One Year and a Thousand Miles on The Road Less Traveled

There is a rash of them this week… “1^st Blogoversaries” that is. Today is mine. I suspect that getting a grip on finances is a huge New Year’s Resolution that started the personal finance blogs this week last year. That wasn’t the case for me. It was just time.

I’m not where I thought I’d be a year ago. I’m not where I wanted to be. I have a feeling, though, that I’m in a far better position today to achieve my goals than I was a year ago.

I had some pretty lofty goals and more than a little smugness that I was going to “rock this joint” with my superior dedication to learning and growing. Sadly, I’m not any closer to debt free… mostly due to the fact that our income took a nosedive for an entire year. Happily, we’re not any further in debt either!

So, what the hell did I do for a year? What value did this bring to me… and what did I bring to you? I can’t answer what good, if any, you got from reading along, but here’s what I got from it:

1. I learned to communicate more effectively about money with my husband. As you can read here, it was a rocky beginning. These days, our money communications flow very smoothly for 95% of the time.
2. I watched someone I really admired close her business.
3. I got a handle on our bank accounts.
4. Pulled together a couple of articles on Living Well while Living Frugally
5. I learned about Snowflaking my debts – Check out the primer from Paid Twice
6. I read Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich and loved it!
7. I decided that Suze Orman is a moron
8. We celebrated our first Frugal Earth Day
9. Made some Lemonade!
10. I took a Staycation Vacation
11. I dug into The Tightwad Gazette and got some great ideas
12. Adjusted to the difficulties of Stepchildren and Differing Money philosophies.
13. I got a new home on the internet
14. Received my first Guest Post (pst… wanna do a guest post? Contact Me!)
15. Got my first ever Ton of Traffic for my post Frugal Things To Do In Atlanta, GA – and a new appreciation for StumbleUpon
16. I interviewed Teri Gault, the Founder of The Grocery Game!
17. Confessed that Coupons make me buy things I wouldn’t normally buy
18. Saved a Ton of Money By Switching to Geico (that commercial series was so bizarre)
19. Gave away free downloads of my ebook
20. AND I shared over 1500 tips from my favorite bloggers

 

Sadly, there were some other bloggers who started about the same time I did, and I LOVED to read… that were unable to continue to write, and I miss very much:

1. King of Debt
2. S.M.A.R.T Finance
3. Mommy Gets Paid
4. Frugal Mom LA

Thank you for reading along with my journey. I hope you’ve gained something positive from it. I know I sure have. Thank you for all of the supportive comments, emails, and suggestions. I look forward to another year of your company.

Tagged as: books, Family, Finance, Money, New Digs, One Year, Snowflaking, Staycation