00:02:42	Hi Brianna. I'll let you on in just a second. Good afternoon. Hi Denise. Hi Karen. This is the Money Success panel and we should have a few people jump on here and there we have Brianna here who's going to share her story. I will bring her on stage here in just a second. But I did want to ask people jump on.
00:05:19	I wanted to kind of go over what this week is. So we are done with the live trainings and we did the budget strategy session last Friday. So if you had some questions to go back, re-watch that episode, those on V I P, I just sent you a link to send me any other questions. And I will be answering those on the podcast this week.
00:05:42	Now Wednesday we do have a one-on-one with Ashley, so that'll be a live q and a session. And if you wanna come on camera and discuss your question with me, you can. And then we will celebrate your wins on Friday. Do another small giveaway for those that have, that are on the v i p. So remember you have to be on the v i P and do the number two challenge that I just set today.
00:06:10	So that needs to be done by Thursday night. So I can write the names down on a Friday and draw your name. And then Sunday is the big giveaway. So you have until Sunday morning early when I start going through to figure out who all is qualified, cuz that's gonna take me a little bit of time on Sunday to do that, to make sure that you have everything done that you need done to qualify for the big giveaway.
00:06:42	So we have one more q and a this week we have the Friday. I'll do another short little celebration and we'll choose a winner. You do need to be live for that. And if you have any questions, we'll answer them there as well. Sunday is the live giveaway and Sunday is the last day this group will be open. And the last day you can join Money Success Club.
00:07:07	So if you are enjoying the community and the trainings and the people in this group come join us in Money Success Club because this group will close. Like you won't be able to see anything, you won't be able to comment in this group. You won't be able to do anything in this group. You'll be removed from the group starting on Monday. My assistants and I will be removing everybody from the group on Monday.
00:07:32	So you have one more week left if you have questions. Make sure and get your questions answered before the bootcamp ends before our time together. Hi Becky. Hi Rhonda. Trish. Trish says I froze. I don't look frozen on my end, but let me, Okay. All right. Hello. Hello. Okay, now we had some people that had to cancel,
00:07:58	but Brianna has a great story as well. And if we only have Brianna today, that is just fine because she has an amazing story to tell as well. So I hope you guys get some great inspiration from her story and I know you're gonna be able to relate. So if you have any questions for her, put 'em in the chat here and I will ask her once she's done telling her story.
00:08:26	All right, Brianna, are you ready to be added to the stream? Are you ready? Okay, I'm going to add you and there we go. Hello. Hello. How are you? Good, how are you doing today? I am great and so how this is going to work is I'm gonna just let you tell your story. I'm gonna be quiet.
00:08:47	I mean I may ask you some follow up questions, but I'm gonna just let you tell your story and if you can, you know, the more information you're willing to share, the more people can relate to you and can be inspired by you and know that they're not alone. But you know, of course don't share anything you don't feel comfortable sharing.
00:09:08	But I'm gonna just let you tell your story and you can start from whenever you wanna start in your journey, like wherever you like. I'm not telling you when to start or what to say, you just share your story because I'm so incredibly proud of you. So thank you so much for coming on to share your story today. Thanks for having me today.
00:09:29	So I'm Brianna and my journey with getting myself into debt unfortunately started a couple years ago I opened 10 credit cards and maxed them all out. So when I struggled I was struggling. So I got a lot of them paid off and I'm down to three now. But what really helps me was honestly joining Ashley's debt payoff course back in February. And then I joined the Money Success Club.
00:10:02	And honestly in my budget I really didn't have the money to do that, to pay monthly or go all in or anything like that. So I found the money just to do it monthly and since March I've paid off, no, since February I've paid off just about $9,500 in debt and a lot of it was one of my car payments when I started this.
00:10:27	My car payment was like I still owed like 3000 on it. So that's where most of it came from. And I go to the chiropractor all the time. So that's where most of that was. And I've knocked out probably two or three more credit cards since then. And me and my husband, between us we have three jobs. We used to have four until I stopped working my second one last year because I just physically couldn't do it anymore.
00:10:55	So we've been working on it. We're hoping to be consumer debt free by December, 2024, which would be paying off our last car payment for our car that I got into the car accident with. I was muted. Well thank you for sharing. So tell Everybo, let's talk about, cause I know we talked about it on the podcast that went out last week,
00:11:24	but you know, maybe not everybody has listened to that yet. But let's talk about the difference in how you handled this car wreck that just happened recently versus if it had been a year ago before you started this journey and paying off debt mentally and financially. If this happened a year ago, I financially would not be able to afford my deductible. I would definitely not be in a good mental state.
00:11:53	We were so racked up in debt and it was just now a year later I'm in a much better spot. I'm not struggling to find the deductible. I'm not stressing over it. I'm still, I haven't lost my motivation either. I didn't let the accident ruin anything. You know, things come up, life happens, we all know that. But I wasn't letting it get me down.
00:12:19	And that's awesome because you could have, I mean you could have, you know, taken on the mindset of like, this sucks, why did this happen? Why did it happen right now when I'm trying to pay off debt? Like why? Like why did this happen? It's, you know, gonna keep you from paying off debt but you didn't let it stop you.
00:12:40	So after the wreck you paid off what your Costco card and your other vehicle, right? Yes, yes I did. And so was that was the 9,500, were those two included in that? I was trying to remember the time. Yes, Yes, yes, yes. So you are almost to, I mean you're almost to $10,000. Yes. Like you're gonna be there very soon.
00:13:04	Like I know it, you have just been rocking and rolling with paying off your debt and I'm just so, I really am so incredibly proud of you and the progress that you've making and that you didn't let this setback. I mean it is a setback, it's inconvenient you've been having to figure out what to do without the other car because you guys work so many jobs and trying to do all of that is,
00:13:29	you know, a hassle because you're without a car, right? And so you haven't let it slow you down and it, you didn't let it keep you from maintaining your momentum and to keep going. And that's the most important thing that I want people to take away as well is that life's gonna happen like you said, but you, it may slow you down a little bit but as long as you don't stop and just completely stop and give up,
00:14:00	you're gonna keep going. And that's so incredibly important. And if you hadn't have started, you would not be in as good of a financial si I mean as good of a, I mean as good as you can because it's still a wreck. Like it's still a problem, right? It's still like so inconvenient it's still gonna cost you some money with your deductible and things like that.
00:14:24	But had it, had you not started, it would be even worse than Definitely since you Did start. Yes. I would probably end up having to put my deductible on another credit card and get myself into more debt and it just would not be a good thing. Yeah, absolutely. So is there anything that you want people to take away from your journey,
00:14:55	your, your story? Definitely don't give up. Don't compare yourself to everybody else cuz honestly that's what I did for years. I, me and my one friend we would com she would tell me what she paid off and then I'm like, well I didn't pay off as much as her and that would put me in a worse mental state. And then,
00:15:16	so once I found, honestly, once I found your debt payoff course and Money Success Club, like that's where it was just the support I needed. That's what I needed and that's what made me do the work and all of our accountability sessions and our, like honestly it's all the support that helped me keep going with paying off everything. That's awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that.
00:15:40	I mean that's really the goal with the club because I mean all day long you can know what to do, but it's a whole other thing to actually follow through with it, you know what I mean? And so, but when you have that community and you have that support, you're saying it does help like, and it helps push you to do what you already know you should probably do,
00:16:04	but you kind of just don't wanna do it and you know what I mean? Like, and it just kinda, it's like okay they're doing it and I can do it too. And it just kind of gives you that extra little push, you know what I mean? Yes, definitely. All right, well thank you for coming on. If you have any questions for Brianna,
00:16:23	put 'em in the comments or you could always post them and tag her in the group as well. She's active in the Money Plan bootcamp. All right, I'm gonna take you off of here for just a second. Okay. Angela, I don't know if you want to jump on as well. I didn't have you on my list for this, I don't think.
00:16:48	But if you wanna come join me, let me know and I will send you the link. Let me get on Facebook and see, Let's see, how can I, Okay, here's this. I know we had a couple others, but I don't see them here yet. I know it's Sunday afternoon. It's easy to forget that we are here as well.
00:17:12	All right, so let me pull up Facebook and hopefully my computer doesn't slow down too much. Oh, okay. Somebody tried to join on Zoom, so hopefully Okay, That's okay though. I just got back home from groceries. Well when you, if you have a second, if you want to jump on and share a little bit of your story,
00:17:45	feel free. Okay. So while we're waiting to see if anybody else jumps on from Money Success Club, I can give you a little bit more of my payoff story as well because I haven't really talked, you know, I haven't really talked about me, which you know, this isn't about me. Oh, there's, there's somebody there is who's here?
00:18:07	Let's get them up. Hold on one second. TriNet. TriNet if you wanna join us on stream yard, I sent a message in the Money Success Club with the link cuz I do have you on my list if you're still able to jump on with us here. And Terry, I don't see video so I'm not sure if they are ready or not.
00:18:35	Let me pull up Facebook, see if I'm missing anything. Okay. All right, TriNet, let me tag you if you are ready. My computer's being really slow cuz it doesn't like me doing too many things at once. At once. Okay hold on. Where is it? Where is it? Okay here we go. TriNet, I'm gonna tag you in the post with the stream yard link if you can jump on real quick if you want.
00:19:32	There We go. Cause it's not Zoom, we're on stream yard so it's a little bit different cuz it looks like somebody tried to jump on Zoom. Okay. Yeah my computer's really old. It needs a lot of things probably Right. Let's see, Terry, I am adding you now but I don't see a video so I don't know if you're ready.
00:19:57	I'm here on this camera shy. I'm sure you're, No it's ok. I just wanna make sure I wasn't just adding somebody before you were ready. How are you? I am wonderful. How are you? I've never done one of these before. Well thank you for coming on even though you're, even though you're shy, it's okay. I appreciate you coming on and and sharing.
00:20:20	So I don't know if you caught the beginning with Brianna, but basically we're just sharing our stories, our journeys with our finances and about money success clubs. So if you'd like to share, you're more than welcome to kind of just share whatever you're comfortable with sharing. Keep in mind everybody here is on a similar or same journey, we all have debt or issues with money,
00:20:50	things like that. So there's no reason to be embarrassed but of course share just whatever you're comfortable sharing. Are you up to do that? Well I have been working on a budget and I have wonderful support from my family and I have November completely written out and I've got my envelopes for cash and my list written down for the month. We are one of those families that have weird pay schedules.
00:21:31	I'm on SSI so I get paid once a month. My husband has a full-time job that he gets paid once a week and then he has a part-time job that he gets paid every other week. So I use a calendar Awesome. To write out when everything is due and go from there. That's great. Then I have, the one thing that I found is very,
00:21:56	very helpful is a bill payment tracker with the months on it so I can color in the months as the bills get paid. That's one of my favorite things to do and I'm actually gonna start using cash envelopes for the things that are variable for me during the month. That's a great idea. So do you, do you like the physical Envelopes this month?
00:22:26	Awesome. I'm gonna be using physical envelopes this month and we went to just one debit card to use so that we aren't trying to figure out okay, which, which card do we use for which, you know, and that and then just the cash then that way we can, you know, if we get to that, as you all have said,
00:22:55	when you get to that point where you're outta cash and the envelope you're done spending for the week or for the month, whichever one you're using. Awesome. So Are you feeling better? I am getting there. Thank you for asking. I'm getting there. I'm like trying not to cough in your ear. So what, how much have you been able to save or how much debt have you been able to pay off since you kinda started this journey?
00:23:26	Well actually I have just started it so I've, I've been able to actually realize how much debt we have and write that down and I'm going to start using the snowball system and go from there. There's a, I've got one small one that I am hoping to get completely paid off this month. It's a little over a hundred dollars and then go from there to get those,
00:24:01	get those paid off. Awesome. Well you are off to a great start. I am like so proud of what you've already got done and set up like you are creating a system that you are hopefully will work for you. But of course you know, you can tweak as you go as we've been talking about. So I'm really proud of you for going in and just getting started.
00:24:26	That's awesome. Well that's where I am. I'm at the very beginning and like I posted, you know, it doesn't matter, you know where you are just so long as you know where you are and continue from there. Exactly. Because you can't get where you're going if you don't know where you are. Right. Just like That's Right. Any road trip you have to know where you're starting.
00:24:47	So that is awesome and you know, a lot of people get stuck there because they don't want to look at the numbers and they don't like, you know, they wanna avoid it and hide from it, which I totally understand. So that's a huge step. So be proud of yourself for taking that step and getting started cuz now you just gotta keep building a system that works for you and kind of maintain that momentum.
00:25:10	Right. Well my first true step would I actually keep being a written log, like a, like what in the day we would've called a, I'm keeping one of those in a notebook and I've got for that and that's made a big difference too to see actually where it's going and you know, can actually show my husband, you know, okay, yeah you're,
00:25:45	you know, you want your, your soda at work but it costs $2 for bottle of soda at work, but if we get you soda at Walmart in bottles, we can get you a a 12 pack of bottles for you know, $8 and instead of $2 a piece at work. So, you know, I can show him what a difference that makes.
00:26:09	That's awesome. He's very helpful with that. But he also wants a new truck here in a year so that, that's one way to get him get him on board too is I said, you know, our car will be paid off in in June and you know, we've got enough saved up we can look at look, you know, looking for a truck for you to,
00:26:32	so, you know, he he's got incentive too. Yes. And that is so important. I'm glad you mentioned that cuz I'm sure somebody listening here is wondering how they're gonna get their on board and getting them to buy into the end goal. So for him it's okay, well once we work on this and pay off some debt, then you know,
00:26:54	you can get a new truck. And so that's so smart and so great that you did that to get him to buy in and follow the plan because sometimes I see, you know, they sabotage it. Like they're, they're constantly overspending or something like that. But if you can get 'em to buy in with like what's the end goal because usually, you know,
00:27:15	even for the majority of us just paying off debt just to pay off debt is an, an exciting enough reason to do all the things to get there. Right. So if you kinda dangle that carrot and say, Okay, well if we pay off this car then we could get another one of, And so that is awesome that you were, that you're able to do that and that he's on board with the plan.
00:27:37	And we're very lucky because we are gonna have our house paid off in June also. What, so we can start doing some remodeling? Yes, Yes. We've, my gosh, we've been in our home for 20 years, so we're looking at the, at at almost the end of that. And so we're, we're quite quite excited about that. But we went through,
00:27:59	when I was going through the, the trying to get on disability process, we had two years of basically nothing and we are very stubborn people and wouldn't go to family or anything like that. We just, you know, got through it. You know, my my husband myself and my son together and he, both my, both the men in my life are wonderful,
00:28:25	but we are just now and it's been a while. We are just now where I feel like we can get back on our feet and, and are able to, you know, I I can see a way to, to get bills paid and, and we're not behind anymore. And so it's very nice. So I, I feel like I can do do these things.
00:28:49	I've tried a couple of times and it just overwhelmed me, but I found you and a couple other sites and just seeing, you know, and I, now I understand the snowball system, I didn't understand that before. And then the, I have printed out a couple of pages with little pigs on them so I can start a little savings system there too.
00:29:14	And so I'm, I'm actually very excited about it. I think he is too now that, that he understands, you know, if we do this, we can do this. That's awesome. So very Excited about that. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited for you too. I mean, in less than a year you're not gonna have a house payment or the car payment.
00:29:35	Now, I don't know what you're gonna do about a truck if you're gonna take on a truck payment, but you're gonna be in a completely different place in a year from now. Oh my gosh. I'm so excited for you. Well, thank you. We're too, We, we just, we just keep looking at it and we're like, can you believe this?
00:29:53	You know, and that's, you know, right there is is almost a th you know, a little over a thousand dollars a month right there and, and we're both just kind of like, okay, what are we gonna do? You know, let's see if we can wait maybe, you know, a few months and save up even more so we have more for a down payment and even if we do have a a payment,
00:30:16	it won't be as much, you know, and it won't overwhelm us like it has in the past. Yeah. And you should be able to pay it off pretty quickly without a house payment and stuff. And if your, some of your other debts are gone too. So even if you do have to take out a loan, you know, you can still pay it off relatively fast Without the stress of wondering if,
00:30:38	And it is nice to, like I said, keep it written on paper and not just go in and look and then all of a sudden you've got these auto payments that are coming out and you're thinking, what is that and where did it come from? And, and so I have all those listed on my debt track and I've got 'em written on a calendar too,
00:30:55	so, And I'm, I'm very much, I have, whenever school supplies got come out, I'm so unhappy because I don't have anybody to buy school supplies for now. If there's a gadget, a school supply gadget of any kind, a new one of, of anything, you know, I'm, I'm one of the first ones to wanna get it.
00:31:13	So I'm an office supply and school. Well right in then. Yes. Oh man, that's funny. Yeah. And Cindy's not here. She's my other office supply junkie, but she, her son's birthday was today, so she's not on today. But that, that's funny. You and her get along. Oh, that's funny. Well I am so incredibly excited for you,
00:31:38	so please keep us updated on your progress cause we wanna celebrate with you too. Thank you, Ashley, it's been wonderful to meet you. You too. Is there anything else that you want people listening to take away from your story? Patience. This whole process has probably taken me a month to get to this point. Don't work on this when you're tired.
00:32:09	Yes, That's a good point. Not work on this when you're tired. Baby steps, as everybody always says. I have been working towards this probably for six months to be to this point of having the notebooks with everything written down and, and knowing where my debt is and that, that sort of things. My big big step is to finally get an emergency fund because where my husband works,
00:32:54	they have times when if orders go down they will get laid off. And of course that means the pay is usually cut in half. And so I wanna get to that point where if that happens, I'm like, okay, we can take money from here and then when you get back to work, we can replace it and it won't be, won't be a problem.
00:33:17	That's, that's my number one, my number one thing. And that's great after that then of course to, while I'm doing that, also work on, on the debt. But, but as you, everyone has always said, and I'm one of those that I wanna start and I wanna start now and then I get frustrated. But no, take your time and work until you find a system that works for you.
00:33:45	So instead of going ahead and filling out like the next six months, I told myself when I got through with my November notes and calendar and everything written down, No, you're not gonna go to December, you're gonna stop right here. You're gonna see how you do with November actually, you're gonna see how you do with that first week in November and see how that goes.
00:34:10	And then go with the second week and you know, just keep going, going that way. And that's, that's how I, how I see it at least for myself. And I'm not good at that. I, I worked in the medical field too long to, you know, not be one to just jump in, jump in the middle of it and then when you're done you just,
00:34:35	okay, now what? That's what's next. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, I, I have a way to save, I have a list of how to save, save a good, good chunk of money, but it's, you know, it's not something that I can start yet, but I have, I haven't written up. And when I'm at that point,
00:34:55	I can, I can do that. And, but like I said, I've, I've looked at, I've watched a lot of, a lot of stuff on Pinterest and a lot of stuff on YouTube. I've spent, I spent a lot time, I picked up little binders and I've seen some people that, you know, use more than one. The small a five binders.
00:35:17	Those make sense to me. And I also have my book that I actually write everything in. So as I, you know, kinda work through those and, and get that, get that done. And I'm starting to cook at home more. A lot of crock pot meals. My boys like to, they eat early because they get up early. And so I fusion figured out how to make desserts in a smaller crock pot.
00:35:44	So it, it's all out. Well That's awesome. I I'm gonna need some dessert, crock pot recipes. Pinterest, go to Pinterest. Pinterest is your friend. That is true. I do like Pinterest. I haven't had time to go and look for new recipes in a while, so that's gonna be what I do once I'm done with the bootcamp,
00:36:04	I gotta like get my meal plan stuff back together. Well Thank you. But thank you for everything. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for coming on and sharing your story. And I love that you said patience and just hearing you talk. It's like, it's patience with yourself and patience with your budget and I love that you're just taking it like week by week.
00:36:25	Cause I do the same thing. It's like when I go all in on something and I'm like ready. Like I would, I just wanna do it all right. And so I love that you're just taking it and giving yourself permission to have patience and just doing it week by taking it week by week. So you could make adjustments as you go, as you're working the plan and figuring out what works for you.
00:36:45	That's awesome. Well, and you know, we spoke about spouses, My, my spouse does most of the, the putting fuel in cars and making sure the oil changes get done and things like that. So we sat down and I said, I, I need, I need honesty here. I don't need you telling me what you think I wanna hear.
00:37:05	I have to know how much does it cost to get oil changes and how often do we do that? How often do you know we put fuel in the cars and how much does that generally cost us? You know, those things and you know, because these are gonna be things that are gonna be in an envelope with cash. And you know, he told me,
00:37:28	and I said even with the, we may go together to get the, get the pet food and their medicine for the fleas and go to the vet, things like that. But I may not really even think about it. And I told him, I said, You're gonna have to start, instead of saying, No, I don't want a receipt.
00:37:44	Yes, you do want a receipt. And that kind, you know, he's gonna say, that's gonna be hard know it's learning process for both of, you know, so we can, I can see where things are going and we can talk about it and, and things like that. And, and so, so it is very important to talk to whoever is in your home that is able to,
00:38:07	that you can have that discussion and, and say, you know, this is where we are, this is what the plan is. Do you have any ideas of what we can do to make it work even? Yes. And the idea of, you know, not blaming and being tactful in how you say things. And just like you said, you know,
00:38:31	don't, like, I need you to be real with me and honest with me. Like, how much is it so we can plan instead of like, how much have you spent on gas? How much, you know what I mean? Like there's a total difference in how the conversation goes in how your tone and how Well I'm very spoiled. I used to drive a long ways to go to work and I worked two days and then I'd be off a day and then work two days.
00:38:52	And so I'm invariably on Saturday mornings I'd go, Honey, how about you get donuts and you car and said, would've a would come on in, haven't put in car. And I don't how that's, so that's kinda a kinda running joke in, in town. There's a, there's a new new ordinance cause you have to prepay for gas. And my husband,
00:39:20	I don't know how he does, but he can look and see and know exactly how much to put in the car for builds it up perfectly. Oh gosh. That's Great. I have nothing for him. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. But yeah, he's like, yeah, yeah, you just, you just look at it and if it's just,
00:39:41	you know, if it's 15, I'm like, I don't understand that. Well you, We've together for almost 32 and a half years. Oh, that's awesome. So that is Awesome. But that's a whole other story. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I'm, I'm very, very lucky. Oh, you're doing awesome. I'm so proud of you.
00:40:13	And thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. TriNet is up next. Let's have her come back. She must have had to get up to do something real quick. She was just there. So we'll give her just a second to come back and share her story. And TriNet has been on the podcast as well and shared some of her story.
00:40:41	All right. Trinette, are you ready? Oh, let's give her a second. She's changing places. All right, you ready? Alice in the podcast is free. All right. Trinette, can you hear me? Her internet is not always the best. Can you hear me? Ette? Let's see, let's take her back. Let's give her just a second.
00:41:25	Okay. Give me a thumbs up when you can hear me and you're ready. You okay? Let's see. All right, there we go. Can you hear me now? Yes, I can hear you just fine. There You go. All right. I know your internet is not the best mine either. It's cutting out a little bit. Oh,
00:41:51	okay. Right. Okay. Can you say something for me? All right, Trinette, you are live. I know, I know. Okay. I, I think there's like a delay or something going on with the internet. Alright, so I will just be quiet then and let you talk since there's like the internet's kind of cutting in and out it seems like.
00:42:21	So just let us know about your situation and how much you wanna share. Of course. And you know, cuz people, I know people are gonna be able to relate to your story as well. So then I'm just gonna be quiet and let you take it. What's that? Huh? Scan? Huh? Scanning. Can you tell us a little bit about your situation?
00:43:19	Oh, I think, Okay, I think I heard what you said. It's like great out. Yeah, it's kinda lagging a little bit and you're cutting out some It Says, so I'm not quite sure It's Hard. Did you want me to try to log in from my cell phone and go outside or I can hear you fine. So just you talk and,
00:43:54	and take it and I'll, we'll just try and make it work. Just tell us your story. Okay. All right. And so, and I live in Virginia. I am a single parent. You know, I know that in our podcast session you said to try not to think about being a single parent, you know, in terms of being able to provide,
00:44:23	but I still do. My daughter is six and she wants everything and because I feel guilty for her lack of participation from her father, I try to make up for it by buying whatever I can. And that's sometimes that kind of gets me away from my end goal of purchasing a house for us, which is what she wants too. So I have been kind of helping,
00:44:54	I have been kind of like limiting her on what I buy her, my mother, you know, my mother buys a lot for her, which helps a lot. And so I do have, I do have a village behind me that's able to kind of fill in where I fall short, which is really appreciated and the habits more often than I'd like it to.
00:45:20	I'm trying to, like, I make pretty decent money on my job, but I also know that I need to make more money to kind of pay off my credit cards. I have two credit cards and I know that I need to kind of up the game on those. One doesn't have any interest until February 0% interest. And the other one it accrues daily,
00:45:46	like 29.99% or something like that. But I'm slowly trying to not, I'm not using either one of 'em because I'm trying to pay 'em off, but that's still like crazy. So I joined your group and Money Success club and it's really helped me to kind of call my spending a little bit and help out with getting my budget in order. I was actually using like the envelope system before I knew it was an envelope system where I would just go to the store and whatever I purchased,
00:46:25	I would just write everything down and if I didn't have any more money in the envelope, then I would just stop spending. But I didn't like designate any categories for it. And so learning about the envelope system in general has helped me to get better at spending money. But the fast food is what I, what I fall short on or actually realizing how much I'm actually spending on eating out.
00:46:51	Once I started writing my, once I started writing down everything, I was like crazy surprised at how much I was spending on, on eating out or groceries in general. And so that's helped me to be able to kind of work through that. Once I see everything and it holds me accountable, like I'm like, should I really write down this Taco Bell?
00:47:15	Like, because I have to write down, so I'm like, ok, I'm not gonna get Taco Bell, I'm, I'm not gonna get Taco Bell. Like I'm gonna like, I don't know, get like lunch meat or something from Food Lion and some bread and just make it work so that I don't have to write it down. That can be under my grocery budget.
00:47:35	Rest is my budget. So, so me being accountable by having to write it down has helped to kind of calm my budget, call my spending a little bit because I don't want to be accountable for it because I know I have to write it down. And so I'm like, okay, I don't wanna write it down and so I'm not gonna do it because I have to write it down.
00:47:57	So I'm getting a little bit better. And my daughter, she's getting a little bit better. She'll be like, Mama, I wanna go to the store, but I'm only gonna spend $5 this time. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna spend 20, I'm just gonna spend five just in and out $5 mama. And that's it. I'm like, girl,
00:48:16	I'm like, that is not gonna happen. But okay, so let's go to the store. So I'm trying to give her an, I'm trying to give her an allow so that she's able to better budget. Like she knows how to count money and stuff. She's a smart kid and so I'm like, okay, if I give her a budgeted amount and once she actually looks at it,
00:48:38	like she don't, she, she thinks cards are unlimited, like the money comes from like a tree in the, in the backyard. And so me having like the actual money to give her, I think is gonna help her to be able to budget better as well when she goes into the store. So My kids do the same thing. They think a debit card or a card is just like unlimited money.
00:49:02	They're like, when I grow up I'm gonna have a limitless card. I'm like, where, where do you think this come from? So I love that you are working on the accountability and I love that, that you are taking the steps to get there and it is a process like let us know how long have you been kind of being like how long since you've started this journey of being more intentional and you know,
00:49:33	working through the program. All right. And so I, I think I joined Money Success Club. I wanna say it was like around the holidays when we had like the Black Friday sale. That's what I Was thinking. Yeah, I was thinking it was right around a year ago. Go. Yep. And so it's been lately that I've been actually trying to be more intentional.
00:49:57	Like I've gone through everything like in like my dashboard and, and I try to show up for all of the lives and everything. And so it's just been like recently when I've actually like set my goal, this is what I wanna do and this is what I'm gonna do. And so I was maybe three or four months is when I actually started being intentional and realizing that I need for myself and my daughter.
00:50:29	And so yeah, You froze up on us there, but you said the last three months is when you've really started to be more intentional. Oh no, We lost her. Pretty sure that's what she said. And I have noticed that as well. Trinette, if you can still hear me, you know, and I, the reason I I point that out is because you're not the only one.
00:50:58	Like it takes time, just like we talked about with Cindy the other day. Like it took her like a year of kind of in and out of the group before it finally clicked. You know, Brianna has talked about that as well. Like that's very normal and common to kind of just take it in and process the information for a while and before it finally like clicks and you really start to take action and do the thing.
00:51:27	So I've definitely noticed a difference with you as well. All right, Trinette, I think you are frozen but it sounds like you might be typing something so I'm just gonna meet you for a second cuz I can hear the keyboard. Okay, so let's see here. All right, if we can get you back, let's see, can you hear me Okay,
00:52:04	we're gonna remove Trinette for now. I'm sorry her internet cuts in and out, but you can hear more of her story and her journey as well on the Money Mindset podcast. And I can look it up, tell you which number cuz we talked a lot about like the mom guilt and ways to work on that as well as like teaching her kid about money.
00:52:28	Let's see if I can, whoops, one second. Let me figure out which one it was. Number 81 on the Money Mindset podcast is TriNet's story or her strategy sas. So it was similar to what we did last Friday. We worked on like one talk bit, but we worked on her as well. Yeah, she, okay. So she sent me a message that she started to be more intentional these past three or four months.
00:53:02	Okay, Trina, I'm gonna try and add you again and see, see if it will work or not. I can hear you so if you can hear me just let me know. Like what is something that you want people to take from your journey? I want people to take from my journey that it's a, it's a race and not a sprint.
00:53:32	That you have to be intentional accountable and you have to realize that it's not gonna happen overnight. But you can't, you can't fail if you don't try. And so even if you try and fail several times, you know, that's okay is just don't give up. Like if I'm having a bad week and I spend crazy, you know, or a bad day and I decide I'm depressed or what have you,
00:54:01	I don't give up. You know, I just, you know, go to sleep, think about it and start back over tomorrow and realize that I can't do that again if I want to get to the end goal, which is a new house. And so if there's anything that I can tell anyone is that, you know, of course what you say,
00:54:17	give yourself grace. No one's gonna be perfect and just stay on your journey because you know it's not gonna happen overnight. You didn't rack up, you know, 30 or $40,000 in debt in one night and you're not gonna get rid of it in one night, but you, you'll never get rid of it if you don't. Keep trying and be intentional with your goals.
00:54:38	Know what your why is or who your why is and just keep that in the forefront of your mind whenever you're making any decisions about, about your future or money in general. Yes, that's awesome. Thank you so much for sharing despite the internet issues. I really appreciate it. So thank you and you are doing amazing. I am so freaking proud of you and the no spin challenge and tracking everything you've been working on this month.
00:55:10	You are doing awesome. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank ca. You're welcome. All right now I did see Janet, Janet, I don't know if you wanna hop on for a little bit. I didn't have you on my list so you know, no pressure. But Janet's in winning Success club as well. Let's see if I see anybody else.
00:55:37	If not, we are going to wrap up. Oh, I can tell you about my story. I did say I was gonna do that if we didn't have anybody else jump on, but since I mentioned it I can do that as well. Let's see, let me just make sure. All right Ann, don't forget that this group closes in a week.
00:55:56	So if you want to come join us inside Money Success Club, go to budgets made easy.com/msc. So for Money Success Club msc, it'll take you to the page. Thank you all for sharing so much. I will be live again Wednesday to answer your questions and do a q and a, but I will share my story as well just in case there's anybody else that might pop on at the last minute.
00:56:21	And then I'm gonna go home, home and cook a Sunday dinner. So with my husband and I, we had over $45,000 in debt and our journey really started when my husband lost his job. It, it was a journey just like everybody's talking about. It's like it took us, I don't know, a year almost maybe two years before it was like,
00:56:47	oh we gotta get rid of this debt and really start working on it. But it was a process to get there. So you know, it started with my husband losing his job right after we had our second child and just finished a renovation on the house that needed to be done. But we followed coworker advice to take out a 401K loan to fund that or how,
00:57:09	you know, the equity was maxed out because we had just bought it and we didn't really feel like we had any other options to do this renovation that we really needed to do. And so that's what we did. And at that time I think it's changed now, but when you have a 401K loan and you change jobs or lose your job, you have to pay it back within like it's up to the employer but it's usually 60 or 90 days.
00:57:34	Ours was 60, the money was already spent, it was like $20,000 and okay thanks TriNet, I'll get thank you and I will, or gosh, what was I saying? See I get distracted by comments I need to like hide them so I don't see them. Okay. So we ended up having to pay the money back, which we didn't have.
00:57:56	So then we ignored it and the next year we owed thousands of dollars to the IRS because of that because it counted as a withdrawal out of our 401k and what we owed them, what it cost us. Cuz we normally would get a refund and then what we owed. So it cost us about half of the loan, like it wasn't even worth the money,
00:58:17	right? And I put that on a 0% interest credit card for 18 months and then the next month I got the bill, I'm like, Oh, I have to pay on this, not, I can't just wait the 18 months and then pay it off like I have to start paying on it. And so that's when I started to look for ways to pay off debt and I realized,
00:58:40	oh I can, like we've, I've always had a good credit score, we never had much debt in my opinion. We paid things off early all the time. I would just send, you know, $20, $50 extra just on everything all the time. So I didn't think we were doing bad with money or anything. But then when I realized it was like,
00:59:00	oh I could be completely debt free, I added it up, it was still $45,000 even though I felt like it wasn't that much. 25,000 of that was my student loans that I had been paying on for 10 years and had paid off $3,000 of it. My car, which was a brand new vehicle that, you know, we just had to have have and it was like 14,000 of it.
00:59:25	And then the card I put the IRS money on, which was like 6,000 and started with the credit card, knocked that out in three or four months. Once I realized and started budgeting the way that I teach you guys, it changed our lives because instead of before I would say, okay, this payday we got paid and this is what I'm gonna pay.
00:59:48	And then we would just spend what's left. We were spending crazy amount of money on food and eating out just like you guys have talked about and that's still our weakness. We do like to spend money on food and you know, that was the biggest thing. Once we realized where our money was going and that we actually did have money left over to pay off this credit card,
01:00:07	I was like, oh, okay, we could do this. And as we started to go and do this faster and faster, it's like I didn't do all the things at once, right? The first thing I did was just change the way I budgeted on paper. And I was like, oh, okay, so I'll be more intentional with what's left over.
01:00:24	And then we started doing other things like using the cash envelopes. Like I didn't do that right away. That took me a couple months and then, you know, and then we started selling things and then we started working extra. Like it wasn't like, even though I was like all in, it still took me time even to get him fully on board.
01:00:44	Like he, you know, he's a good husband, we've been together over 20 years and he goes along with all my crazy ideas, but you know, for him to get like really bought into the process took some time as well. And for me to do all the things that I teach you, I didn't do that all at once. Just like I tell you,
01:01:06	you're not gonna wake up a different person the next day. I didn't either and I'm, you know what I mean? But you can change over time and that's what we did. I just started doing one thing and then another thing and then another thing. So don't feel like you have to come into Money Success Club and do all the things at once.
01:01:23	That's literally not what I want you to do and that's not what I teach you to do and that's not what you're expected to do. So keep that in mind. All right, so Melanie says, I listen to Clark Howard who warns about using the retirement accounts. Yes, I will never, ever recommend anybody do that. First of all, I didn't realize that it took,
01:01:47	I just thought it was a loan that used it as collateral. Like I didn't realize they took the money from the retirement account. Like I didn't know what the heck I was doing. Like, I mean it was just now it was like, oh I wish I didn't do that, but it brought me here to you today. Right? So it's,
01:02:05	it's a process and it's a journey and I just have to accept it for what it is and that it, you know, brought me here today and I have a completely different life now because of that, even though it sucked and then, then we lost a lot of money for no reason. So anyway, so you know, I paid off that credit card,
01:02:26	then paid off the car and starting in January of the next year, which which was January, 2016 is when we paid off my student loans. And one of the things I did to help motivate me while I was paying that off was figuring out how much per day it was accruing in interest, which was almost $5 a day when I first started, which is why I had only paid off $3,000 in 10 years because it was occurring so much interest,
01:02:55	it was ridiculous. And then, you know, just as we got closer and closer to the light at the end of the tunnel, right, we did more things and more things. So we built up to like selling things that we didn't need and all of those other things to get it moving a little faster. We didn't just do that from the beginning,
01:03:18	it's gonna take time, right? So that's what I want you to take from my story as well is you don't have to do all the things at once. You don't have to come in and dive in head first. And it's hard to do that. It's hard to not be overwhelmed if you do that. So it's okay, just like Terry talked about with having patience and taking the time.
01:03:41	Everybody in Money Success Club, like we've all taken time like you, you do have to respect that it's a journey and not just you're gonna an instant fix, right? And you know, as you're improving your financial and sit situation, you're improving yourself too. Like you're improving your mindset and how you handle things. And it's amazing to me how I have changed as a person since starting this journey just because I decided to change my finances and that has set me on this whole journey of improving myself,
01:04:18	especially as a business owner like that has really, being a business owner is a lot of improving yourself is like a perpetual journey. So, okay, Janet can't join us live today, but that's okay. She says, But Money Success Club has really helped me to learn about my finances and the support is so important and grateful for all of it and all the members.
01:04:41	Thank you Janet. So thank you guys for being here. This will be on the podcast tomorrow if I can get it edited and uploaded for in the morning for the hundredth episode. I'm so excited. I'm so excited to share your guys' stories. Fourth hundredth episode and then the hundred and one episode, which will be Thursday. I will answer the questions that you guys have been sending me on the voice thing.
01:05:09	So don't forget we have one more week in this group. You have one more week to join Money Success Club and come and have the support and the accountability with these wonderful ladies. I hope you have a great rest of your Sunday. Have a great night.