About Us

This one will be short, I promise. As I said earlier, my name is Jes. My husband's name is Jason. We both went to school in 2007-2008 for our Associate's degrees, which is where we met. 3 1/2 years later we got married, and as of today we have been married about 9 months. We have an 1 1/2 year old son named Logan.

The reason I feel these details are important is because I want everyone to know that unlike some of the most recent sensationalized writings, I can relate to the cost of formula and diapers. I am in a position where I went from being relatively debt-free to suddenly owing a lot of money to a lot of people just by being married. We have lived in deplorable conditions without hot water, without food, and among cockroaches at various times over the last 4 years. We have gone from having 2 cars to just 1 so that we could afford to live, and then going from 1 car to no cars when my old Buick broke down repeatedly and we couldn't afford to fix it.


As I am writing this, I am laughing to myself. At the time all of those things were horrible. I can't begin to describe my anxiety and frustration at being stuck in a continual loop of paying off one small debt only to have to take out another loan because my car broke down again. Working in places that were nothing short of humiliating. I can't tell you how many times those things left me in tears, ready to just move back in with my mom and give up on the whole growing-up thing. It's rough. It could have gone a hell of a lot better, but it didn't. And now, looking back on some of the things we did just to survive, I laugh. It's a good thing I can laugh about them now, even though I still feel a twinge of anger and resentment when I think of those times. I'm not sure I'll ever fully recover, but it is getting easier, and here's to looking forward. :)

I suppose this is a good place to note that I am not a financial adviser of any kind. I have no formal education relating to finances. I am an aircraft mechanic by trade, in school for electrical engineering. My only qualifications for writing this blog are a little bit of common sense, and a whole bunch of experience trying to sort out the mess that is student loans. I have also written 100+ articles for various websites concerning credit scores and how to improve them. This is not meant to be a professional advice column of any kind, but a journey through the world of paying off debt in sub-standard conditions. I have every intention of putting our family on a strict budget that is transparent for the purposes of keeping this blog accurate. I look forward to feedback of the constructive sort, and hopefully can spur some imaginative solutions in my readers so that they can accomplish their own financial goals.