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Episode 195 - How I Saved and Paid Off $35,790 in Seven Months!

Welcome to episode #195 of the Debt Free Dad Podcast. Today I am excited to welcome Samantha Hubbs to the podcast. Samantha joined Roots in March of 2023, and in just the last seven months has made some amazing progress saving and paying off $35,790. Samantha is here to share her journey and what changes she's made to get these results.

What You'll Learn

  • Discover what made the biggest difference to help her save and pay off over $35,000 in just seven months.
  • Hear how she went from stressed, to feeling very hopeful and confident in her finances.
  • Listen as Samantha shares her biggest takeaways, and what advice she would give to anyone who felt like her before she started.

Resources Mentioned

Free Tools and Downloads at www.therealdebtfreedad.com

Connect With Brad

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Episode Transcript: 

Brad:  

Hey everybody, welcome to episode number 195 of the Debt Free Dad podcast Today. I'm excited to welcome Samantha Hubbs to the podcast Now. Samantha joined us in Roots in March of 2023. And in just the last seven months, has made some amazing progress. Now I don't want to share what this progress is because I feel like I would be taking a lot of thunder and lightning away from Samantha. I think she needs to share this because it's just incredible what she's done and you guys, she's done this during times when inflation and expenses are as high as they are and people are making nothing but excuses on why they're broke. And here is someone who's saying you know what? I'm not going to live like this anymore, and I'm so excited that Samantha is here to share her journey, what changes that she's been able to make to get these kinds of results. You guys aren't going to want to miss this. Stay tuned.

Speaker 2:  

You're listening to the Debt Free Dad podcast with Brad Nelson. Brad and his co-hosts experienced the anxiety of living paycheck to paycheck, Both for learning the fundamentals of financial security. They are now on a mission to empower regular people to pay off their debt for good and enjoy happier, less stressful lives. Keep listening for inspirational interviews, tips, tricks and practical advice to gain financial freedom.

Brad:  

Hey, hey, hey, how is everyone doing today? You can find us on Facebook, TikTok, youtube and Instagram. Just search Brad Nelson, Debt Free Dad, and welcome to today's show. By the way, I just want to give a huge shout out to a lot of our social media audience. It's been great to get some great feedback, great comments on a lot of the stuff that we're posting and being able to communicate back and forth with you guys. So if you guys are listening to the podcast and not on some of those social channels, go search and find us. Man, we are creating some great stuff out there, including this podcast. It would be great to connect with you guys. Remember to get all the resources, show notes and links for today's show. Head over to thedebtfreedadpodcast. com. You can click on episode number 195. Again, that's thedebtfreedadpodcast. com and you'll be able to find all of the other podcast episodes that we have done over the years at that website as well. And as I introduced the show, you guys, I'm so excited that Samantha is here with us here today Now. Samantha lives in St Louis, missouri, with her husband and two daughters, who are eight and four, and their rescue dog, rosie. She is a die hard Eagles football fan. Now I'm a Green Bay Packer fan, but she is originally from Philadelphia, which makes that totally fair. And, for fun, they love to camp and hike the outdoors whenever possible. Samantha is a traveling salesperson for a large chemical company, which has allowed her to see a lot of the world and work in a lot of cool industries over the years, which is a lot of fun. Samantha, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited that you have taken some time to come on and just share all of the amazing things that you've been able to do over these last seven months.

Guest:  

Thank you, thanks Brad, it's. It's been a journey and very happy to be here, yeah.

Brad:  

I'm excited. So let's let's go way back. All right, let's go back, like we always do. If you've heard interviews on this show, I like to talk about. You know money from a young age. You know how did you learn about money you know growing up as a kid, and how do you feel like what you learned maybe whether it was from you know, your parents, guardians school. How did that affect you as you became an adult and started to manage money as an adult?

Guest:  

Absolutely so. I grew up in Florida and my parents divorced at a pretty young age, about seven, and there was early on, I remember, there was fights about money, about, you know, we couldn't go on vacations, we couldn't afford. It was always we couldn't afford, we couldn't afford. And I didn't really think much about it because I knew my parents worked and I felt like we had things I never, I never questioned like why we didn't, we didn't own our home, we didn't own you know nice cars or anything. But that wasn't the thing it was. It was just kind of understanding, like that. There was tension all the time. And then as I got a little bit older, I started to realize my parents really appreciated things more than you know, maybe going to do stuff, and I didn't really feel too much about it. But as I got older and started to do things on my own, I'm like, well, I'd rather go places than have things like unlike my parents. So I got a job as soon as I could and most of my savings went to hey, on the weekend I'd like to go do this, a concert with my friends, or I'd like to go do this. So I started to formulate my own opinion but realize I was already pretty different than my parents and going into college, you know, because of that we can't afford. We can't afford. I realized my parents didn't say anything. So I went into debt for the first time, going into college and taking on all those loans and I had zero knowledge of what a credit card meant, what financing meant. So it wasn't until I was graduating college, seeing what all of that debt I had just incurred really met. And even though I've been working and I kind of understood, you know, savings and getting what I wanted involved hard work I didn't understand the long, the long game at all. So I went in just realizing in my 20s I have to work harder to try to keep up with those bills. And then the bills start coming after I graduate. So my mind is saying I just got to work harder, work up my way up the ladder and I'll make money in this, all go away. But I never learned the habits to make that right. So, fast forward, going into into my 30s, I have my first kids. I'm realizing, you know, marriage doesn't make money easier, you don't learn, kids don't make money easier, and so like, without ever properly learning how to budget, how, what that the interest means. It just it just mounted. And then, of course, of course, homeownership on top of that. So yeah, yeah.

Brad:  

Well, I think you know there's probably a lot of a lot of people out there listening to this that can can resonate with that, especially, you know, if they went to college, because I hear that story a lot, you know where I mean it's still happening to this day with kids, you know, getting into college where you know, they're not being educated, you know on what they're getting themselves into. They don't understand. You know they're they're maybe going for, like, the college experience, but they don't understand what that college experience is going to cost them and how that, how that debt is going to affect them Not only just for a few years after college graduation but for for years after college education or graduation. And I think you know you're speaking to that and I love the fact that you brought up you know money didn't get easier when we had kids, when we had a house, when we got married. A lot of people make the mistake of you know it's just not the right time to work on my finances. When things get easier, I will, but when in life do things actually ever get easier?

Guest:  

No, yeah, I guess I assumed like one big bonus would save my life, but then I realized I didn't know how to properly allocate that and it would come and go so fast. Yeah, yeah.

Brad:  

So obviously you joined us in Roots back in March, so can you share a little bit about leading up to that point? Yeah, what do you feel like? Like where were you guys where you got stressed? Were like what bills? Like what was, I guess, causing a lot of the stress, or maybe anxiety around finances, or maybe just pushing you to say like we need to make some serious changes?

Guest:  

Yeah, absolutely. I think last fall was just like a new rock bottom for me, where I'm like working my hardest and making the amount of money that I thought would make me feel rich or secure, and you know, it's just not the case, especially with inflation. And for the first time ever I was struggling to afford bills and anything but besides the bills and I'm like, how is this number coming in my bank account? It's all going away and I, you know, it was just the point that the credit cards had caught up and I had just overspent. Every time I got a raise I was just spending more and taking on more activities for the kids and not not allocating it properly, and so, going through the holidays and Christmas, I just wasn't able to sleep. It was this peer stress, like a physical stress on me and I felt a lot of shame and my husband and I talked about it a bit. But we're, you know, we're just trying to like, make ends meet and just trying to get through the day without the kids, kind of, you know, feeling that tension and going through what my parents kind of put me through. Whether it was subconscious or anything, you know it, it wasn't like they they meant anything bad, I just didn't learn. So by the springtime, and I'm thinking, man, this has gone on for months where I'm struggling, I'm living paycheck to paycheck. I need to do something about this. And I actually came across the debt free dad posts on Facebook and I don't even remember how it popped up. But then I started watching little clips, started watching the podcast and was like there's a lot of good reviews on this and and so March came around and I'm like I just got to commit to something and this this was the first thing I had really thought seemed like a good community.

Brad:  

Yeah, yeah, well, and again, I think there's so many people out here listening to this, probably right now, that can resonate with those feelings. That's because you know your, your feelings were the same as mine. You know it was like, uh, it wasn't my, my income wasn't the issue, it was, it was the habits, the spending, just the. You know it just seemed like the more money I made, the more I would spend, or, you know it just, it just never would get better, ever. And you know you finally just get to that breaking point of this just can't be the way it can't is going to be the rest of my life. You know it's, it's hard you know, especially when you work really hard, and you know you make that kind of money and it's just like you know what's the point. You know we're just struggling. So you joined Roots which is awesome in March. So can you share um for anyone who's listening to this like, what did you learn initially that really started to maybe make things click for you, um, were there certain things inside the program that you felt like you started implementing right away that gave you some quick results? Uh, and started to maybe change those feelings, rather than stress and anxiety, to maybe more hope of like holy crap, like we could actually do this and and this could actually work for us.

Guest:  

Yeah, I can tell you right away um, you know you, you joined the program. You go through um, all of the the learning cat, um uh sessions and I'm getting through them and I'm starting to write down my debt. And something that I heard and clicked right away and I didn't really think about this was you can't use debt to fix debt. And twice before I am so guilty. Twice I have gotten a loan to pay off all my credit cards, saying never going to use a credit card again. This will solve it. I paid off one. It was painful, it was really it was not helpful. Then got all the credit cards filled up again and then got another one and it was such a high amount of money on this loan and here I have credit card debt still. I'm like it's this doesn't solve anything. And putting that number on paper with the credit cards and seeing it all together, cause I I convinced myself at some point that that one loan was all I had in debt and I was just lying to myself. And so with the program I learned you cannot get another one of those loans. That doesn't fix it. It's putting this on paper and working on each one separately, like these all are the habits that I need to change. That was that took like a month and a half in the program of me like really accepting it and a lot of again shame, a lot of like just having to be honest with myself and then it was. It was like a reckoning for sure, yeah.

Brad:  

Can you share a little bit, cause we I mean, if you've been listening to this show and you know Samantha, you know I mean we're huge on behaviors, habits and choices, you know, I think that's like the underlying issue for most people who are struggling with their finances. Yeah, can you? Can you share, like, what types of choices, habits and behaviors that you noticed that were off and like how did you go about fixing some of those over these last seven months?

Guest:  

Yeah, I think I just always dependent on don't look at your bank account. This credit card can cover it for now, we'll figure out later. There was always we'll figure out later not a plan, and some of those things I was spending on my credit card were things in like home, home ownership. We know things are going to break. We know, you know you're eventually going to have to get new windows or something's going to come up and heater is going to break, and I had never once set aside that money like knowing that that's going to happen. I just kind of you know it happened. That's the credit card, and so the very first thing I did was, well, I set up my emergency fund and I put that aside, and then I started to understand that there had to be sinking funds beyond that, and so that was when I started to do cash stuff, the stuffing and envelopes. Never had done that before, and that was really helpful because then I, even though my bank account would be zeroed out with cash, I would see these cash, the cash envelopes, getting bigger and, sure enough, two months later I had the exact amount of cash I needed for in one week I had a $300 vet bill and an $800 AC repair, and I'm like, if I didn't have that, I would have just added my credit cards and for the first time first time in my life, I can remember I didn't use a credit card for this.

Brad:  

So yeah, that was incredible. Yeah, so the habit of saving, habit of budgeting properly huge right. What about? What about removing? Or there's this whole mindset of if I want to get out of debt, I have to cut out everything in my life. What was your experience with that? Did you guys have to cut a lot out, like when you actually looked at your expenses and you started seeing what you were spending your money on? How did that process work for you? Were there a lot of cuts or were there just reevaluations, or how did that work?

Guest:  

I definitely had a lot of well that one time we use it it'll be worthwhile. And we had everything from all the streaming subscriptions which I felt ridiculous about looking at on paper. So we went down to one and we never had cable or anything. So I think I assumed cause I didn't have cable I was saving money. But we got rid of most of them and I realized we never watched them anyway. Like I didn't even know if we had memberships to things anymore. That's a bad sign. And then we have like family memberships to a lot of things, like the local Six Flags, and I would tell myself every month oh, that's like $20 here or there, but that adds up, and sure enough. We went once or twice other times and I just found ways to get free or discounted tickets and sure enough it ended up being cheaper. So I got rid of a lot of those things that I guess I thought like my kids would be missing out or anything, and sure enough it was just another habit. Those were major things. And then really just going out to eat. Going out to eat, as we all know, has gotten more expensive and honestly, my husband and I have learned to cook more and I think our meals are better than some of them, and we had out to eat, so it was good, it was really good.

Brad:  

Yeah, speaking of your husband and your relationship, like how did that all cause that's a big thing. We talk about a lot of Roots. I know you've seen it, probably in the group. If you've been in it, you know that's a struggle for a lot of couples. This number one is just getting on the same page and number two is being on the same page, especially if you want to aggressively start paying off debt. Can you share a little bit about that? Like what were things like before and how are things now? Are things better in the relationship as it relates to the progress that you're making?

Guest:  

Yeah, I can tell you we're definitely not perfect and we've had those fights over either money or habits or things like that. And as the program started, I'm like kind of feeding this to my husband and trying to get him on board with it and he was really overwhelmed too and he saw my numbers and you know that was it was. It was some serious conversations that we hadn't had before. Is it better? I think it is because there's visibility. Do we still have tension over it? Yes, and I think it's because he had the same experience with his parents that I did, and for him it might have even been more serious. Like I think his parents were in some really deep situations where you know, like, will we have our mortgage paid, kind of thing, and you know that can like lead to some like deep like, maybe some trauma or some PTSD of like talking about money is a bad thing, and I think we're still really working on that. So I don't think that you know it's anything perfect, but it's getting better all the time.

Brad:  

Yeah, Well, I love that you were transparent with it, because there's it is one of the leading causes of divorces money fights and money arguments, you know, and it's something that a lot of couples struggle with and again, I think you bring up a lot of good points of. A lot of what we bring into a relationship has a lot to do with what we've learned about money growing up, and if our parents or our guardians whoever had us when we were kids if they didn't handle it properly, a lot of that money mindset comes from those experiences. And now you're mashing two different money mindsets together, and most couples never go through any sort of you know, personal finance classes or communication skills about where we're going to be on money and how is this going to work. We just kind of throw it all together and say, hopefully this works right, yeah. So I love that you're being transparent about it, though, and saying that you know it's an ongoing challenge and that you know we are working through it and you know it's all part of marriage, but I think having a good plan where you sit down and talk on a regular basis about money be more proactive, because most couples just it's always just crisis mode is the only time they're ever talking about money, and that usually is what results to a lot of the arguments in the fights.

Guest:  

Yeah, absolutely. I think the last thing that we did was realizing we still have quite a bit to go on our journey to get out of debt. Is that we got life insurance to cover anything Because, god forbid, something happens to one of us and the other one has that stress? So that was a difficult one to sit down and be serious about, but I feel better now.

Brad:  

Yeah, life insurance is not a good topic. I mean, I just lost my wife back in March and I've been living this. So if you're listening to this and don't have life insurance, you're married, you have people who depend on you, especially kids, and you demand just making a priority this week. Get that stuff done, so, so important as it relates to your financial lives and really moving forward and rebuilding a life. Once you have to move on, it's tough. So moving on OK. Much happier topic Can you share with everybody what you've? This is crazy to me. When you sent these over, I was like I mean, I knew you had been doing well, but I didn't quite know how well you had been doing, admittedly, and maybe I need to be more involved with that. But seriously, when you sent me your numbers, I was just like holy crap. So can you share what you've saved and paid off since you joined in March? And, mind you, this is only about seven months ago, seven months total that you've been doing this.

Guest:  

Yeah, yeah. So I will be very blunt. I started, besides my mortgage, one hundred and nine thousand three hundred and ninety dollars in debt. I have since paid off and my palms are sweating Thirty two thousand seven hundred and ninety dollars and I can't believe I had that in order Like that. That was just pure willpower. But I can tell you I was even shocked. It was that much because I was stressed that I wasn't doing enough and I look at my numbers probably every other month as a whole, because I'm just looking at the granular get through and stuff my, my envelopes and everything but thirty two thousand dollars and I was able to come up with that. Like I'm kicking myself, Like how did I get into the situation? Yeah, it's yeah.

Brad:  

Absolutely, absolutely incredible, absolutely incredible and, like you said, would you would you have ever imagined back in March when you joined, that you would have made that kind of progress in just seven months?

Guest:  

Never, never. And I just I mean I did. I do have side hustles, I do more than just my day job and I've doubled down on that. So it's not just like I'm making a lot of money and it's just there Like I've really tried hard. But yeah, never in a million years that I think I could do that. And yeah, I could have been out of this a lot sooner If I had tried this program or something.

Brad:  

So I know like people are like how is that even possible? You know how, how does someone pay off that much money in seven months? So can you share? I know you share just a little bit, but like, yeah, what do you think has made that big of a difference for you? So, because that's a huge feat in just seven months paying off over 30 grand.

Guest:  

Yeah, absolutely, I can tell you. So what I did is we really don't eat out out anymore at all. I can tell you we've gone out to eat it maybe like two or three times when we're on vacation and Luckily I had paid for vacation last year, so that was something that, like I didn't add to my debt too much this year. But we got rid of all the side trips. We got rid of Subscriptions, like I mentioned before. That really added up like that was a couple hundred dollars here and there and then I added to my side Hustle. So two things I did was Marketplace. I sold so much in marketplace the first two months that was like five grand and stuff. And one thing I hate to say this, but I loved my Peloton 2019 2020. I loved it. I stopped using it, I sold it. That was a lot of money. So things like that. I had some big ticket items but getting that out of my office, it was sitting here collecting dust. I can tell you that was like stress off my back and then I'm my. Last thing that we can do but maybe not would work, not work for everyone is turo. We rent out our second vehicle whenever we can. Okay, so highly recommend that, if you have a vehicle and that you don't always use, so my husband I work from home that has generated a good extra income as well.

Brad:  

That is interesting. So can you talk a little bit about that, because I'm always interested in just yeah People are doing for unique ways to bring in extra money, because I think right now there are people would just say like, well, I can't make any extra money. I'm like in human history, we, we live in the best time in human history to make extra money right now. I mean, there's so many opportunities out there. This is a cool one. I haven't heard about it. So just share a little bit and like how much, just roughly, how much extra money has it generated, do you think?

Guest:  

so we can do between 900 and 1500 in profit. So we rent out every weekend, basically because we're all using one car, sure, and so between Thursday and Monday or Tuesday, pretty much it we want drop off our air, our car at the airport. It's all cleaned inside and it's not a brand new fancy vehicle, it's like an SUV from 2018. But people want to rent a vehicle, like at the airport, and make it convenient. So it offers a service where you can rent it out and you can charge whatever you want. They have their own insurance, so it's like very limited liability, and then we just are. What we give up is having an extra car for four or five days every week right, so that is super awesome and roughly on a monthly basis.

Brad:  

How much extra does that bring in, you think?

Guest:  

That I mean we at our good months at $1500 1500 extra. Yeah, yeah, see that's still this idea from my neighbor. So we actually like if you have anyone else around that can help you, you can work together to kind of help each other. Drop off cars and things like that. But more and more people are doing it to. You are oh, to road. It's very awesome.

Brad:  

Well, thanks for sharing that. But yeah, I mean think about that, and it doesn't necessarily have to be just this one. But I mean, just start looking. If you're out there, I wonder how you can build an emergency fund one or how you can start paying down extra debt, I mean. I mean, samantha, they're doing a lot of things. They're they're cutting things out of their budget, they're making different choices with groceries and going out to eat and you know, coming up with ways to make extra money and 30 plus thousand dollars paid off in seven months. It's not like they're just sitting here. It didn't make any changes and that just happened. You got to be make some changes. That's Mm-hmm, that's incredible. So let's talk about feelings, like you mentioned. You know, you were feeling last fall, about a year ago, like stressed, like how are you feeling today compared to where you were last year, last?

Guest:  

year, especially going into the holidays now in like I couldn't afford to go to Thanksgiving, like Out of state, I couldn't afford like all the gifts I wanted for my kids, like I realized I was Telling myself and stuck in this situation, that maybe my parents had been and I had like started this cycle and I was not sleeping I'm. I don't think I've ever been so stressed in my life, yeah, and I think it was apparent that you know, the more I felt that way, the more I just stayed there too. You just end up in this depressive cycle where you just can't act on it and I didn't know where to start. So I went through that for like three months and I just never want to be there again. So in the the spring and I get really emotional too because I have two young kids I feel really responsible. Yeah um, the new year rolled around and I'm like I have to start off this new year better and I was looking at like getting rid of stuff for how I could, you know, react, but I I was just stuck in this no change cycle. So I think for around a month I was probably like lingering on the debt-free dad pages and stuff and trying to, like you know, compare all these programs and stuff and I finally just hit the trigger. I was think it was on a work trip and my bank account was at zero again. I'm like I just got to do something. Yeah, so that was it. That was the trigger I pulled and right away I committed to doing all the learning modules and just doing my best.

Brad:  

Yeah, oh well, you've done, you've crushed it. I'm so, I'm so proud of you guys. I mean that is yeah, it is just incredible and and to be able to stand up and take charge. You mentioned you have, you know, your two kids and I want to talk about them just here, in just a second. But you know, I mean you're you're changing your family tree by showing them how to manage their money better so they don't make a lot of the same. You know decisions and choices that you've done and that you've had a struggle through all these years. You know being able to it's not just about you and your life when you got kids. You know, and I think there's this Sentiment out there, that, yes, we need to start teaching kids about this in the school system, but I think it starts at home. You know, and as parents, I think if we all did a better job just managing your money better, you don't necessarily have to always just be in words teaching them. It could just be by your actions and the way we handle our finances. They're gonna see that, because more is more is caught than it's actually taught, and they're gonna see a lot of those things coming through in the way you guys are managing money now and that leads me to my next question because do your two girls, do they have they noticed anything? Mom and dad are doing some weird stuff with money. They're saying no, a lot more like how have?

Guest:  

they been through this yeah, if anything, I think I made it clear to them like what's important to me is that we do stuff together and you know you might not be getting as much toys, but I think you'll enjoy it. And so they definitely noticed we weren't eating out as much at first. Now they know that if we go to a restaurant we're all in a mood anyway, like I have. My four-year-old cannot sit still to save her life, and my older daughter is at the point where she's like I like it at home. We're all together. This is great, yeah, and I can't say every kid will be like that or easy going, but the the little one like she doesn't even notice the difference. And then with the toys, I feel like they got involved with like donating stuff and selling stuff, and they saw that they could put money in their they're piggy banks and now when we go shop for something, I'm not the one buying it. I want them to see how much their dollar is worth. So if it's not a Holiday or a special occasion, I'm not getting extra stuff. And that was hard for me because I felt like I was Taking something away from them at first. Yeah, but really it's just like I, I was just giving them the wrong kind of attention Before I think, and that's hard right now, how cool is that?

Brad:  

so good, that was a great share. So let's talk to say this man the year ago, you know you're on the fence or maybe you're still kind of where you were when you first started. There's a lot of people listen to this show, that come across it and they're feeling a lot of the same Types of feelings that you were feeling. You know, what would you say to them? Not necessarily just, you know, join Roots, because I know it's been successful for you, but just general, like what would you say to that person that's just sitting out there, that's struggling, stress, just after wit's end, looking at their bank account, tired of it always being zero? What would your suggestions?

Guest:  

Yeah, I mean, I still go through it and like putting together my numbers. Two months ago I had like a really rough time. We went down to one income over the summer and I'm like there's no way I can keep up and it's a roller coaster. It is not like you join the program and everything's like honky-dory and you know you keep paying it off and as much as you want it to go that way, life it just doesn't work that way. The emergency fund is there for a reason and it will come and go. I I spent mine twice now and it was heartbreaking to see those numbers at zero again. I Would say like just you can't give up. It's definitely a long Game. It's. It's something where you change your habits and you'll feel better about it, and most days you'll feel better about it. You know you're doing the right things, but they're they're still gonna be tough days, and that's with any major lifestyle change, I think it's. It's so easy to beat yourself up when it's not the best day or the best week and I still get really emotional when I see the total number that I owe. It's still really big and I Did this. I need to work at getting it better, but just knowing that I can do something about it makes me feel better. So, yeah, I would say, you know, find a community, find someone that's going through the same thing and and it's hard on social media People can be really judgmental. But the one thing I will say is in this group no one ever says anything like negative.

Brad:  

When you come out and you're like Really putting your heart out there about like making a mistake and that that's hard to find, yeah, I will say our group is just, it's phenomenal, and I Would love to say it was all because of me and the stuff I teach, but it's not. You know, I mean, the number one piece of feedback that we get from our Roots members is that the community, it's been the other people in this group that have made the biggest difference for me because, like you said, Samantha, it is an up-and-down roller coaster ride Whether you're doing it on your own or you're doing it in a program like Roots. But the benefit of doing it with other people is you get that support and accountability because, you're right, there are gonna be days, there's sometimes even weeks, sometimes months, where it's just crummy. You know things aren't going your way and you know it's easy just to up and quit because society, they want you to live paycheck to paycheck and when you're around another group of people that are pushing you, you know you stick with it. And again, like I said, I just want to say I'm so proud of you guys because I See so many people just getting stuck in these excuses right now, especially with inflation and expenses being the way that they are and and Everyone's just pointing the finger at everybody else and you guys have decided to say okay, sure, expenses are high, inflation is there. What can we do about it, though? What are some things that we can take control over, and and you guys are proof that Normal everyday people you can take a stand, you can take back control of your finances, even in times like this, and you can make some significant changes, and your numbers are just proof that it works.

Guest:  

Yeah, I am in shock still and it feels good. But you know, looking at the full picture, it has been a huge change for us and it wasn't overnight. It's still. We still have a ways to go to. We're not perfect. There's no such thing as a perfect. Oh, such thing. Yeah, we just talked about that.

Brad:  

Yes, Samantha was saying that well before we hit the record, but she's like I feel that because I haven't had really a perfect month and I told her I was like I've been doing this 13 years and I haven't had a perfect month either. You know, it's just. You know we're human and you know we're gonna mess up. Life's gonna happen. You know things are gonna have. You know things are. Even if you get it 80% right, you're far, much better than doing nothing at all, you know. And so, yeah, I just want to say huge congratulations to you. Thank you so much for coming on and and sharing. I know that there's gonna be people out there that are gonna have some motivation behind this and and being willing to make some Changes, because, again, I think you guys are an inspiration to people that hey, these people can do it. Why can't I do it? So seriously means everything to me that you came on and shared your story and spent some time with us here today.

Guest:  

Yeah, Thank you so much. It's been great. And, Brad, yeah, you're always a great leader for all of us, so thanks so much. Yeah, thank you.

Brad:  

So the totally awesome Debt Freedom Planner is helping so many people make consistent progress with their finances, whether that be building emergency funds, paying down bills, budgeting, tracking paydays, saving up for larger purchases, goal planning and planning for those irregular yearly expenses that always seem to catch you by surprise. Now the Debt Freedom Planner will help you take the stress out of managing your money, and if the thought is running through your mind, hey, I just need to have a simple tool to get my finances together. This planner is perfect for you. Head over to therealdebtfreedad. com, click on the Debt Freedom Planner in the menu at the top of the page and order your Debt Freedom Planner today. All right, that's how it means. It's time for the celebrations of the show, and again, just a huge shout out and thank you to Samantha for joining us. It takes a lot of courage to come on and just kind of open up about finances, a very taboo topic here in the United States. Obviously, a lot of people don't like talking about the skeletons in the closet and some of the mistakes that they made, so it's always a pleasure to have our Roots members and people who have had success with their finances and getting out of their situations and being able to share that. It's a very real thing that a lot of us struggle with and I appreciate her transparency and being willing to share the amazing progress that she's been able to make. So, kicking it off today, Shannon Dukes she says life has gotten a bit crazy lately. I've stuck to my budget mostly, but I've also gotten off track on some dining out instead of grocery shopping and cooking at home. But this week I have been getting caught back up with the podcast, replayed some of the weekly live meetups here in Roots. I'm not necessarily off track, but I'm keeping myself accountable and motivated. Shannon speaking kind of very much to what we talked about on the show today, it is just not a linear path, right. There's always going to be those ups and downs and the key is sticking to the plan and that is a great win is getting back on that wagon. So good for you, Stacy Mencer. We have done our Roots 15 every day this week without fail, which is an awesome way to stay consistent if you're not familiar with the Roots 15. It's literally just committing to 15 minutes a day working on your financial life and, Stacy, getting it done. Congratulations to you. Hillary Morse, who's also been on our podcast a few episodes ago. She says the store that I buy my daughter's clothes at was going out of business. Everything was 60% off. She's growing like a weed. I know they do. Right, I needed some new pants and I had the money to buy them. She says savings win. And yes, Hillary, savings win and a budgeting win for having some money put away and ready to go for those clothing expenses, especially for our kids, and not having to go into debt. For us, huge win, Hillary. Last but not least, Renee Abbing I haven't used my debit card, my credit card still remains at a zero balance and my cash envelopes still have money. A huge win for me, Renee. Huge, I mean, those are countless, several. It's like three or four wins there, right? Just breaking the habit of using your credit card, sticking to your plan, going to cash as an accountability tool, budgeting girl, killing it, love it. So congratulations to all of you guys who are working your way out of debt, standing up for yourselves and saying no more to financial stress. It takes a lot of courage, a lot of effort, a lot of hard work and we're proud of every single one of you guys for doing that. Hey, if you're just getting started with our podcast or maybe you know you've been listening for some time and you're interested in how you can finally get started on the road to financial freedom. There's no better way than visiting our website at balancedcents. com or debtfreedad. com and sign up for my free life without payments workshop, where I'm going to show you the first steps that have helped tens of thousands of people. Hey, just like you and me, kick financial stress and worry for good. Hey, we'll see you guys next week.

Speaker 2:  

Thanks for listening to the Debt Free Dad podcast. Connect with us on Facebook, tiktok, youtube and Instagram at Brad Nelson Debt Free Dad. If you found value in today's episode, please leave a rating and review. We so appreciate it. For resources, show notes and links mentioned in today's show, visit balancedcents.com. That's balancedcents.com. Catch you next week.

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