lowest amounts owed to them and offering them 50% of what I owed. TO my surprise, it worked!! As I got more momentum, I started putting that amount of money onto the next one and “doubled” up working my way up the line of debts, until finally – one day – amazingly everything was paid. That day was just 2 years ago – it took me about 3 years to pay off all that debt on ONE INCOME.
It took me a while and I hit some road bumps along the way, but I made it. I truly made it. I was not as dedicated to working through those debts as I am working into my financial freedom today. But I am here to share my experiences, my mistakes, and my triumphs so that others can too be on their way to financial freedom! Come Join Me!
Today, I do not have a bad credit score, thankfully. Because anyone who has a questionable credit score knows how hard it is to live (if you don’t have a ton of money in the bank, which most of us DO NOT and need to get some credit now and again). It took me about 5 years to get here, but I got here and now I
am dedicated to living better and saving money! That’s where we work together!
So, here’s where we are (as of March 20, 2009).
Here are my goals and plans. We have approximately $259,000 worth of debt (including the house).
- We have $0 credit card debt (but I’m going to help you face this if you do!! I WENT THROUGH IT ALL AND SURVIVED!)
- We bought Sean a new Truck this year (which we could have gone used, but the new one was pretty. We got sucked in by the shiny exterior and the new car smell… I swear they put something in new cars that mentally makes it hard to walk away. I swear it). Amount Owed: $31,000
- I bought my car in 2007 with $10,000 down and owed $12,000 on it. I have it paid down to only owing $10,485. I got a HORRIBLE interest rate, which I’m going to cover all of the mistakes that I made when I did anything with you so that you don’t do it! I learned the hard way. And now I know better!!
- We bought the house March 28th, 2008. We owe $194,000 on it.
- I went to college and accrued $24,000 in student loan debt.
So that takes us to a debt of $259,000 (give or take a couple bucks).
Goal? To have everything, including the house, paid by 2019. That’s $235,000 PAID off in 11 years. And, I want to do it faster. Yes. Faster. Join me on the adventure and learn from my mistakes and research along the way. You’ll be SURPRISED at how easy it is to change your lifestyle and how fun it is!
Even if you’ve tried before, and failed, DO NOT GIVE UP. What you need is encouragement. You need someone there with you every step of the way and if you don’t have that in your life, you’re going to find it difficult. But, persevere. You’re strong. You’re able. You’re FABULOUS!
Trust me when I say – I had a lot of doubt when I started to live frugally when I was paying off my debts. I got made fun of when I would clip coupons. I got teased by friends and family when I would break out my free trial of hand lotion and everyone else had nice fancy bottles. People looked at me strangely when I had a huge hand of coupons looking for the best deals. But you know what? I did it. I paid my debts. And it feels AWESOME.
It’s going to be even BETTER when we’re debt free. TOTALLY debt free. If all goes well, I’m going to be 42. Wow.
Here’s the gameplan:
- Save
- Save
- Save
- Life Frugally
- Live Realistically
- Share every mistake and bit of knowledge I have gained
- Love life
- Take advantage of EVERY freebie I can
- Get stuff for free or nearly free
- Feed my family on $40 a week
- Note – and we eat Healthy. No HFCS. No Hydrogenated Oils. Low saturated Fat. NO JUNK FOOD ALLOWED. IF we can do it, you can do it…
LET’S DO IT!
