I’ve been inspired by a college kid
by iowenomore
My hero!
This is my hero and that link is to his blog. He paid down his Harvard debt in less than a year!
I call him kid because..well..to me..he is. There is no disrespect there at all. I actually have 2 sons older than him and 1 son that is his age. So Joe, if you happen to see this, I applaud ya kid!
Joe has inspired me to get off my ass and pay off what I owe. Mainly, a house that I don’t live in that is out of state, which I am going through the motions of refinancing so I can finally let go of the emotional strings tied to it and sell it, and I also want to pay off the land I’m living on.
I’ve never owned a credit card believe it or not and only one time did that hamper me. It was when I tried to rent a car at an airport. Apparently rental car places don’t like ATM cards. But that was the only time.
I’m writing this blog to keep myself motivated to do what I need to do. I’m 3 years out from retirement and my life is going in directions that I’m not sure about yet. I do not make near whatever Joe makes. I work for the State and we keep getting paycuts.
I have a husband that I need to divorce because he thought it was ok to kiss a skank and text her for a 6 month period. Somehow I thought I heard him say, “Will you marry me?” to me one day and that he meant it. Chalk me up as an old fool. That’s what I get for choosing somebody 7 years younger. But there are many things I need to clean out of my life besides him. The rest are material and I want to be debt free. Soon.
I’m a state worker and they will fire me if I have another job besides them. I live in a small town where everybody knows each other so a 2nd job here is out of the question. The next closest town is an hour away but a lot of people I work with live there and I’d be seen. I need to get creative in making extra money on the sly.
I already do the coupon clipping and I am able to buy my groceries for under $100.00 a month and that’s buying name brand foods only for 3 of us. There’s a little more to it than just clipping coupons and I have the time. I work 12 hour shifts so one week I have 3 days off and the next week I have 4 days off. I do not spend more than 2 hours a week on couponing. But I will say this, I’ve seen the extreme couponing show and I put them to shame.
So, here I am in my early 50’s, just 3 years away from retirement because of the specific field I’m in and everything that I thought was what I wanted in life has come to a crashing halt. I already went through the tears and disappointment so this blog will not focus on that at all. I will spare you of the gory details. But I will say this… my 4 year degree in Criminal Justice did not, in any way, prepare me for the BS that life can and will throw at you.
I am ready for this challenge I have given myself.
As soon as my out of state house gets refinanced, I will hopefully sell it quickly. The land I live on, I owe $36,000. My college loan, which I received late in life, I owe $49,000. I want both of these paid off by Christmas of 2013. Today is Sunday, so tomorrow will be an eye opener day for sure when I call and find out exactly what I owe on both of these with the interest included.
My mother passed away not too long ago so now I have a 4 bedroom house full of everything she had sitting in storage that I will begin selling on ebay. Craigslist scares me. That’s the first thing I’ll be doing. I also have a ton of stuff that I now want to get rid of.
When I pay this land off, I’ll be giving it to my son and I haven’t figured out if I’ll put my own little house on it or just go live somewhere else. I need to figure out what my remaining years will consist of since my original plans have changed. In the last 5 months of this year I have already made some changes. We no longer have cable tv. I was spending $150.00 a month of cable that nobody watched. I now have Hulu and Netflix for a total of $16.00 a month and everybody is very happy with that. I changed my internet from Hughes Net which was costing $80.00 a month since I live in the sticks, with the worst service ever. Now I’m with our local cable guy with wireless internet for $25.00 and it’s really fast compared to what I had. I’ve only had to call them once when the wind blew my dish off of my roof and I was able to understand them perfectly! An hour later my internet was back up and running. That was nice! I no longer use propane for heating which during winter was costing me $500.00 a month and winter is 6 months long here. I went out and bought a pellet stove. Best purchase ever in my life! It cost me $1,500. and the pellets are $200.00 a ton. There are 49 bags in each ton and I use 1 bag every 3 days. I have never used 2 tons for any winter and since this past winter was so mild, I used 10 bags all winter long. I still have propane which is only used for hot water, but I will be purchasing a tankless electric water heater so that I never have to bother with propane again. Propane is ridiculously high! So these are some of the things that I have started doing to save money. With the savings, I have been making double land payments and seeing it go down has been fun to watch! But I need to make more than double payments to get to my goal.
I’ll be back on here tomorrow, hopefully with news of some sales from all the stuff I need to sell. Right now I’m going to go out to the storage and start taking pictures of what I want to sell. I won’t be giving out the links to these as this is not why I started this blog. I want to hold myself accountable, in writing, for getting out of debt and starting my life over.
I’m sure you’ll never see this, but thank you Joe for the inspiration I needed!
And hopefully I’ll learn how to use this blog properly.
iowenomore 
Awesome on starting this blog! Sorry about your husband 😦
Aww..thanks honey! He totally blindsided me with this garbage so I’m done with him. I’m on a mission now with getting these things paid off. My financial freedom is my top priority. Thank you for stopping by! You’re sweet!
[…] In the meantime, folks, we need more of this: https://iowenomore.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/ive-been-inspired-by-a-college-kid/ […]
Thank you so much Joe! You’ll never know how much it means that you took the time to recognize me. You seriously motivated me. I woke up at 4:30am and starting pulling out other things to sell today. I laughed today thinking, “This is wayy more than Spring cleaning, this is life cleaning.” I hope that when you come across negative people talking about your wages that you always remember that the people behind you like myself don’t feel as they do. I, for one, am happy that you shared as much as you did! You did a great thing for us Joe and I thank you.
I command you for taking control of your life. It is very empowering. I’ve accomplished the same in the past and somehow rippled down to losing myself. But I’m certain I will attain control.
I currently reside in one of the most costly states and cities, New York. It’s really hard for supermarkets to honor more than one coupon and it limits the quantity of products that you can purchase. Do you have any pointers? I’ve watch the show in the hopes of finding something that I may be able to use in my state and city.
Again, thanks for the inspiration. Joe did read it. He recommends your blog and that’s how I came across it.
Hi Karen! I’m originally from NY too. White Plains. 🙂
There is a woman named Susan Samtur from NY that is the queen of couponing. She started back in the 70’s doing tv talk shows showing everyone how to do it. Now she has an online site http://www.refundlebundle.com You should check it out. I receive, about every 3 months I believe, this little magazine she sends out. It has the manufacturers names and addresses. In this magazine each manufacturer tells you things..for example…”send us 3 box tops from Campbells soups” and we’ll send you $3.00 cash. They really do. I think her magazine is $20.00 a year and when you order it, you also get coupons and a dvd showing you how to do everything. I don’t know her personally, but my mom followed her for years and our family of 10 ate like kings for very cheap. Feel free to email me Karen and I’ll send you links to other sites and give you all the tips I know. I’m at: iowenomore@yahoo.com
One other little tip..go into your cupboards and see what foods you have. Then get online and email each of them and tell them how much you like their product. Most will send you coupons for a free product. Totally free!
Thank you for responding!
Lady, you are awesome. I know you CAN do it!!! I am going to do it too and I am older than you, God bless!! dee
Hi Dee! Feel free to email me anytime you’d like at iowenomore@yahoo.com. Maybe we can bounce some ideas off of each or something. Thank you for your encouragement!
best wishes in getting to your goal! you go girl!
Thank you stef! Finding these replies in my inbox has floored me! It makes me feel really good and I sincerely appreciate it!
Just wanted to wish you good luck! i am so glad Joe inspired you and it sounds like you are absolutely on the right track with getting rid of cable and propane! How exciting when you look back at this first post in Dec. of 2013 and realize how far along you have come! think about internet opportunities for a 2nd job. Then no one will even know about it! There are lots of freelance-work-from-home opportunities. Just have to find them and market yourself! For example, you could proofread. People email you their documents and you proofread them on your own time and send them back 🙂 Just an idea. I wish you the best of luck!
Hi Niki! I love your idea about the freelance work! I started to google it but I kept coming up with companies that wanted to charge hundred of dollars for me to do it. Is there somewhere to look that doesn’t charge or is charging normal? I’d love to proofread for somebody!
Thank you soo much for responding!
Way to go, and don’t ever give up!
Thank you olgav100! I have made Joe’s page my home page as my inspiration to do what I need to do every day to make this work. It was really exciting this morning when I checked my account to see that people had responded! Talk about motivation! Thank you again!
I was inspired by Joe too, we should start a club! I hope you post some of your couponing tips one day. 🙂 In terms of a second job, can you (and are you willing) to babysit or other such jobs?
Hi Rose!
Babysitting wouldn’t really work for me. I live out in the country and it takes me 30~40 minutes to get into town, depending on if there are cows or deer out on the road. I could do a post about couponing! So what should we call ourselves?
The No Debt Club
Paying It Down
Joe’s Protege’s
*lol*
Got any ideas? I’m not very good at naming.
“My mother passed away not too long ago so now I have a 4 bedroom house full of everything she had sitting in storage that I will begin selling on ebay. Craigslist scares me. That’s the first thing I’ll be doing. I also have a ton of stuff that I now want to get rid of.”
Hi! …… I’m sorry to hear about your mother, but I think this is a perfect first part-time job; it works perfect with your schedule of 3 and 4 days off from your full-time position and it’s cash (tax-free). It will get rid of all the unwanted items and clutter and your schedule allows you the amount of time involved in selling that much stuff!
Way to go, good luck and we’re cheering you on!!
Hi Liz!
I think you’re right! It’s a ton of work going through everything, there is so much stuff! Thank you very much for cheering me on!
This is great to find another person working down their debt!! I will be reading your blog. It helps to stay focused and find like minded people to who are on the same journey. Thank you for your honesty and inspiration.
Hi Cathy!
Thank you for responding! I’m really glad that I’ve had these few days off to get started on this. Glad to hear you are doing it as well! We can keep each other motivated!