And then we saved …

There are hundreds of personal finance blogs and, wading through them all, we get a feel for those we like and those we don’t. One of our favs is And Then We Saved. The personal finance blog was founded by Anna Newell Jones, a young mother who found herself tumbling down the path of debt with no end in sight. When Anna’s fiancé, Aaron, now her husband, refused to share an account with her because of her horrendous financial habits, she resolved to get herself together and clean up her finances.

Anna says: “In a lot of ways I thought that, since I’d always have debt, that I would definitely be dying with it, that I might as well just enjoy myself!” Anna explains that her way of thinking, which is quite common among people carrying heavy debt, only made her problem worse.  Anna made a valiant effort to crawl out from under the pile of debt. She started budgeting and trimming her spending, but her debt was too big for small steps. She needed to do something drastic.

And so, Anna came up with the idea of doing a spending fast. Back then, in 2010, the concept of a financial fast was still an anomaly. Anna didn’t have access to a plethora of books and blogs on the subject as we do today. Instead, she structured a spending fast on her own. She sat down and deliberated, strategized and tweaked, until she was satisfied with the plan. And then she went for it.

Her plan was an incredible success. She ran into the inevitable roadblocks, but with perseverance and willpower, she kicked an incredible $23,605 of debt in just 15 months! And she did it all on a clerk’s salary of $33,000.

Anna is now determined to share her strategy with others who are feeling hopelessly stuck under mountains of debt. She tells her full story in her book, The Spender’s Guide to Debt-Free Living and on her blog, And Then We Saved . She offers readers the opportunity to follow the same plan that helped her claw her way out of debt and bring similar change to their own lives.

Struggling with debt can be a shameful, isolating experience. The blog’s private “Spending Fasters” community allows people to share their struggles and triumphs with other members, to glean advice and encouragement, and ultimately, to find their way to a debt-free life. In just a few years, readers of And Then We Saved have triumphed over millions of dollars of debt.

If you need to take action and start kicking your debt today, visit And Then We Saved to see if Anna’s method can work for you.  As Anna says, “Your life should be about more than just trying to survive. You deserve to live the kind of life you’ve been dreaming about. You deserve to feel proud, empowered, and strong!”