by Adam Dawson
Some readers have noticed that our posts have become shorter and less frequent. We’ve just had a hard time keeping up with the required schedule of blogging here 3 times per week. And so, it was this week that I emailed the site’s owner, Jeffrey, and suggested he’d be better off to find someone who could keep up with the schedule on this site and display a bit more passion for the task.
Jeffrey was very understanding, given that we have not only missed several scheduled blog posts, but also left him with the task of finding a replacement just 9 months after we started. We want to say thank you to Jeffrey and his colleague Nate for the opportunity to blog here and learn from the community of readers and supporters.
Even though we won’t continue blogging here, we have learned a LOT from the community in the last several months. First, we gained a TON of tips for managing our spending day in, and day out. Many people encouraged us with ways to save money on household expenses, car maintenance, groceries, eating out, entertainment, etc. We are extremely grateful for those who taught us some things about owning a house since we just bought our first home together in 2013.
We also learned a lot about being creative with our finances. I especially enjoyed discussing do-it-yourself projects with the readers, and Emily and I LOVED those who discussed with us about how to tastefully, creatively, and naturally decorate our house for Christmas without spending a ton of money. We had a beautiful Christmas with our family in our new house and Emily knocked the decorations out of the park on a very tight budget.
Ahhh, the CAR MAINTENANCE. This has killed us over the last few months. We definitely learned not to have rotors turned, and to definitely keep up with scheduled maintenance like oil changes because missing these things can have expensive consequences.
We learned to provide a proper shelter for our GOATS and chickens. The goats appreciate their hay-lined lean to during our infrequent rainstorms now, which I built out of $5 pallets and a leftover tarp. Good news – our female is officially expecting! We think she’ll kid within 3-4 weeks. We are hoping we don’t have to “assist.”
We really, really appreciated learning how different married couples and families arrange their budget. Budgeting as a single person is probably much easier, but agreeing with a spouse and keeping discipline to an agreed upon plan is much much harder. We still haven’t conquered this beast but I can promise you that we read every single comment and anecdote about how you’ve done it.
There is much, much more we’ve learned in our 9 short months on this blog. You’ll hear from Jeffrey about finding the next blogger, and we will fill in over the next few posts to wrap up our time here. We are going to continue on our debt payoff plan and still intend to be debt free by the end of 2015. We are not giving up debt payback. Just writing about it!
Thank you to all the readers who have supported us in this last year, and thank you for reading!
Best of luck to you, Emily and Adam! Thanks for for giving us a peek into your lives even if it was only for 9 months. I hope you are able to make a guest post after you become debt free, I am cheering for you.
Also, I hope we can see pictures of those baby goats before you go!!
Well, I wish both of you luck and success in eliminating your debt and building a solid nest egg. I guess leaving the blog is the right thing to do for you guys. We, the readers are used to seeing lots of financial information, a whole picture of cash-in, cash-out and frugal choices the previous bloggers shared routinely. Obviously you have some things that you were hesitant to share freely which I think is quiet OK. Again, wish you the best… Take care!
I think this blog is problematic in that the prior bloggers create expectations. I am mostly tired of reading about all the criticisms because you are not Claire or Beks. Egads! Maybe a fresh perspective is nice. But, I also think great bloggers are not necessarily out there killing it. So that is kind of problematic too. (I felt Claire was really killing her debt and kicking butt, and maybe a little too busy to blog in the process). I have less of a feel where you guys are at, BUT I think it’s easy to assume you are too busy working hard, and I don’t think that is bad. I do wish you luck! & certainly give us an update sometime down the road.
Best of luck to you both!
I wonder if this blog would benefit from having 2-3 different bloggers at the same time – less pressure on one couple, more posts, and different perspectives? Just a thought…
I think that is a good suggestion and may help those who are out busily paying off debt not be so pressured to keep up on the blog. A few diverse bloggers…great idea, Den!
I agree.
Not a bad idea. Three posts a week is definitely not easy for those who aren’t doing it full time. Even I barely average three a week on mine.
I agree too. Having three rotating posters would be nice.
I agree – great idea!
Den’s thoughts are very interesting. I wonder how that would play out? If there were more than 1 blogger @ a time, you would have to make sure they are in significantly different situations so readers don’t get them confused. Also, it would be important that they play nicely with each other and maybe even feed off each other’s posts and ideas. It could make it more complex and difficult rather than easier, but it sure would be interesting. 🙂
Aww, shucks… I’ll miss you two! I hope you chime in occasionally with updates on how you’re doing!
Good luck in your debt payoff. I agree with TPol that you two were certainly different from the rest of the bloggers. And certainly the first bloggers to stop blogging before they become debt free or at least made good leeway on their debt. I hope you are able to get a handle on your debt and pay it off soon
Awe sad! I’ll miss you! Emily will you post the link to your etsy store before you sign off for good? I think you guys did a great job as a young married couple with lots of school debt I really identified with you two the most of any of the previous bloggers and thought you were doing just great. Three blog posts a week is a lot..maybe that’s too much to ask of any one poster. I can barely manage one forum post a week on my YNAB wall! 🙂 I also think you can work towards being debt free without that being your single solitary goal and still have a great fun life. That’s our approach and it seems to be working. Best of luck to you both!!
Good luck, guys!
It’s so hard to put yourself out there and when other people are so critical! Thanks for sharing your lives with us and helping us with our debt journeys. I can relate to you because my husband makes a lot of money like you do and we disagree on the intensity of how to pay it off. Your efforts were really encouraging and I enjoyed your posts. Thanks for the motivation!
All my best to you. And I totally get being overwhelmed. If keeping up the blog was too burdensome, you really, really need to think through the farm-thingy, unless you are simply worn out from things being laid bare. Again, all my best.
Oh man, I really liked your blog posts. I know that you two would eliminate your debt and build up net worth in no time. On to another adventure then!
Good luck to both of you. I think if blogging three times a week is too much that the farm would be a bad idea. I wonder if all positive encouragement would have made you want to continue blogging.