Paying off $105K of debt in 35 Months w/ Kate from Living That Debt Free Life

thousand dollars of student loan debt. It's six figures, just in case you're wondering. Yes, Kate is an attorney in Texas and all six figures of that debt were from her law degree. And she just has an awesome story about coming together with her husband and paying that off. And it's a great story and I know that you guys are going to enjoy it. You always love the debt free stories. So we're we're stoked to bring you another one. Yeah, let's get into it. But first from

our sponsors, trying to say that together, wow, I liked that. Okay, we're so in think. So we finished each other's sentences and today's episode is also brought to you by Love. It's Valentine's Day. You thought I forgot I didn't. You wanted to hear an episode about frugal date nights or having money conversations with your spouse. Too bad. I'm giving you what you need, not what you want, because I love you. Real love makes us do things that are

hard but necessary for the betterment of those around us. Love. If you're not struggling a little, you're not doing it right. I'm even you what you need, not what you want, but also a little manipulative. If they're not struggling a little, you're not doing it range. And that's what my mother taught me. That's how love is. It's a little slightly manipulative. If it doesn't hurt, it's not love. Anyways. Well, I love today's episode, and you're going to love it too.

And we're happy to be your Valentine's while you hang out with us on your Gallantine's Yeah, and we hang out and listen to this interview together. Let's get into it. Let's do it, y'all. We are sitting here with Kate from that debt free life. How are you, Kate? I'm so good? How are you guys doing wow. Thanks for asking. Good Happy Valentine's Day as we are recording this for Valentine's Day. Yes, thank you. I'm so excited to be here with you girls. So much love today, so much love.

And when you've read the love I love that we're having you on, I'm very, very in love with that. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. Nice. We're excited to talk about your story Kate, and here your perspective and your journey with paying down debt, and we want to hear to kick us off. We know that your debt was all student loans. It wasn't from overspending

or financial crisis. Not to say that there's something better or worse about that at just as your story is student loan debt, what was the breaking point for you to commit to paying off your debt? So a lot of people, you know, reach that kind of I've had a moment that I'm stick entired, moment that like propels them to take action. I kind of had more of

an epiphany moment. So I had a hundred and five thousand dollars of student loan debt, which was all undergrad and law school loans, everything combined and I was happily just paying the minimums, living my life, not thinking about getting out of debt until we suffered some job layoffs and some things that kind of just made me open my eyes. And even after we recovered from the job loss,

I still did not get myself in gear. Happened was we bought a new house in the middle of debt, right and in the middle of buying that new house, I thought, oh, well, we've got to redecorate it and you know, make it, you know, all the things that you typically do when you get a new house and

not be financially smart. But one of the things that we did was we hired a contractor to repaint our kitchen cabinets and that took three thousand dollars to do and I took three thousand dollars out of my savings to do that. And then after I did a I panicked and I was like, I've got to put this money back in quickly. And so then I got intentional

about putting the money back into savings. And when I did that, I realized I started paying attention to my money, and I thought, oh, my gosh, what have I been doing with my money all this time, like I need to get serious about paying off the student loan debt. And then about that same time where I kind of started realizing, hey, maybe you want to pay attention to your income a little bit more. Things at work, we're getting really stressful, And I mean I was kind of

on the verge of a complete mental breakdown. There were days where like it was just all I could do to get up and shower and like force myself to drive to the office and deal with the office stress. And so I knew that I would never be able to leave my job as a practicing attorney with all of this debt, with this mountain of six figure student

loan day. So I kind of had this combination of realization that I wasn't I wasn't using my money correctly, it was paying attention to my income, coupled with the fact that I wanted to be able to leave the practice of law and do something else which I knew I would never make happen. You know, if I kept on the path that I was going. All from painting your cabinets, many other purchases in there you purchased at home, you did decorate, and it was a painting of the cabinets.

You know why. It's because I had to take money out of savings to do the cabinets, which is so ridiculous, Like that's an emergency to paint your cabinets, right, So do you like the cabinets or do they represent They are so different. The funny thing is, before we did it, like, I didn't realize how much I talked about painting the cabinets. And when we finally did it, you know, my family was like, you know, you talked about that like every week.

I didn't. So obviously I loved it, obviously, you know, it was a good expenditure and I look at the kitchen and I love it. But it was a call, wake up call, so wow, oh my gosh. So how do you feel about practicing law now that you're debt free? Is it different? Are you still kind of feel the same way about it? So it's a really good question. Um, of course it's still stressful. That you know, doesn't change whether I'm I'm debt free or not. But what really

does change because I'm still practicing. I have not left the practice of law, which is something people always ask me about. You know, are you are you actually going to leave now. And the thing that I've learned after becoming debt free is that now I'm going to work as an attorney because I'm choosing to, not because I have to because i have no other choice because I

have debt to pay off. When you're doing something that you're choosing versus doing something that you're forced into doing because you've made poor financial decisions in the past, it's a it's a total game changer. So, yes, there is

still stress. Maybe one day I might leave the practice of law, but I've learned to look at it totally different because now it's um something that I'm using to stay in and now all of that salary that I earned, I geld to keep for me and for my future and for investing in doing what I want to do. So I've been suffering through the law right for all these years for my creditors, but now it's like, I

want to keep that money for me, you know. Like, so now the moment that I finally get to keep my money for myself is not the moment that I want to leave. Yet, you know, the keyword is choosing you to choose, and that that can make all the difference when you suddenly feel a freedom. Then things may not seem as daunting or as overwhelming. It seems more

manageable because you can leave at any moment. But I also like that that's your mindset, that it's not as if great, I accomplish this goal, all right, now I'm just gonna go relax on the couch. It's well, now I see the momentum and what this could do for other aspects of my life, and this is something I can choose to do. I have the freedom to do that. Yeah.

And one of the things that I learned from finally paying off the debt and becoming debt free that becoming debt free is really kind of the beginning of my journey, you know, my whole it took to pay off this debt, and for all those three years, my mindset was like, Okay, that's the end goal. It's an in game, pay off

the debt, that's the end. And once I got there, I realized there is so much more financially speaking, that I want to accomplish that the free will allow, and so really paying off the debt and becoming debt free is kind of just the the beginning of my financial journey. Yeah, people, don't understand that when they are paying off their debt, because it seems like such a big task, they're just looking towards the end of the debt path and they're

not thinking beyond. But yeah, that's so true that because we didn't realize it either. But when we paid off our debt was really the like point zero of our financial journey. It's when we were able to start making decisions for ourselves about what we were going to do with our money, because before the decisions were made for us. And yeah, it's such an exciting time. You're in such an exciting time right now, that's right, because you just

paid off your debt in November of two is that correct? Congratulations. I mean, we're relatively on the cusp of that, although I'm sure four months feels like you've been able to do so many other things. But that's amazing. It still feels kind of unbelievable. Each day, each paycheck, I get like, oh my gosh. And there's such a by the time

you finished, there's such a momentum built up. And I think when when we were paying off our debt, we paid off seventy eight thousand in two years, we were ready to like take a step back, and I think, like Dave Ramsey says, like, once you're done paying off your debt, you like don't have to be gazelle intense anymore. But once we were done is when I was like, yeah,

now I'm ready to be gazelle intense. Like I was tired before and I was worn out, But now I have all this income and I'm ready to be gazelle intense about something else. I just have to find what that is. Because you've been working for a goal for so many years, you know, or you know your case in my case, and it's like, Okay, well what what now I'm going to throw all that focused energy into, Like what is my next goal that I'm going to

get excited about. Yeah, So when people are just starting out, what are some of the things that you did to get that ball rolling? So like expenses, side hustles, like what did you do to get your ball rolling? So we cut a lot of expenses that we were using, um that we decided it wasn't worth paying for anymore, that we would rather send that money to debt instead. And so some of the things that we cut. We had a family membership to the y m c A.

We really weren't using it. I mean, if you're using it, that's one thing, but like nobody ever went So we dropped it and we don't really miss it, which was kind of surprising. You know. Some of the things were like, oh, we're we can't cut this, we can't live without it, and when we finally pulled the plug, was like no, no turning back, you know. So we got rid of the y m c A membership. We had a storage facility where we just had tons of junk, you know,

mainly my husband's not mine to treasures to him. I'm sure, right right, that's that's debatable. So we got rid of that. We started kind of on a minimalism kick, selling everything out of there, selling things around our house, you know, realizing that like once we started selling a bunch of things to get out of debt, we started thinking like we don't really need a lot to be happy, um,

and so we just started selling everything in sight. Um. You know, like I switched to eyeglasses, so I was wearing contacts before and I switched to glasses, so I don't have all that, you know, I was wearing daily contacts and it was just buying contacts and all that good stuff. So that's we saved money that way. I quit getting my nails done. Every month, we did a fifteen day no spin challenge, So every month, fifteen days out of that month, we decided we would not spend

anything that was discretionary. So if we had to like buy a medical prescription or pay the utility bill, certainly you know that that did not count. But in terms of just spending, just discretionary spending, we committed fifteen days every month to just do no spending. And what I love about doing that is after we did that for a year, it equates to six months out of the

year of not spending. I love that. I love that because I talked about no spend challenges a lot and how to customize them, and I think you should customize them so you don't have to follow rule somebody else has made for your no spend challenge. You could do what works for you and just fifteen days. They don't have to be consecutive, right, they can be. It's whatever you want, not equally, it's just six months I'm not spending. Yes,

that's crazy. If you started out and you said, okay, I'm gonna go six months without spending this year, like that would be an amountable impossible task, like I could

never be able to do it. But when you just take it day by day and when they're not consecutive, for me, I found that like not having to do them consecutively was helpful because if I spent one day, let's say I went and got some Starbucks, like my whole plan was not tanked because of that spending night had several days left, I could, you know, hunker down and not spend. And so it that's what worked for me. So with you, you know, it's asked me like what

are the rules? And my first rule is, like you say, like there are no rules, Like just divide thing that works for you, that you challenged and that you know you can stick to it, that's not too difficult that you just give up and throw in the town. And it's a manageable challenge almost even gamifying it a bit that it's like you said, it's breaking it down into bite sized pieces. It's not saying six months out of

the year, I'm not going to spend. It's just every month, find two weeks or a day here and there until it adds up to fifteen days that month. Like there's something kind of fun and alluring about that approach, and

I like it. I like it even more because I doing a no spend challenge allows you it forces you to take a step back and think about your spending in your actions, and when those days aren't planned out, you have to actually take another step back and think about your days and planning in your schedule, and then you start evaluating, like how do my days look, how do my weeks look? What can I cut out? Stuff like that? And so it just adds this another like

mental layer to explore, And I love that absolutely. So I'm going off script here a little bit, but because it's Valentine's Day and we're all about love, I'm so curious about the dynamic between you and your husband during this time, being that this debt was all yours. And I know everybody approaches money differently in marriage. Sometimes it's it's all ours, all the money's ours, all the debts ours, doesn't matter how it came to be, and then others

it's like, no, you've got your bank account. I got my bank account, good luck? How how did that go? Especially with how serious you all had to be with cutting things, out selling things, doing your own version of a no spend. How did that go with your husband? So he was on board from the get go. You know, he understood how just devastating having this debt was on me and how it affected me emotionally so much, just

the weight of it, and so he understood that. But I think throughout our journey, you know, because it really was my debt, something that I brought into the marriage, he didn't have anything, you know, like he didn't have a car payment, like, he had nothing. So I think that he didn't really feel ownership over it as much as I did. Like he was on board, like, yeah, let's pay it off, but I don't he felt the

pressure of paying it off like I did. Um, he was always supportive, like of that being our goal and wanted that to be our goal, because I think he understood like once that is done, he really as much as I'm like a lover of paying down debt, like that was just so fun for me, and I really love that he's like an investment guy, like he wants to invest, and so didn't get to where we wanted to be in terms of investment until we UM, until we got the debt out of the way, So you know,

I won't say that he was excited about paying off the debt nearly as much as I was. And I think it's just because he didn't have that ownership of it like I did. But not suppose you know he was supportive. He was. He probably like, you've got to be on board when you're cutting the y and selling his his treasure the house. Go through this box in the garage. What can I sell? Oh, it sounds like you found a good one cage. I hope you guys

are able to celebrate Valentine's daity if that's what you want. Yes, But it's funny. It's it's a similar story to Jen and I as well. Both her and I are the ones who brought the student loan debt into our marriages. Fully, we found some supportive husbands, but man, we're a group of ladies bringing in the bud. Cheers to being educated. Well. Travis brought Travis brought a little bit of day he'll listen to this. We don't want to leave him out. Brought a little bit of Okay, he was much more

fiscally responsible than me. But I also still have to tell him to sell things out of the garage. So he's a he's a borderline horder. He loves Yeah, he loves stuff. So so it took you three years to pay off all this debt. And even as an attorney, I think sometimes we look at attorneys and doctors paying off their student loan debt like maybe a little differently. That's just like a bias that some people have. But

your story was so so normal, so similar. Sometimes I think we just think of it differently, especially in the financial independence community, that it's maybe a little bit more attainable for people that have certain incomes, are not even incomes, just certain professions, Like we don't know how much the like people are making, and we just assume that they're

making a lot more. But three years to pay off a d five thousand dollars of debt is the same as I've seen other people do it in the same amount of time, you know, on teachers salaries and other stuff like that. So this is so doable no matter what your occupation is. Um but it just cakes motivation and persistence and staying with it. Yet, so, like, how

did you maintain motivation over those three years? So I did a lot of different things, because you know, three years is a long time to stick with the goal. It's a long time to sacrifice financially to meet a goal. Um So, one of the things that I did was I always broke up what I wanted to accomplish, kind of like in those bite sized chunks, like we were

talking in terms of no spending. So every month, I set a goal for myself of what I wanted to accomplish that month, and then I kind of zoomed out and decided, Okay, if I'm going to make this goal in three years, this is what I've got to do for those three years, and this is what I've got to do on a monthly basis to hit it. And every month I would set those goals and check in on myself and make sure that I was hitting them.

But you know, kind of in terms of motivation, some of the things that I love to do was I used visuals. So I made like a total nerd here, but I made you know, charts and graphs and all kinds of visuals to track my progress. But I could just look at it and see how far I've come and how much I have left to go, which is really motivating. For me, and I know a lot of people do like those charts where they color them in so they can visually see their progress. I didn't really

do that. But what I did do was I made something called the Chains of Debt. I loved that. I loved watching you do this so on Instagram. Yes, so the Chains of Debt is just like a paper chain, like you'd make it Christmas, you know, paper chain, And each piece of paper was two fifty dollars. I think it's it's been a few weeks since i've I've done I've already forgotten it, so I can't remember. But I made each chain a dollar amount. And this chain, you guys,

was so ugly. Make it ugly, that will get rid of it. But well, it's nice decoration. I'll just leave it up. It looks cute. It was so hideous, and I hung it in my bedroom so it was like one of the first things I supped every moment and I'm like, I can't wait to get this thing out

of here. It's so vidious. But what I thought about doing the ain as opposed to like the coloring, and this is really kind of my husband's idea, is that the paper chain gets smaller and smaller and smaller over time, so you can see your debt minishing, whereas like if you're coloring something in it's getting bigger and bigger. So for me that I could just watch my debt disappearing before my eyes and fully motivating to just see it.

You know, it's a little overwhelming at first when we when we hung it up, and it was like, you know, seventeen miles long, but the length of your small intestine you can wrap around the world a few times. So so I really loved that. And then one other thing that you know, I would recommend to anyone that we did or that I did, was I started this Instagram account, right, So I started an Instagram account at that Debt Free

Life specifically designed just to document my journey. Like when I begin that account, it wasn't really to like help people or inform them or teach them, like I didn't even consider that, you know, it was just to keep me on track. And I'll tell you, like the first year that I did this journey, I was not on Instagram and I only paid off seventeen thousand dollars that year, and then the other two years I paid like forty five thousand or forty something like that. So it was

a significant difference because I had that accountability. That's why I love, you know, social media for that reason. Like if you can't get a good accountability partner in your life, you can get a fantastic team of accountability partners if you turn to social media and just are comfortable putting your story out there. Yeah. Wow, I love so much of the tips you just gave. That paper chain is brill Yes, it almost reminds me of the cash envelopes system.

Bear with me the idea that we do better with finances if we have physical representations of it and we kind of feel it. You don't have a physical representation of your debt unless you're looking at it all the time and you have that reminder. So this really provided a physical reminder, which it sounds like helped to keep you on track phenomenally. Absolutely. Yeah, that's a really good analogy. Thank you, just talking about the small intestine reminders. Yeah.

In your Instagram you have over a hundred thousand followers on Instagram. People have just like loved what you've been saying because your Instagram is super helpful. Like you may not have intended to start out this way, but you definitely got there, like you're Yeah, a year into my our debt payoff, I started my first blog for the same reason. I just needed some accountability. I needed to put it out there, and to me, helping people was my way of maybe staying motivated. And and it did.

And I felt that second year went by a lot quicker than the first year, and it was mostly because I was trying to invest in people to get, you know, to help them get where I was. And and yeah, that is what you've done on Instagram. You've done such a great job. If you are on Instagram, she's kids at that debt free life and you will not be disappointed.

You can see the paper chain and the chain of debt and the things I'll say about social media and doing you know, kind of what you and I are doing in terms of our social media is that for me, I'm made a goal on my Instagram to post every single day something finance related, something about my arnie, something that would maybe help other And when you were thinking about it every single day and people are asking you questions and you're talking about it all the time, it's

hard to fall off the wagon, you know, like, it's stay disciplined and to stay where you need to be when you're constantly when it's constantly on your mind and in your conversations and surrounding yourself with it. Yeah. Oh, for sure, you've given us so much good advice already, Kate. But what is the best piece of advice you might have for someone who is just starting their debt free journey right at the beginning, right at that painted the

Cabinet's last week stage. You know, it's it's really such a difficult question, and it's one that people ask me all the time, and I quite honestly never really know how to answer it. There are so many different advice you can give. Um. You know, one piece of advice I would say is just too believe that it can happen. You know, your mindset is so critical to your success. I know a lot of people in that you know, Painting the Cabinet stage, they think, like, I will never

be out of debt, and I became debt free. I did a live debt payoff, my final debt payment. I did it live on Instagram and it's staged there to my Instagram TV stories. You can see it if you want to But during that broadcast, I pulled out my journal from those painting the kitchen cabinet moments, and I went through and I read my journal to you guys, and it was filled with things like this debt will never be paid out of debt? Will I ever be able to do this? Like just total discouragement, because I

didn't think that it could be the beginning. But I just want to say that, like, no matter where you are, single income, single mom, dual income earners, no matter if you've got six figures of debt or you know less than that or more than that, like anyone can do it. It absolutely can be done. Whoever is listening to this podcast, like you, Yes, you can do it if you will just stick to the plan. So make your plan, stick

to it. And you know, a lot of times, and we talked about today, a lot of times we talk about motivation. And one of the pieces of advice that I give people who are asking about how to get out of debt is, honestly, motivation really doesn't matter. You've got to learn to be disciplined. So if you yes, like you don't want to do it, like you don't want to spend you know that money you don't want to send it to student loan. You want to go blow it on a shopping spree or whatever. Like. Honestly,

it doesn't matter what you want to do. You just have to do what you have to do. So if you can devise a plan and be disciplined, you'll get out of debt. That's all you need. Knowledge and discipline, that's all you need. Yes, good word. Wow, can't top that? Nope, other than just go into the best time of the week. Yeah, that's a perfect segue to the bill of the week. That's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name

is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That bill, Buffalo Bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week, Kate. Every week we ask our listeners or our guests to share with us their favorite bill. Do you have a bill for us? I have a bill and it is kind of a play on words, so I don't know if this will count. Girl break in. My favorite bill is my play bill from the Lion King in New York. So when we

am debt free in November. That very next month, in December, we did a bucket list item which has been on my bucket list for a hundred years, and that is to go to New York City at Christmas time. And while we were there, we saw the Lion King, which is something I've been wanting to see on Broadway for a while. So if that counts, I will. We've never had that one. Yes done? And how was it? The Lion King on Broadway? That sounds amazing? Gosh, I loved it.

It was spectacular, spectacular, that's amazing. How long were you in New York City for? We were there for about five days, so glorious, glory us. Traffic's terrible that time of year, but I'm glad you went. The beauty out overshadows it. Traffic is always terrible, let's be real, but even more terrible if you can image than that. But amazing when you get to see the Lion King on traffic. Hey, even Christmas songs talk about it, so I feel like

that's okay. Traffic is how do they say ridiculous? That's not it. I don't know traffic. If you have been through the traffic and you have a bill to share with us. Please visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill to leave us a voicemail or speak pipe and uh we will play your bill on the air, whether it took you hours of traffic to get to or not. We'll play it focusing on the wrong things. I'm sorry. That's what we're here for, to go off the rails.

All right, and now it's time for our second favorite time of the week, the lightning Round. I'm not wasting any time. Nope, we are shooting off our favorite or the things we're looking looking or looked forward to buying the most after debt freedom. So we are all in different stages of debt freedom. I've been debt free for two years. Kate's just step free. She'll still working on it and so soon, guys, you're going, you're going, so

getting there, you'll get a different perspective on everybody's answer. Um, So, Kate, as our guests, please go first that first thing, the thing you're looking forward to most about buying or that you have bought. So the big thing that we are looking forward to buying is new kitchen floors. If you've

been a long time following mine on Instagram. You have seen my horrible kitchen tile floors that are legit broken like a hundred pieces, like terrible, But we didn't want to replace them while we were on our debt free journey because we had a mission. So now that it's done, it's going to be several thousand to replace them. But that's one of our um first things that we want to do in terms of you know, uh, fixing up

the house after after having freedom, so home renovations. So this has nice floors to go with those nice cabinets. Since the cabinets don't dip into savings. It's like wearing a really nice top and sweatpants, right right, you gotta The first thing that we did do second after we became debt free was take that trip right to New York. So that was like the bucket list item crossing off item. Now that that dreams on other things, Yeah, there's three four or five, six, seven things down the list to

do it. Yeah. So for me, this is gonna sound like teacher's pet answer, but it it's honest, it's real. For where I'm at right now, I'm looking forward to putting the money that we are accustomed to putting towards debt into savings. I don't I travel a ton with my job, We've been able to go on really inexpensive vacations. Like that's just that doesn't hold much for me right now, as far as you know what your typical what you

hear typical goals might be. For me, it's really just putting that money towards savings and kind of getting up over that hump and the excitement for seeing the exponential growth in that direction for long term goals like possibly buying a house, if that's even what we want to do. Let's be honest, living in a camper is fun and cheap fruit well, I mean it's real, it's inexpensive. So yeah,

that's that's my boring on a stanswer. Goodness, No, I think so many people can relate to that though, Like you know, every particularly when you go back and you look at and you're like, oh, I spent X thousands of dollars on death this year, everyone thinks of themselves. I can't wait till that's our money, you know. I think it's a great great response. Thanks, Kate, Yes, I love You're so easy to please. That's why it's why we work well. Together because I require a lot and

you are. You are pleased by the simple things, minimalist that heart. Yeah. So speaking of uh M, a little bougie. The first thing we bought was a cruise because I wanted to go on a cruise. I love cruises. I am not a big world traveler. Um, I don't enjoy that. We had an Airbnb guest the other day said they went to they visited Honduras, and I was like, that sounds horrible, and I just I like cruises. And we stated at our first all inclusive resort in December, and

I still think about it. I still miss it. It was for for five days, and all I want to do is go back. So we we took a cruise and that was great. And it's another Travis and I don't travel well together unless everything is included, because we'll fight about money. I love that you know that about yourselves.

So that's another reason I don't enjoy traveling unless it is a cruise or an all inclusive resort, or if you find any other ways to travel where everything is included, just like, let me know, because I will also try those things. So that's mine and I don't know if it's bougie or if like I've just been in Florida for so long. I have a retirees my set. You can get cruises right from where you're at, so we just drive twenty minutes and we're at the port. Don't

get me wrong, I am going to still travel. I enjoy it. It's just not the first thing I'm gonna do. Yeah, you did go to You did go to Wine Country, and I was jealous of that. I did. I did. Don't want to take the wine train. I do have some feedback on that though it might not actually be all that you wanted to be. But we'll talk about that later, right, Yeah, okay, let's talk about the wine train later. Kate, thank you so much for hanging out

with us, Yes, morning, thank you love it. Where can people find more about you and what you're doing this year? So they can check out the blog and that is www. Got Living that Debt Free Life dot com. And then I am also on Instagram at that Debt Free Life. Those are the two main places where I hang out some. Thanks so much, thanks for having me. So glad we got to do that interview. So good. Yes, I say this about budgeting, but I feel like we could have

a debt payoff story just about every week. I think it's so helpful to hear how other people have done it at various levels of income earning and various amounts of debt to be paid off. But still there are fantastic tips for anybody to pull from. Yeah, yeah, I love it. It's it's never too much to be reminded

of other people's journeys and stories. So yeah, And obviously the six figure numbers are very cool and they're very clickable, But I think the real, the true power in the story is the time it took for her to pay it off. It was almost three years, and that's a long time for anybody to be committed to something that difficult, And I think there's Kate has a lot of wisdom for what it takes to do hard things and see them through. Yeah. Yeah, I loved it. And by the

time this episode airs, Kate's kitchen tile was fixed. She did fix the kitchen tiles. Uh, there were tiles in her basement or closet or somewhere in the house and they were able to fix it. Yes, she had extra So congrats Kate. Anyhow, so we want to thank you all for the ways that you've been supporting us, and we're doing something a little bit different this year in in how we're thanking you. But we want to first read a kind review like this one. It comes from

Ibod Travels and it's called Finances for Real People. I listen to this podcast us every week. The topics always get me thinking about new ways to improve my finances. Their advice helped me increase my savings rate enough to max out my four oh one K contributions when Amazing Bod Travels. I'm so glad to be a part of your journey in that way, to be able to provide the encouragement motivation community to get at these goals thing.

What a big change to be able to max out your four oh one K contributions and to be a part of somebody's story in that way. It's really an honor thank you, and so we do genuinely thank you. We want to thank you for more than just one time leaving a review. We want to thank you for

every time you share the podcast. So from now on, whenever you share the most recent episode and tag us in it on Facebook or Instagram, We're going to also enter you to win um one of ten dollar Amazon gift cards we are giving away for every five tags or reviews we receive every month. Yeah, so, like Jen said,

we're giving away ten dollar Amazon gift cards. You can enter by leaving us a review on iTunes or Stitcher, screenshot the review, send it to Frugal Friends Podcasts at gmail dot com, or share the podcast episode so both ways will get you entered to win. Yes, so, thank you so much for listening. Thank you for spending your gallon Time's day with us, and share us with your girlfriends. Yeah, we love it, and we love you and your boyfriends and your boyfriend, your mom and your dad who are

struggling to love you now. Yeah, okay, we're gonna end it now. If you're not struggling, you're not whatever. Love, We love you. Bye. Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by Eric Seria. Oh Jill, what are we going to do for Valentine's Day? Notice how I said I just went into week. I didn't ask you what you're doing for Valentine's Day? With Eric? I said, what are we doing for Valentine's Day? Well, I am parked in your driveways, so I'm probably about to come knock on

your door. Yeah, for sure. Hopefully you're dressed. I'm all ready for that. Not. Why don't I just spend Valentine's Day alone? No, I'm coming over. Okay, we're spending it together. Rak, all right,