Blonde on a Budget

May 21

Dare to Share Your Passion

This picture has been floating around the Internet a lot lately, both in my daily Pinterest feed and on some of my favourite blogs. While I think there are a few statements here that should probably not be taken as financial advice, the last three words stick out as what I believe should be the biggest and boldest statement of all.

One month ago, I dared to share my passion with all of you. After psyching myself out by telling myself I would never be able to fundraise $7,500 to go to the Bold Academy, I decided to take a chance and at least try. Within two days of publishing that post, you helped me reach 11% of my fundraising goal.

With your support, I realized I could never make my dream come true, if my family and friends were left in the dark. I wrote and published the most challenging post ever written for this blog and began to share my past, present, and future goals with the people closest to me (all of whom supported me in ways I could never have imagined).

Shortly after that, I shared some of the bigger picture thoughts behind my reason for wanting to go to the Bold Academy. More than anything else, that post is full of my greatest passions. And, as a result of having the courage to share them with you all, I am ~~happy~~ ~~excited~~ ecstatic to tell you I’m now more than half of the way there.

As of Thursday, I am only $3,300 away from going to the Bold Academy. After a week full of events that had me questioning if this was the right time to go away for a month, I received an email about a brand sponsorship opportunity that would push me past the 50% mark in my fundraising goal. An email that showed me this is absolutely the right time for me to make a big move in my life.

I’m now 56% of the way there and am committed to fundraising the 44% I still need to make this dream come true. I could go on to say that any amount of financial support from you would help me get there, and that’s obviously true, but all I want to do is thank you for making the last month of my life a complete blur. And for proving to me that someone in the world is always listening.

I dare you to ask the next person you see what their passion is, and share your inspiring dream with them.

May 17

20 Comments

Updates + A New Challenge

This post is going to be a little different than anything else I’ve written before. I feel as though I haven’t been able to connect with everyone online as much as I usually do, so I just wanted to give you all a few general updates and also tell you about a new challenge I ~~want to~~ have to take on!

Going Public
First, I don’t know if it’s been noticeable or not, but I feel like my writing has changed slightly since going public. What is it about being a writer that makes you want to hide your words from people you know in real life!? I think about a lot of the things I write before writing them now, knowing that everyone in my life is potentially reading. (It’s not you guys – it’s me!) Anyway, if you’ve noticed a change in my writing style at all, please let me know. And if this is all in my head, you can also tell me I’m crazy…

#GoingBold
Now, a few of you have been asking how my fundraising is going and, as you can see in the status bar beside this post, it’s been amazing! I look at that number everyday and can’t believe I’m lucky enough to have so many people believe in me. I still have a long way to go, but your constant tweets, messages, emails, phone calls and texts are what keep me motivated on days when I’m feeling overwhelmed. I like to think that I’ll be dreaming up big ways to thank you for your continued support, when I’m at the Bold Academy!

@TheCoasties
Oh, that reminds me. Do you remember when I was nominated for the West Coast Social Media Award’s Best Personal Blog? And when I thought I was losing and almost gave up? Well, it turns out that all of your votes landed me a spot in the Finalists! The decision is now in the hands of the judges and I wouldn’t even be up for consideration if you weren’t for all of your votes and online shares. Can I thank you again for being such a great support team? Ok, thank you!

My First No Spend Challenge
Yes, you read that right. I’m about to start my first ever no spend challenge. If you haven’t heard of them before, no spend challenges are to personal finance bloggers what cleanses are to junk food junkies. It doesn’t mean you can’t buy anything but you are restricted to necessities. Rent, bills, groceries and gas are ok. Books, clothes and take-out are not.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know challenges like this don’t usually work for me. I don’t mind putting a limit on my entertainment budget but telling myself I can’t spend any money somehow makes me blow any normal budget through the roof. So, naturally I’m a little nervous.

But I’m more nervous about the possibility of missing out on some of my regular pay, which is what has prompted this challenge. Due to new changes at work, there’s a chance I’ll lose some pay in the coming months. It would just be temporary, not permanent, but I need to save every penny I can… just in case! And if I don’t end up losing any pay, my Emergency Fund will get beefed up a bit! No harm there. (And holy crow, am I happy my credit card is paid off right now!)

Before deciding to do this, I made a few plans for this weekend that I’m not willing to break. But then it’s game on! Starting this Sunday, you can expect to see Weekly Spending Reports up again, which always help keep me on track (mostly because I have to stay accountable to all of you!).

And… I think that’s it! Now it’s your turn.

Tell me something good that happened to you recently.

May 15

18 Comments

The Social Value of Your Net Worth

Excuse me if my posts have been less about my own personal finances and more about the conversation around money lately but it’s something that has been on my mind for months. After posting a short two-part series on it last week, I was left with more than 45 comments to sift through, each more thoughtful and engaged than the one before.

One of the reoccurring themes in your words was the idea that our value as a person is based on our individual net worth.

“I think people are afraid to reveal their financial situation because they are worried that others will value them (or devalue them) based on how much money they have.” – Earth and Money

“I do feel like I would be “valued” a little less if my friends knew what my financial situation was.” – LilDesiqua

At first glance, I felt disheartened by these statements. Maybe because I’ve been broke (and heck, still am broke) and know what it’s like to hide that from family and friends, I can relate to worrying about what others will think of you. And really, isn’t that one of the reasons so many personal finance bloggers write anonymously?

Just like the number on the scale, or the size that we wear, the balance of our bank accounts seems to be just another thing in life to feel insecure about. I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel better about myself the day I finally reached a positive net worth. For months – years, even – I felt like a hot financial mess. Being worth something changed that.

But did my positive net worth change how my friends saw me? Or my family? It’s interesting that I didn’t tell anyone about this blog until I paid off my credit card debt. While I had openly admitted to carrying a balance, no one knew how bad my situation really was. And I didn’t want them to… Was I scared of what they would think? Or say? Or not say to my face but judge me for behind my back? Yes, yes and yes again.

The reaction from everyone proved how emotionally invested I was in that insecurity. Nobody cared about the fact that I had once been maxed out; they cared about my progress! Friends started opening up to me about their own financial situations and even asked me for advice on how to cut back on spending or pay down debt. “How did you do it?” was the start of a least half a dozen conversations.

More of your comments from last week showed me that there can be open and honest conversations about money with family and friends:

“I have a handful of friends who are superb with money, and I actively seek out their advice and honesty.” – MichelleC

“…with some number crunching over breakfast, [we got] my friend out of a consolidation loan (at 14%), into my preferred debt method of a line of credit (at 5%). Breakfast finances ftw!” – Lindsay

But while some people have taken the taboo out of this topic, many more have not. I have no choice now but to have everyone I know read about my personal finances but there are so many others out there who don’t feel comfortable broaching the subject with people they know. The way I see it is, if we can talk about what we do in the bedroom, and even in the bathroom now, then we should be able to talk about our finances.

Sometimes I still wonder what people I know in real life think of this blog but I cannot tell you how foolish I felt for worrying as much as I did before. I can understand if there is a cultural rule or stigma around talking about money but I do wish more people could see that they are not alone in their financial insecurities.

Do you think we will ever live in a world where we curiously seek information and share advice, rather than judge each other on what we do with our personal finances?