Hey Girl, hey!
Welcome to Part III of the Girlfriend's, Budget series "Confessions". Today I bring to you someone that I have known and loved for a very long time. Meet my friend, Kristie - The Swiper!
I met Kristie my freshman year at Baylor University when we were still young, crazy, and immature! But one of the first things I learned about Kristie is that she is super OCD... like to the max! She is literally one of the most organized people I know. I remember her college dorm always was so immaculate because everything had it's place. Today... Kristie is still that way, so it really surprised me when I found out Kristie's little secret. She was a swiper (gasps)!
So with Kristie being one of my best friends, we had to get her financial future on the right track. And with her OCD, I knew once she got a hang of this budgeting thing... she was going to take it and run with it!
Kristie and I got together on beautiful Sunday morning to discuss the amazing financial strides she’s made over the past couple of years since working with me. Here’s how the conversation went:
[Elle]: (Screaming).... "I’m so exciiiiited!"
[Kristie]: (Laughing)... You are so dumb!
[Elle]: “I’ve been really excited about this interview because you like….”
[Kristie]: “Started from the bottom, now we here?”
[Elle]: (Singing) “Started from the bottom now the whole team here!”
[Kristie]: “Do you not remember my first spreadsheet?”
[Elle]: “I do remember your first spreadsheet… so let’s talk about that! But wait… how did we even start? Did I come to you or did you come to me?”
[Kristie]: “You came to me and you just randomly asked what my financial situation was like and I told you it was not good. And at the time I hadn’t started my career yet, so the deal was when I got my job as a nurse, we were gonna start then. And the minute I got the job, you were like ‘okay, let’s start’ and I was like ‘dammit’! That was a promise I was gonna have to keep.”
[Elle]: (Laughing) “We literally started from paycheck number one!”
[Kristie]: “We started planning right before the first paycheck, yep!”
[Elle]: Woooow! That’s so amazing to see how far you’ve come, because that first spreadsheet had all kinds of stuff on there.
[Kristie]: “Yea it was like forty lines of stuff. It was a lot.”
[Elle]: “So how did you feel as you started to see things come off the spreadsheet?”
[Kristie]: “Oh it felt great once it started coming off, but at first I did not like you very much (laughing). Let’s just be real… did not like you! I would have great checks and then $2 left over, but luckily for me I still lived at home with my parents and my mama cooked.”
[Elle]: “So you were the swiper!”
[Kristie]: “Yes, half of my spreadsheet was credit card debt.”
[Elle]: “What was making you get all these credit cards?”
[Kristie]: “A lot of them were for school purposes because when I got my second bachelor's degree, there was no help from the government (i.e. student loans). I was able to get one loan from Sallie Mae, which I regret now, but after that I was maxed out since I was getting another bachelors. So since it was the same level of education, I couldn’t get any student loan help therefore a lot of it was out of pocket. And my parents could only do so much… so I figured I’d just apply for credit cards. Then they just started coming and coming and I was using them to pay for school. I would try to pay them back up, but then it became a problem when I would use it for other stuff besides school.”
[Elle]: “Yes… other stuff! Like the Victoria Secret credit card and the Walmart credit card… You were just swipin’ galore. Were you ever thinking ‘I really shouldn’t be swiping this’ or what?”
[Kristie]: “No! I’m just being honest... no! (laughing) It was like... I want this.. Need it… Swipe!”
[Elle]: (Laughing)
[Kristie]: “There was no thought process of I really should save what’s left on it... nope! I have that thought process now, but two years ago I did not!”
[Elle]: “But over time those things were paid off and taken off the spreadsheet. Victoria Secret was gone… Walmart was gone… and now you only have a few things left to pay off, but over the course of 2016, you paid off $20,000 in debt!”
[Kristie]: “BOOM! Praise Break.”
(Both of us are up literally dancing around!)
[Elle]: “WOW! That is amazing!”
[Kristie]: “I don’t pay attention to the numbers, I just pay attention to the things coming off my spreadsheet.”
[Elle]: “I, personally, have never seen anybody pay off that amount of debt in one year.”
[Kristie]: “Yes! I’m the first!”
[Elle]: “You made history!” (laughing) It was phenomenal to watch! How does that make you feel?”
[Kristie]: “It makes me feel a lot better to know that I can pay for stuff and not have to cross my fingers hoping my credit card will go through. But for me, the light bulb went off when we traveled to Puerto Rico for your wedding. To know that I had saved this amount of money, we get there.. .it was more than enough, and I came back and didn’t have to swipe ONE credit card. I was like ‘Okay, this is possible. I can do this’. We’re doing the same thing for trips I’m taking this year too.”
[Elle]: “What would you say to other swipers out there?”
[Kristie]: “You have to get it under control… you really do. Find somebody that’s gonna hold you accountable. Find somebody that’s gonna take those cards from you and make you pay off one at a time because it’s terrible. And you literally are living in a cycle that’s just going and going. It’s just not good.”
[Elle]: “What do you feel is your best accomplishment from being in this program with me? For me it’s the twenty grand that you paid off, but what is it for you?”
[Kristie]: “Actually, it’s coming up… this damn nursing loan. Lord, February 10th cannot get here fast enough because it’s going to be black out on the spreadsheet and disappear into the universe and I do not ever, ever, EVER have to see it again. I’m probably gonna have a drinking party!”
[Elle]: “And I will be there!"
She definitely has a reason to celebrate, girlfriends, because paying off $20K in debt is no easy feat. I couldn't be more proud of my friend Kristie, and I hope her story has inspired you to cut out your own swiping and start getting rid of that debt... because your future depends on it.
If you happened to miss parts I and II of the Confessions series, check them out here:
Confessions Part I: The Shopper
Confessions Part II: The Loaner
Drop a line down below and let me know how you liked this series, I'd love to hear from you!
Until Next Time,
Elle
Comments