Hey all. Here are some things my wife (26) and I (27) have learned that have helped us “budgetarily”, so to speak. Let me know what you think. I love you all.

• Spend your tax return on debt.

This might seem arrogant for me to say, but having 1 boy and using our child whater-it-is, we were able to pay off $24,000 in 3 years while we were making about $30,000 a year in total (between us, in Idaho, of all places) using our tax returns and our monthly minimum payments. (2 car loans, a civic hybrid and a 2 wheel drive highlander…, student loan debt, and a maxed out $5000 credit card) We have new debts because we suck, but we’re dealing with it.

• Cancel your subscription services.

Well, I don’t know what to say, other than your local library (especially if you’re in a mid-to-large city) has all the movies and tv shows than you could watch in a year. We live in a town of 1,000 next to a town of 20,000. Maybe try it out. Get rid of the $15, the $6.99, and the $2.99 a month payments if you can. Read books together, do things that are challenging in a way that makes you feel like a person.This applies to all subsciption services. Just get rid of them or lower them if you can.

• Cancel your wi-fi.

This really sounds insane, but we have found that using our phones’ hotspots, we have had no need to pay for wi-fi. If we have big downloads, we go to a coffee shop and use their 50GB download speeds. It is a difference for us of $80 a month, which is not nothing! Otherwise, we get over ourselves and don’t do the thing we want to do. We wait and enjoy life without the internet. This not only includes wi-fi but a whole range of creative frugality. Buy tires from someone with a tire-machine. Find recipes to cook yourself that are cheap, healthy, and tasty. They’re out there. Use what is accesible and figure out ways to reduce your costs, even to the extent that you become weird and subvert the system. It’s fun!

• Don’t become wealthy. Become the kind of person who can become wealthy over time.

This is huge. None of what I am describing is applicable to everybody, but this point is that none of this system is fair, except that it rewards those who already have money and punishes those who don’t. Realize this in the seat of who you are. The difficult balance is finding yourself in the place where you accommodate both the fiduciary responsibility to YOURSELF as well as not violating your conscience. So many people don’t include finances in their estimation of their psyche’s history. It is a massive issue for most when growing up in this world of bad financial advice from school, parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, aunts, uncles, etc. The first thing to do is deal with what others have taught us. Realize what they were saying was stupid (despite continuing to love them): bad or no budgeting, debts, bad priorities, etc, and then only after that, we can deal with our own responses to bad advice or bad education, seen in following the trail of our own money, and taking responsibility for our own financial life. It gets easier once we do this, but hard because of the responsibility. But that is really the only way unless you inherit millions, but then you’ll have to start over. You are the locus of your financial past, present, and future.

My heart goes out to all those who are struggling financially. It fucking sucks, and that’s that. But it does not have to end there. If we continually blame the system (which does have a lot to answer for), we will never be able to take full responsibility for our own decisions as persons who have a financial aspect to our identity. Seek help! It is out there.

This is a thing to throw out there, I hope you all are well and happy. Life’s damn hard, but uit doesn’t have to tank our spirits and progress as people who are growing.

PM me if you want. I love to talk.

Love, littleradio.