You may have decided that frugality is the only option to handle a personal financial crisis. You may be here grudgingly. You may have lost hope of ever having the “good” things in life. You may be here because you’re so deep in the red every month that you are fresh out of options.
I built this site to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way.
You want to know how broke I’ve been?
I’ve been so broke that I used to dig through the trash behind a grocery store every night to see what I could salvage to feed my toddler.
I’ve been so broke I literally cried over spilled milk when my daughter accidentally knocked over a newly-purchased gallon that was supposed to last all week until I got paid.
I’ve been so broke that I lost my house to foreclosure and my car to repossession.
I know that horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach when yet another thing you can’t afford pops up and rears its ugly head, the anxiety of knowing you have no way to purchase something your child desperately needs. I’ve lost many nights of sleep and suffered anxiety so extreme it made me ill because I didn’t have enough money for anything. If you’ve never been Flat Broke, it’s impossible to fathom all that goes with it.
I get it. I really do.
But I promise that things can get better. It may take a while and they may never be like they were before, but life can be good again. For more information about surviving crushing poverty, go here.
You can change your life.
There are circumstances in our lives that we cannot change. Sometimes it seems impossible to cut our budgets further or to come up with more money. But hidden within that impossibility lies true genius if you can just tap into it.
It’s all about the attitude with which you approach these things. If you can find it within yourself to find gratitude for what you do have, it helps you get past being mired in what you don’t have.
Without getting too woo-woo, focus on the plentiful, not on the sparse. This will help you get your head in the right place. The plentiful might be the love of your family, the nature outside your back door, a beloved pet, a big stack of books from the library. It doesn’t matter what it is – find one good thing and focus on that. It’ll help you through difficult times.
You can reach Big Goals, too.
There are so many things we consider necessities in North America that aren’t common in other parts of the world. We all have so much “stuff” here that we end up a slave to it. We want a house big enough to fit it, we need to insure it, we need to maintain it, we want to have more of it.
Another thing that is pretty common is feeling like Big Goals (always capitalized here) are out of reach. Folks feel as though Big Goals like being debt-free, traveling the world, putting your kids through college, or retiring early are things that are only achievable by the wealthy among us.
But that’s simply not true. Big Goals can be reached by all of us. It’s a matter of what you prioritize. I always tell my daughters, “You can have some of the things. You just can’t have all of the things at once.”
I’ve achieved some pretty big goals as a single mama of two.
- I was able to leave my full-time job to start a business where I could work from home.
- This allowed me to homeschool a child who wasn’t thriving in public school.
- I’ve put both of my girls through college without a student loan in sight.
- I’m debt-free.
- I travel full time to exotic places around the world.
I did all of this on a single mom budget with no giant child support or alimony checks because I prioritized. There were things that I gave up which other folks would find essential – for example, to fund my travel lifestyle, I no longer owned a house or a car. When things changed, buying a vehicle was a fairly easy process. When they change again, I’ll sell it.
You might have different big goals. Here are some of the things that are possible when you prioritize where your money goes.
- Becoming a single income family so someone can stay home with the kids
- Being debt-free
- Paying off your house or car early
- Paying tuition for private school for your children
- Traveling often
- Retiring early
- Investing in your own business
- Buying your dream home
- Putting your kids through college
- Living an extraordinary life
The sky is the limit for what you can achieve if you’re willing to let go of other things that most people find essential. For more information on achieving your Big Goals, go here.
I’m glad you’re here.
Whether you’re dealing with being Flat Broke, you want to achieve an audacious Big Goal, or you’re trying to get better at handling your money, you’ve come to the right place.
Welcome. Go here to get started.
