Paying Off $51K of Debt as a Teacher & Single Mom with KT Lynn

a teacher. And we have so many listeners who are teachers, so many good friends who are teachers, that we really were so excited when we found Katie on Instagram because we're like, ah, we need more teachers on we need more teacher stories. Yeah. I think a lot of people can relate to not just teaching as a profession, but all so the other parts of Katie's story being a single mom and you know, not making a ton of money and what does that look like if we're not

raking in multiple six figures? How do we pay off debt? And so I think anytime we can have a voice that feels representative of some of our listeners, and I think all the voices we've had on here represent somebody within our listenership. But I think Katie represents a very specific pocket of people where there can be additional difficulties in the debt payoff journey and to know how can this still be done? What is the hope? What are

the tips? So we are very much looking forward to getting her story in front of you, absolutely, But first, this episode is brought to you by listeners like you, from the listeners who brought you over six hundred five star reviews and ten thousand email newsletter subscribers. Comes a new group. Actually we are bringing them, you guys. A new group um A group for sharing frugal living tips, money saving wins, and pictures from your exclusive frugal friends.

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stay here, stay with us. There are a few other episodes that you can key up to listen to after this that are also debt payoff stories. We've got episode two oh three, How Maggie paid off her mortgage as a divorced single mom Um. Maggie is great and she really persevered through some hard stuff where others might go off the rails financially in tough times, looking probably at me and my family. Um, she really chose, she woke up and chose violence, and she really busted this thing

out on her own. So I love that violence. Violence against her mortgage. Ye, not physical violence towards people, sorry, violence against apathy. And then episode one, how Lydia Sen paid off third six thousand dollars of debt on one income. So she has a family of I think when they paid off debt it was maybe a family of four. I think now it's family of five, and they were paying off their debt just on her husband's income. And so that one is a really great one for for families. Ah,

and here we go. Here's another one that's probably going to be a huge crowd pleaser. Yeah. So Katie is a thirty five year old single teacher mom and she has spent the last four years navigating life's difficulties while slowly paying off debt. Her story is unique and that she just finished paying off her debt very recently. And so I think the further you get out from paying off your debt, that the more perspective you have, which

is a good thing to hear. The closer you are to it, the more you remember the pain and the sacrifice and everything. And so I love sharing. I love grabbing people who just finished paying off debt because they're stories, UM, are very good and should also be shared in addition to the other stories. So very excited for you guys to hear this episode. Let's do it, Katie. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. We are very excited to have you on. Thank you for having me on today. Our

listeners love debt payoff stories and so do we. It's why we highlight them so often. And so to hear your perspective with the uniquenesses that make up your own story is something we're really looking forward to getting into. So to start us off, can you take us back to a little bit of the beginning of your debt payoff journey? How did you find yourself in debt? Can

you tell us a little bit about that? Sure? So, UM, I really didn't even start thinking about the amount of debt that I had collected UM until probably about December of two thousand seven teen. I had normal debt, you know that people think of as normal student loans, car payment, UM, credit cards that I would put things on. But I think I really just realized that it was Christmas time, obviously, and I was a new mom. I had my son was a little over a year old, and Christmas was hard,

like trying to figure out presence and stuff. I was putting like every and anything on my credit cards, and I just felt like this overwhelming sense of dread. I was like, I can't even you know, pay for the Christmas presents. Obviously, all our bills always got paid because at the time I was married, so um we had separate accounts but joint account for bills and things like that, so mortgage, car payments, everything always got paid on time. But I felt like anything extra that I wanted I

was constantly putting on credit cards. So that December I kind of just I was like, what am I doing? Um, all the stuffs under the tree and I'm going to be paying it off for the next year. So I just typed in UM to Google search debt payoff and one of the first names, obviously that popped up was Dave Ramsey. So I bought his book, The Total Money Makeover, and I read. I read through it in like a day, and I just decided that I was going to try

it because I couldn't stand that I was. I had a full time job, you know, I shouldn't be struggling as much as I was. Wow, Christmas was the turning point. That's usually the time when we don't want to look at our expenses. We don't want to. It's just like I just want to give and I want to have a really nice time here. I don't want to look at the reality that's here. But it sounds like that was the time that you actually looked and saw, Okay, this is a situation I don't want to be in.

Were you aware at that point how much debt you had? Was there a looking at the bank statements or the credit card statement to know the collective number, just um, you know, hiding from them, you know, just looking at the minimums that I needed to send out. And then I think, you know, I did get my credit card statement around Christmas time because I had started shopping, you know, in November and things like that, and I was like, I just the number hurts, you know, because I've always

had a really great credit score. Um, I mean, my my mom and my dad were really good with you know, teaching me about credit scores and how you should open, you know, credit card just to get something in your name for your credit history and things like that. You know, all my car payments were always in my name and things like that. So I just, um, I remember my my one credit limits like ten grand at the time, you know. So I looked and I had like eight grand on the credit card and I was like, oh,

this is terrible. Um And I remember too. It was kind of funny because I was very anxious and stressed out. And it wasn't just the money. It was also like the clutter in my house. There was just so much of it because like as a new parent, you have all of this stuff coming in, toys and dippers and all of the extra stuff, and I just kind of felt like overwhelmed in life in general. I couldn't catch up. I couldn't catch up with cleaning, and I couldn't catch

up with keeping the house organized. I couldn't catch up with you know, making extra payments to debt, because even when I would put extra on my credit card to pay it down, I would just end up putting it back on there again. So it was a really big mind shift to go. That was the hardest part of the credit card debt because I had to go from using that as like a backup to not being able to rely on them at all and kind of just hide them away. So yeah, that December was the first

time I looked. I wrote down all my debt UM, I wrote on my minimum payments, I wrote down all my debt totals. I listed them out, and I was like, we can't keep doing this. And at the time I was only listening my debts UM. Like we had everything separate. So all of our our personal loans are cars um, credit cards were just in our name. The only thing we had jointly was the mortgage. So when I went on this journey, I really did start it just based

on my own things. Yeah, so when you sat down and figured out your your debt, it was you you ended up paying off fifty one thousand dollars, right, So like,

how was that divvied up? And it was actually more than that, UM, because yeah, so it was probably closer to like fifty seven I think when I started, and then you know, I started in January, I was like, Okay, I read the Total money Maker, I'm gonna ask clean slate for two thousand eighteen, I started budgeting UM using the every dollar free version and I still used that

to this day. You know, paper and pencils fine, but I just felt like if I could record my transactions right away, UM and I still do that, like I'll go get gas and I'll record it into my my budget right away. But that was like my clean slate January of eighteen, and I was like, I looked at my budget and looked at what I had incoming and what I should have left over after paying just the minimums, and I was like, Wow, where is this extra money going.

I have no clue. There was so much of it that I should have been able to put to debt, and I just found reasons not too so when I started tracking my total debt payoff on the Instagram that I run, that was July of two thousand eighteen, So there was like some traction that I made between December and July. It's just like I would pay it and then I would kind of go back, and then I would pay it and then I would kind of go back.

So the Instagram for me, when I started that really just made me more accountable because you know, I had a whole bunch of strangers watching and seeing what I was doing, and it felt worse if I did something wrong, you know, or or went backwards instead of forwards. So

that became I like jumping off point. Really, Wow, there's so much to what you're saying that I hear among so many people, not just the personal finance experts or the people who are blogging or podcasting, but every day people who want to make wise decisions with their finances but are finding themselves putting the extras on a credit card. Like this concept, I am hearing more and more often as normalcy that yeah, the bills are being paid, the

mortgages being paid, everything is being paid. But if I want something in addition to that, I'll just throw it on the credit card. And someday I'll look at this and I appreciate how you're describing. That was one of the biggest difficulties because it not it then represents a change in behavior and mindset. I'm curious for you how you've started to talk of them a little bit about your process, like and then what came next, and then what came next time? Curious how did that look for you?

And thinking of the person who how as a similar relationship with their credit card and with their bills. How did that go for you of changing some of those behaviors around using the credit card in that way and that aspect of debt payoff. Yeah, especially in those first six months for because people are going to have the same struggles that you said you had and feel like their failures and not move on. But you pushed through. Very It's very it's very very hard. That was definitely

the hardest thing. And credit cards still, I mean, I'm I have a really good handle on them now and I think I utilized them in the ways that they should be utilized. But um, starting back then, originally I just I was like, Okay, I can do this. I'm gonna keep them in my you know person, I'm just not gonna touch them or anything like that. And I had a couple of small credit card balances, so I

really did. I was able to knock out a couple like I had a store card to New York and Company, um, and another one for lumber Liquidator, and so I was able. There were some I was able to push out really quickly and that gave me the small win. But what really changed for me was when I just um got the money together and started saving and got myself a little emergency fund because before that I had not been

able to. I didn't have much in savings. I mean, I was having my normal paychecks come in, so I would see, you know, the thousand marks and stuff when I first came in, and then the bills will go out, but really in my savings account a couple hundred at a time. UM, so I did. I worked really hard to just get to that thousand right away, and that's when everything kind of exploded in the house to where

I started getting rid of everything. So I sold everything, I any anything and everything that I wasn't using that I couldn't I didn't even need anymore. I put on Facebook Marketplace at the time, or offer up let go Craigslist even I think back then I was still using Craigslist, and I just sold as much as I could, and

it was amazing. I got up to the thousand dollars within like two or three months, and it just felt so good knowing that was there, because then I didn't feel like I had to use my credit card, so I didn't. I didn't necessarily use my emergency fund in the way you should Normally I would dip into it if I needed to for things, but then I felt like I had to replenish it right away because I wanted to keep at least a thousand dollars there. So having that that emergency fund, or having some type of

savings to fall back on, I think is really important. Um. And the one thing I did, and this was after my divorce when I became like single mom status, but I made sure I had a buffer in my checking account at all times. So it's not technically my savings account.

My savings account sits it around three thousand right now, but my buffer um was always at a thousand, So I always had extra money in my checking account because God forbid something come up, or I need to spend I need to spend a little bit extra, and groceries and things like that. So be tween selling things and then just kind of being mindful of all the money that was going out for frivolous things, like my grocery

budget was out of control. I was spending three dollars every time I went to the grocery store and then throwing out half of the food because we didn't eat it, or I would spend all this money at the grocery store, and then we would still go out to eat constantly.

And again, you know, we didn't share finances, so sometimes he would pay and it would just be like, oh, well I didn't I didn't use it out of my money, so it's fine, um, but then we're still wasting the food that I'm paying for because I handled the groceries. So groceries was a major thing that I kind of um went down, way down with how much I was spending. I just stopped kind of cold turkey eating out. You know.

I would just say, you know, if my husband at the time wanted to eat out, I'd be like, you

can go get something. I'm just going to eat something at home, because I felt like it was like the only things that I could physically control where you know, money wasn't going out, Like those were two decisions, so I could definitely make um because I didn't want to take away from my son and if he needed anything, like, I still wanted to be able to you know, buying toys or buy clothes or you spend money there, so food selling things, getting to that emergency fund quickly, and

then kind of seeing where in my budget I was over spending, so grocery budget for sure, and then also monthly subscriptions was just kind of out of control a little bit. It's such a hope filled thing to hear of this shift that you were able to make. I think there's this mindset that continues to persist that people can't change, like or old habits die hard, or oh I'm too old to make a shift, or I don't

make enough money right. There's so many different excuses, but this this visual of you living life one way, having this moment of realizing I don't want to keep going

in that direction, and then putting action to it. Not to say that it isn't difficult, but that there is an ability to change some of the behaviors and the mindsets and the relationship that you have with money, debt, credit card, spending habits, and you're just giving such a beautiful example of that that is motivating this this concept of so I shifted my energy from buying things on my credit card to selling things in my house, Like I focused on what I had in my control rather

than these things that were overwhelming to me that we're outside of my control, and those are things we can all implement regardless of where we're at in our debt payoff journey for sure. And I think you know, a lot of the times hustle culture is kind of thrown in where you need to get a second job. Well, you know what, that's just not an option for me, Like,

I'm not taking more time away from my kid. Um, And I did two jobs for a really long time, like most of my early twenties, I constantly had at least two jobs, um, whether it be stubbing or working at a gym. Um. In college, I worked at a tanning salon and the gym. So I've always hustled, and I just felt like I wasn't going to take that time away from my kid. And I think that's a problem with a lot of you know, especially single parents trying to make it nowadays, because they don't have the

luxury of going out and getting a second job. So just it's almost like it becomes a job to find more money in your budget, just based on the little things you can do. Yeah, you're already touching on it. I think, you know what, what we've already highlighted about your story of being a teacher a single mom, something we didn't mention in this is that through the debt payoff journey, you went through a divorce, So that's an additional difficulty. Debt payoff in and of itself is difficult.

We know that there's barriers, but I'm curious to hear

from you, Katie, with your experience, your journey. What would you say were some of the additional occulties of being a teacher, being a single mom, going through a divorce, whatever you want to focus on their what does that tack on to the difficulties of the journey, which we've actually had a lot of people request an episode on like finances after divorce, So I mean, I think a lot of people would like to hear what was that process like, especially while paying off debt and then the

result for paying off debt. And I think that's the thing. I mean, finances are a big reason why people stay in relationships that they should no longer be in that aren't servicing them anymore because they don't have anywhere to go and they don't have the financial means to get out of it. And I do, like, seriously thank God every day that I had kind of started the journey when I did, because if I didn't, I would not

have been able to break. Apart from that, I will say this, like it was, I should have paid off my debt a lot quicker, you know. And if everything had gone the way it should and I stayed happily married and I could have put as much of debt, that would have been great. But along like these four and a half years that it actually took, there's a lot of things that I cash flowed, the divorce being

one of them. You know, I had to have a retainer for the lawyer, and you know, luckily it was very it was very amicable, and everything was settled very easily. But um, just even going from that, I you know, I refinanced the house. Um, I bought my ex out of the house, so I had to take money out of the equity of the house and pay him that, like I said, the lawyer's fees, and then just figuring out my new normal with me just paying all the bills and they just coming from my account instead of

having a joint account for at least the household bills. UM. So luckily, by the time that all happened, I think I was a little bit more financially savvy and knowledgeable about everything. So I kind of projected out my budget and what I thought it would be along that time too. I also refinanced the house again to lower the interest rate because when I had to refinance for my divorce, my interest rate hiked up and so I lowered that. So just like even finding ways to save um money

that way. But so much was cash flow during this four and a half years that like when times got really tough and I was like, this is taking forever. I don't want to do this anymore because I'm not gonna lie. There's been many times where I've just kind of like went along, you know, I wasn't really focusing on paying too much debt. I was kind of just paying minimums, and I'm like, I'm tired of this. I do want to live a little bit. I want to provide things for my kid and have him have experiences.

So just like continuing to go on even though sometimes it felt like it was never going to end um. But the thing that the things I'm most proud of are the things I had to cash flow. You know, I had after the divorce. Um, my car got totaled. I had to get a new car, so that was like a new car payment and then things around the house needed to be fixed. So it's there's always something I think that people like think, oh, I need to be like so gun ho and pay this debt down.

Every little bit has to go to debt every month, But that's just not reality. You have to have a little bit of money to live and you have to like be okay with the fact that, like some months things come up and it's okay and it'll still happen eventually, even if you have to push back the date again and again and again, which I feel like I kept doing. I kept saying, no, I'm going to be debt free by then, and I was like, no, just kidding, and

I'm gonna be debt free six months from then. Um. I am so glad that you said that, because that is I mean, especially in hustle culture, something that is so pervasive in the debt payoff community is pay it all off at any cost and just live when you're debt free. But there is a there is an additional cost. While you save money on interest, there is an emotional

and time cost to that decision. And that's something we didn't think about when we paid off our debt, and thankfully it only took two years, so it like that effect wasn't um was it huge, But it's still a cost that you're choosing, and so having paying off your debt at all costs definitely gets you there faster, but taking time to experience life throughout the journey like gets you to the same point with with less kind of

debt payoff hangover at the end. Um. Yeah, I felt like especially at the end I was I was kind of like, Okay, what do I do now? You know, it's been so long of just doing debt payoff that I like I find myself in kind of like a limbo right now, you know, even sharing on my Instagram, like I don't know what to share, what is knowledgeable or you know, what to offer people. Not that I think that I'm like a financial guru and people follow me to get advice. I literally say all the time,

this is just what I like. I'm just showing you my life and it's chaotic and crazy, but hopefully somebody gets something out of it. Look back to just touching on like teacher aspect of it, because I knew you had said, um, I know people are interested in that. I do feel like for my area and my position, I do feel like I have a a good like salary. You know, some teachers in some parts of the country you know, have been teaching longer than me and make

half as much as me. So I do feel fortunate in the fact that, like my salary I think is a good one. Um My, my school district paid for my master's degree, so I didn't have to pay for that, so that helped jump me up to um So, starting back in, I got this position in two thousand thirteen, right after I got married, and I started around forty three thousand, and fast forward ten years later, I'm I'm

at like almost sixty three. So while you know some people get crazy raises in shorter amounts of time, we all know that's not happening for teachers. UM So, I do feel like I've been appropriately given a livable wage.

Um And I do think that I'm thankful that I have that, and then I'm happy where I'm at and I'm not job hopping because also like that uncertainty with like raising a kid and you know, being a single parent, I just don't you know, some people like to job hop and find different things, and me, I'm like risk adverse, so I like to stay in the same place and know my routine and have my like what I'm supposed to be doing. And it's the same way at home to like everything has to be its place and things

like that. So teacher wise, I know it can be hard, you know, if you're not making a lot of money. I would say to people starting off paying down debt, if they have the means to get a second job, you know, do it while you can, because like you don't want to start doing it, you know, once you have a family and things like that and taking time away from your home. So do it while you can.

But then don't feel bad when you have to stop. Okay, then yes, that's something that's standing out to me in your story and what you're sharing with us is the reality of what it looked like for you, which I think is the reality for many many people. They're just not willing to maybe say it that it's not this constant sprint without any recognition of one's humanity or needs or desire for fun every once in a while, I think we've related the journey of paying down debt to

a road trip where there are pit stops. There's times when you slow down, there's times when you speed up, there's times when you just like pull over for a few nights. And and what that means also for the debt payoff journey, that there is permission for this, and

especially for what you're describing. And I know that you're not alone in this having extenuating life circumstances within debt payoff and how yeah, maybe if life we're all rainbows and butterflies and sunshine throughout this whole time, it would have gone differently, but it wasn't. And so I so appreciate the permission that you gave yourself. And as as you're modeling that, it's giving permission to others to say, look at the context that you're currently in, how much

money are you making currently? How what? What are what's life doling out to you at the moment? Do you have some acute grief loss trauma events happening in your life? And is there space to shift and morph and pause and move around that? And well done. Sure, there's plenty of people who could have paid off fifty seven thousand dollars a debt in a short amount of time, but not everyone was going through what you were going through.

Managing what you were managing so and I think this is why we were so excited to hear your story, because it's so real and representative of the human experience and the permission that's available to us to do what we've got to do within it and still find ourselves at the end of the journey saying I did it, I paid it off, and you cash flowed stuff. Holy smokes. I don't really even have a question in this. I'm

just like so amazed at what you did. And maybe the question is I know that you're saying you you gave yourself this opportunity to, you know, not go hard and heavy all day every day. But with everything that was going on, how did you keep going? Like what was it for you that, even with the pauses, kept you on track in some way, shape or form, Like how did you not just quit and decide the other way of life was fine? And I'll do that and

stiff gone far enough it's fine. Well, I mean, I think like any mom can attest to this, like your children are your wife, so like my son Mason is just I want him to live a life that like he doesn't have to stress or worry about this stuff. At the same time, I do have conversations with him about money because while my parents I feel like they'd set me up, they just weren't as knowledgeable. There wasn't

as much information back then, you know. Um So, Like I mean, for instance, going into school, I went to a state school I went to I can say I went to Millersville University in Pennsylvania. It's a great school for teaching, and you know, I got into other schools that were more expensive. But like even back then, I knew I didn't want to spend a lot of money because I was going to be a teacher. I knew teacher salaries weren't you know that great? Um So, like

even back then they didn't know any better. They filled out the fast FA and we got student loans, and they paid for my college actually, which I don't know if a lot of people know that they did. They paid for my college, and I still had these student loans because dummy me, you know, use them to live off of even though I was working forty hours a week in college. So like I look back at that and like I think when I paid off my student eleans,

I was just like this has been here. This, I mean, these student Lens could have a degree at this point, they could have their their high school diploma, and it's so annoying because like I really didn't need them, but like we just didn't know any better, you know. So that's kind of what I hope to do for Mason. Like I just I hope to like instill some knowledge in him, you know. I I have his five twenty nine set up if he decides to go to college.

If he doesn't, you know, I really don't care. Whatever he wants to do, whatever makes them happy. But at least I have that. And we have discussions all the time about how like some some things we will spend money on and some things we won't, and sometimes we need to wait and sometimes we can use our money right away. But hey, is my reason for everything. So like I just I just want him to have a

good life. I want him to have the knowledge that maybe I didn't have, not because my parents aren't great, because they are, um, but just because it wasn't it wasn't a thing back then, we didn't talk about this

as much. Yeah, amen, that's that's beautiful. Um. And yeah I didn't have a child while paying off debt, but like that was one of the reasons, like I wanted to be debt free, so when I did have kids, I would have the freedom and flexibility to work when I want or not work when I want to, like give them what they need should they need it. So yeah, I totally get that. I have one last question before we move on one. I think this would be helpful

for teachers, but anybody in general. So one of the things you said when you started out and made a big difference was getting control of your grocery spending. And you said you just stopped going out to eat cold turkey, So like what was sustainable for you for like I assumed you like did meal planning and the grocery shopping and then so how did how did that become sustainable for you? And how did you feel about giving up

the take out and the going out like cold turkey? Sure, I mean at the time, and you know, how does when you have a tiny human you you know, have a baby, and the first year after that's kind of just chaotic um and you're just trying to survive. So I think that was like a lot of us like going out to eat you know, um, but I would

go to the grocery store without a plan, Yum. I would just fill the cart with things that I thought, oh, we will do this, we'll do this, we'll do this, and then I would just never end up using it. So a lot of it became about the process beforehand. Um. I started really heavily and I think too, so like my mom, um and my aunt are a product of my grandmother, who is a product of the Great Depression r so UM boarding food like crazy, you know. Their their pantries would just be have tons and tons of

food in it and things like that. Um and I used to do that. And then I started going through organizing my kitchen before before any of this, and I found so much expired stuff that I had to get rid of, and I was like, you know what, I need to start using what I already have. So that's kind of when meal planning came up. I would not that I would say, Okay, Monday, we're having this, Tuesday, we're having this, Wednesday, we're having this. But I would just write up three or four meals that I can

make whenever I felt like it. So if I was feeling you know, tacos the one day, we would do tacos YadA YadA. UM. My husband at the time work nights, so that was a little bit easier to um because again, we didn't share finances all the way, so he would just grab something at work and I wouldn't even worry about it because it's not coming out of my budget.

But meal planning three to four meals a week, I always did pack my lunch because teachers get thirty minutes, but really we get like twenty minutes by the time we you know, everything happens, so you need to have your food. You can't go out and get it, there's no time. UM. So that wasn't really a big thing. But I just found that I wanted to meal I wanted to be easy, so I would take one lunch for the week and just make five of them. Um. Now,

I know a lot of people. One of the biggest things they'll say to me about that is like they can't eat the same thing every single day. I understand that, but that's not me. Like I could eat the same meals every single day. I mean I pretty much do. Like I take two different lunches throughout the whole entire year, and that's what I eat all year long. And I don't get bored of it. I don't really, It's just sustenance.

Um So I think when you put it into the mind frame of like you don't have to have everything you want, you know, you can pick and choose, like maybe you do one like you know, foodie night, and then the rest is like more budget friendly. It does help to you know, in my budget. Um, we're not huge meat eaters. So I'll get you know, big things of ground turkey or chicken from Costco and that can last us a while because we don't eat it all the time. Get more protein, you know, do a lot

of like beans and late leafy greens and things like that. Um. I'm blessed with a child who loves fruits and vegetables, so that's pretty easy. I live in an area where there's tons of farms, so farmers markets. Um so that's helpful because I know some places grocery budgets are out of control. I also made the decision that I wasn't really going to buy any name brand stuff anymore. So

no Dorito's, no pop tarts, no, you know. Now, I do eat oreos sometimes, um, but like back then, everyone's nothing that's some everybody values, and so I stopped going to our local grocery store and really just started shopping exclusively at all the end. That was a big game changer too. So like I would make my budget or I would make my you know, food log for the week, I would look in my pantry my fridge and figure out what I had already, and I would try to

make meals based on stuff I already had. So then I'm just having to pick up you know, two or three things for a meal instead of five or six things. Um. And that really helped a lot too, So I was able. I mean, and I still pretty much keep my grocery budget around two hundred a month, but I for a long time it was a hundred and fifty for me and Mason, and that gives both of us lunches for the week and dinners. And we're very easy for breakfast, so I'll do like a protein shake and Mason I'll

do it often. But yeah, the grocery budgets where I feel like a lot of people just it just explodes. And I get I get it if you have certain tastes, but if that's like one of the only ways you can cut, you know, maybe make the sacrifice for a little bit and just see if it does anything. Yeah, I think that is often the case for those of us who are making less than six figures a year. It is going to be looking at those subscriptions, the grocery budget, the eating out, that's where we're gonna see

a big shift in an ability. And then obviously the spending habits too that you've already touched on. So I love that little like rabbit trail into food because we all need it and we're always needing new tips. So super helpful and speaking of things that we always do, and and yet it doesn't get gland to us. Yeah, it's the same answer every time we get the question, and it's and it's for a reason. 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 Williams. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. To Bill Buffalo Bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week, Katie. Every week we invite our guests or listeners to share with us their bill of the week, and we know you have

one for us. So let us have it, okay. UM, So I'm just gonna go with my cell phone bill because I know that this is, you know, big for a lot of people, and um, cell phones are expensive. So back a while ago, one of the subscriptions I could change and get lower was my cell phone bill. You know, I had been with a T and T for twenty some years. Yeah, yeah, twenty some years depending on if you know my parents paid for it or not.

But a T and T all the way and for just me, it was almost a hundred dollars a month, and I was just like this, I cannot justify spending a hundred dollars a month on a cell phone. So smack in the middle of UM debt payoff, I decided to switch to Mint Mobile. So the reason I'm bringing up this bill is because I do it yearly. I

pay for it. So I just um finished my year in June and of June, and I resubscribed um and honestly, so I pay thirty dollars a month, but all at the same time, So three sixty dollars for unlimited and I do it for the whole year, UM and thank like thankfully because of Instagram and the community that I found and like the people that I talked to, they used my referrals and I was able to get an entire year free of cell phone, so I did not

have to pay that at all in June. And it's just such like a weight off of my shoulders to know that's taken care for a full year. Oh my goodness, that is beautiful, so awesome. Yes, that is one of the biggest things with cell phone. Such an easy thing to cut by going to these um like mv n O companies and there are so much better than like when they started. And that's great. And I get a Christmas card from Ryan Reynolds every year because he's like a part of or something right the tree. You don't

have to buy any real bill. I pay to get a Christmas card for every year, and this year you didn't have to pay because your community put in the work for you. They've the essentially paid it for you. I will say like that, just like having that accountability piece, and just like the people that I've met along the way, UM and even just like people reaching out and be like, hey, I've tried this and you know you might this might work for you. I've just learned so much just from

following different accounts on Instagram. It's a really positive place to be. It's amazing, Katie. Well done. If you all listening want to submit your bill of the week, whether it's about getting Christmas cards from Ryan Reynolds, or lowering your cell phone bill or getting other people to pay your bill, whatever it is, visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill let us know what your bill is. We are here for it. And now it's time for guests.

Never know how much we're going to yell at them, never prepared. Uh So this is the part of the show where we get vulnerable, but we will all share an answer, so it's not just on you, Katie. Uh So, today's lightning round question is what would you have done differently? Uh in your debt payoff? It's hard because so much of it. Can I say, you know, make sure that you pick a partner who you know and have the same like mindset financially, because I think that's the thing.

I don't think people talk about this stuff enough before getting together and seeing if they're they're matching up with certain things. And I really think it's it's very important to make sure whoever you choose to walk life with has the same values financially as you as well as other things. But finances are one of the number one causes of fights and marriages, and I think it's very, very important you have these talks way before even deciding

if you would like to spend your life with somebody. Yeah, it's the vulnerability lightning round. So you can absolutely say that. And thanks for highlighting something that can be a little bit more difficult to look at or talk about. We know everyone's coming at this from different perspectives and experiences, but I really appreciate what you're highlighting here that there's many dynamics and layers that go into compatibility and lifelong partnership.

And certainly we can't first see everything that the future years and decades are going to bring, but compatibility and communication and you know, as much as we would value other aspects that we talk about, you know, it seems like, oh,

are you attracted to them or not? Okay, But also there's so many other layers to relationship and what makes partnerships work emotionally, relationally, financially, and having an understanding of the person on on all of those levels and at least making sure that there's the compatibility and communication that you can build upon. Ah, that's excellent advice. My goodness,

that's at the top of my day list. Now. I have this conversation with friends literally this morning, and I was like, you know, that's saying like opposites attract, Like that might be it, but like opposites do not make for a very good long term marriage. You have to you really have to be on the same page in some really major things. So yeah, I could not agree more were at least a willingness to negotiate, Like I think we're not gonna I could never marry me my ruickness,

like Eric has his work cut out for him. So there does have to be some differences. I think I don't think I'm compatible with myself, and I think that's just me. But at least the foundational aspects of being able to negotiate and value one another and communicate, like

those pieces need to at least be there. Yeah, and it needs to be mutual, Like it's can't be just you doing all the negotiating and all the compromising, even if you love There's a lot of growth and change that happens to when you're a little bit younger, so I think, like being mid thirties, now, you know, my my list is like pretty solid, and you know, at least at this point, you know, I don't feel like I'm willing to negotiate, so I'll just wait and spend

my time until i get something that checks off all the boxes. But financial stability is definitely at the top. I mean, even in your thirties. I think people change like every ten years, So you have to be willing to like be with someone who's a little different than they are when you marry them. So a lot of that foundational stuff and that value stuff has to be like at the core like the same, because eventually the person you marry will like change and grow just like

you will change and grow. That's a good thing, and hopefully we change and grow for the better. But like you have to like realize that going in and it's not going to be you growing and changing the person. It's going to be themselves growing and changing, getting into like you know, podcast podcast adjacent podcast on relationship. No, I love it. We've carried we carried it, Jill. How about you? Well, Okay, so if we are giving, I'm gonna go a direction kind of similar to Katie in like,

what would have made my debt payoff journey different? And if I could have changed anything more from the perspective of get into debt, because now we're talking, you know, to the people who are before marriage or before dad or before I really wish that I would have done like community college or some sort of educational path that didn't land me in the amount of debt that it did.

I think I still would have ended up with some student loan debt, but I just was too prideful or had too much adopted too much of the stigma around at the time. I think it has gone away quite a bit of what it meant, you know what, fifteen years ago to go to community college for your first two years. I wish I would have done that, because I already changed schools like four times, so my aversion to transferring like it happened. I transferred a ton and

it wasn't a big deal. And I do primarily just remember my last two years of college, and I think I could have saved myself a lot of any Plus, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was undeclared in my major and yet spending a crazy amount of money slash accruing a crazy amount of debt for that undeclared liberal arts private college. So that's something I would have shifted. But that's going way back into the archives of my early early adulthood choices. That's you're allowed

to do that in your lightning round. Thank you, do whatever you want? What about you? Jen? Okay, So I would have gone into debt the same way, totally fine with that. UM. Would have married the same person, totally

fine with that one. UM, I would have put less pressure of my on myself to do it at the speed at which we did it, because I was really under the mindset that UM, debt is evil and as long as you have it, you are not meeting your full potential, your family is not meeting their full potential,

and you cannot live. Life starts after debt. That is what I was under the impression of, and just having like seen so much, so many people pay off debt and still go through struggles, and so many people still be in debt and like yoloing and they're fine, you know, even if it's not financially, they're still like mentally fine. I just I mean and I had that hangover after paying off debt. That was just like, I have all of this built up energy and nowhere to put it.

I don't know what I'm doing. Um, I would have put less pressure on myself. So that was very mentally draining. And I think even if we'd pay off our debt in three years and just lived more life during those three years instead of smashing it into two years, still thankful for everything it taught me, Still thankful for the degree I received as a result of that debt. Also felt a lot of shame for choosing a degree that required me to get into debt. No longer feel that shame.

I don't even use a degree anymore, and I still don't feel that shame because I really enjoyed those years of my life. So so yeah, that would be what I would change. Less pressure on myself, less negative, untrue thoughts, beautiful, so much vulnerability and sharing here, and we hope that you all listening or havn't at least one takeaway. I mean, I think it'd be hard to not have more at least that, But Katie, I'm curious for you. If people want more, it's clear that you've got so much to

offer from your experiences and perspective. Where can they get more from you? Just go to my Instagram. I mean it depends on the week or how busy I am or how crazy I am at the time, But usually I'm sharing my everyday life stuff there, or I'm posting others who are either a debt payoff or giving sound advice about Like right now, I'm focusing on investments and things like that, learning more about retirement just because I did payoff for so long and I want to focus on,

you know, my future. But yeah, my my instagram debt free Katie. You just go on there and you'll see me rambling like the awkward turtle that I am. I would never describe you as a turtle. Well, thank you so much Katie for being here. Um, and that's debt free letter k letter T and thank you so much for sharing. This was so great. Thanks for having me. This is fun. Yes, that was good. H gosh. If you've ever asked how do I pay off debt? That is the blueprint what Katie just said, Like, there is

no payoff debt quick rich scheme. There is nothing new under the sun. We could probably I mean, hey, I'm down to say, yeah, here's a magic pill, send us two hundred thousand dollars and we'll send you the magic pill. Like, I'm down that we could do a scam here, But the reality is it's gonna be shifting mindset, shifting behaviors, looking at the discretionary expenses and doing it and then giving yourself permission to not do it when it's killing you, and then to get back on the wagon and keep

doing it. I mean, gosh, it's beautiful. Yeah, to say my future is too important to me to not get back up. Two. I can take this rest, but the things I want in the future are too important to just stop. I think that was my if I had to take anything unique away from it, Like every everything was very practical and inspirational, but if I had to take that one thing because we my experience is not

having the sustainability. Um, so it's always interesting to me, like how do you pay off debt in a sustainable way? Where you I hate the word balance. You know this about me, So we don't balance, but we shift priorities. So how do I shift from prioritizing my life, my health, my family in a season to shift back to prioritizing debt payoff and how do you make those shifts? How do you know when to do it? How do you

do it? And so that, um, that was a really great takeaway that I heard how how she made the shift. Oh everyone, thank you for listening. We hope you've got your own takeaways and they can be the same as ours. That's fine too. Many of you know that we do also have a private community where we're doing monthly money

challenges and offering accountability grew hoops. This is beyond the Patreon that we do a step up from the Patreon, which you can also join us there, But we want to congratulate one of our members for a big win. This comes from Emily, who shared I'm loving everyone's decluttering photos. I've had a very busy work week, so I haven't really dug into any major decluttering projects in my apartment quite yet. However, I am keeping a bin handy that I can quickly throw any item into when I come

across something that I know I can part with. I've already found new homes for some items in the bin with friends, some clothing items I plan to send into thread Up for consignment, and some items are tb D. This is amazing. I think this is also like it's a win, but it's a tip for all of us who wanted to clutter but maybe have really full schedules

and it's still possible. I think that's like a massive message, even from our interview with Katie to our wins and our membership is finding the path way that's possible for you with an understanding of your current context and then how do you weave in these concepts in light of that. It's beautiful. Yeah, absolutely, congrats Emily, And I think she also said this was a longer post that she got rid of some dishes so that she would not have as many dishes to clean, and as somebody else who

hates dishes and also did that, it works. Minimize dishes and you'll have less dishes and you'll get them done. Let fewer dishes will sit in the same Thanks everyone for listening. If you want to check out our monthly challenge community, head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club to see what challenge we have coming up next. See you next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian oh Jen our younger selves. What do you think if we had met when we were in our early

in twenties, maybe even late teens. I mean we connected over our financial journey and being like in a debt payoff space. What do you think would have happened if the two of us had met but we didn't have money to talk about? We would have connected over the other things we connect about, like community and trashy reality TV and yeah, that's true if we have never been ashamed of that. Yeah, if we were twenty one, we would connect over our shared love of a good cocktail.

Um dancing. We would connect over dancing, for sure. There's so many things we connect over. Since we're still friends and neither of us are paying off debt, we would not have connected over podcasting, that's for sure. Neither of us listen to podcasts until very recently. Actually, do you listen to podcasts? Very rarely? Yeah, I listened to true crime podcasts or cults. We would connect over cults, yes,

oh my gosh. For sure. I approach podcasting in the same way or similar way that I approach like reading. I do it for a purpose. So like I read because I'm trying to get a degree or teach something or expand my skill set, and I listened to podcasts in order to yeah some similar things, or if I'm interviewing someone or someone's interviewing me so I can know what they're all about, then I'll do a quick dive into their podcast. It's U not super altruistic, I suppose. Yeah.

I mean I don't listen to podcasts for altruism. I I've look to find out who killed who. Perfect Okay, bye,