Hello, my name is Mrs. Accountability. I first learned of the Yakezie Alexa Challenge when Nicole from Rainy Day Saver talked about the group on her blog. I knew about “Alexa” and had been tracking my rank but I wasn’t exactly sure what it meant. Even so, I decided to join that day with an Alexa ranking of 511,855. One of the primary goals of the group was to promote one another selflessly, and I’d been trying to do that on my own.
You know – I’d write a blog post and link to another blogger and my effort went unnoticed. But when I joined the Yakezie and started to link to some of the members, they actually noticed and came by to thank me. It was a great feeling. I’ve been blogging for over two years but hadn’t been able to connect with too many other personal finance bloggers so it was amazing to be able to converse with so many great bloggers all in the same place! It was also exciting to see my Alexa rank drop close to 118,000 by July 4th. Thanks, Yakezie and a special thanks to Sam for starting this group in the first place!
How I Started Blogging
I’d been reading a few personal finance blogs, and wanted to start my own blog, but I didn’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and while our debt wasn’t huge, we weren’t having the greatest success in paying it down either. But then I started reading a blog by Mr. DebtBeater. Poor Mr. DebtBeater, he was actually going in the hole every month and still he bravely posted every little detail. Well, that inspired me to start my own blog Out of Debt Again and I’ve been going strong for three years in September.
Our Debt and Financial Goals
I started Out of Debt Again just weeks before my husband (Mr. A) and I got married for the second time – to each other. At that time our debt was $14,000. We had a few bumps and crashes along the way and in the process our debt actually increased to over $24,000! How embarrassing! Thankfully things have settled down and I’m happy to report we’re back down to $16,000. We continue to pay as much as we can toward the debt each month which depends heavily on how much money Mr. A generates – some months we manage to pay down $1000 a month, I love those months! After the credit card debt is gone we plan to focus on paying off our mortgage, and establish a long term emergency fund of one year.
My Life Away From the Internet
I work four days a week at my “regular” job, and on the other three days I do the accounting for Mr. A’s businesses, housework, chores, blogging – oh yeah, this was supposed to be my life away from the Internet. Mr. A and I have two adult sons, both still live at home. Our oldest has Down Syndrome and our youngest recently got his dream job as a computer technician. We live in Arizona on a small hobby ranch where we have dairy goats, chickens, four watchdogs and four cats. In my spare (hah!) time I love to read, cook, garden and knit.
Please stop by and visit me and be sure to watch for my blogoversary event in September. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!
This post is part of the Yakezie Member Post Series. See all member posts here.
Hi Mrs A, it is good to get to know a little more about you. Congrats on your 3rd anniversary! That takes a lot of perseverence.
Thanks, Mike! I can’t believe three years have gone by so quickly!
My gosh, I got tired just thinking about all the things you do in a week – how do you get it all done?
I agree with Mike – great job blogging for so long. I have been writing for less than 6 months, and I sometimes hit little roadblocks.
Thanks for sharing – I really enjoyed reading your background. I am inspired!
LOL, people say that to me a lot. Maybe THAT’S why I get so tired! You know the funny thing about blogging, it’s like having a diary and I never did too good with journaling. I have several diaries where I got an urge to start and then stopped after a few days. I love computers so much that it just came more easily to keep it up, especially once I started to have some readers. Being part of the Yakezie has really perked up my interest, it’s so nice having the community of this group. Thanks for reading my post and commenting!
Great to hear your story. I would love to have dairy goats and chickens but sadly I can’t see myself settling down anytime soon.
Forest, you’re right, it does take a commitment to keep farm animals. Especially when your goats are milkers! It’s hard enough to find someone who can care for the critters if we want to take off for a few days, but when you need someone to milk it’s even more difficult, since most folks don’t know how to milk! I hope you get to have your chickens and dairy goats one day, it’s really an experience I wouldn’t have wanted to miss.
Cool story! I hope you are able to continue at the pace you have set for yourself.
Congrats on your youngest son’s job! In this environment, that is a blessing. Keep on posting!!!
Hi Dr. Dean, the light at the end of the tunnel for me is the hope that my husband’s businesses will continue to pick up customers and thrive to a point where I can “retire” from my day job. And thank you for the congratulations on my son’s job. We’re very proud of him!
Just have to say one thing before I gotta go, but will come back…. love how the Sunflower picture matches the color scheme of the site! Only a woman has the natural matching instinct to do this! :)
LOL, thanks Sam! I didn’t even realize I was doing that, so it must be some instinctive thing. ;-) That sunflower photo was taken from my own garden where I grow a few King Kong Sunflowers. Our goats LOVE the seeds (they eat them shell and all) and the stalks are awesome to use as poles for growing string beans or anything else that will grow up a pole.
Great story! You have such a full life, how were you able to keep at this for 3 years?!
I can’t wait to read more of your writing, both on your site and Yakezie!
Haha… well seriously I guess I’m lucky that I consider blogging as a creative outlet and it is often relaxing for me. And I have to say thanks to my husband helping with housework so that the house isn’t a total wreck since I spend way too much time on the computer. lol.
Hi Mrs. A, I really enjoyed the intro. Very disclosing and personal, I feel like I know you. I wish I could come over and see your animals :). What fun to live on a farm. Thanks for letting us into your world.
Hi Barb! Thanks, I wish you could come over and help me milk and do hoof trims! LOL!
I am really enjoying reading these bios. Its fun to learn more about the authors behind the sites. Pretty wild you’ve got your own little ranch. Keep plugging away at your goals and soon enough you’ll be “out of debt again”
Yeah, folks are usually surprised to find that we own goats and chickens. We’ve raised our own beef and pork and turkey in the past also. I couldn’t do it without Mr. A’s help, he does most of the feeding and watering chores. He hates milking so I always do that. Anyway, thanks for your comment, and I’m sorry we couldn’t meet up in DC! If you ever come to Arizona let me know and maybe our teensy Arizona bloggers group can get together and meet. :-)
Thoroughly enjoyed the candor of your intro. Like others have said, it makes me feel like I know you. Congrats on knocking that debt down, for three years blogging and for your son’s dream life. Keep on writing. We appreciate it.
Thanks, Joe! I’ll be so glad when we have our debt paid off!! It will be nice not to have to worry about making those payments and finally get some money saved for our future!
Nice to learn more about you, Mrs. Accountability! I also remember what those beginning days were like, not getting noticed. Congrats on your excellent progress to date!
Thanks! Yeah, it was kind of lonely. So glad for this group and wish I had more hours in the day so I could participate more!
It’s great to hear a little bit more about your background. I’ve been an avid reader for some time and I didn’t know some of these things about you. I look forward to reading more posts! P.S. Thank you for that Q & A interview session a while back, it really was a terrific experience!
Hi Little House, I also enjoyed our question and answer exchange. I’ve done several with other bloggers and always enjoy the interaction. Thanks for reading and I’m glad you enjoyed learning more about me. :-)
Hi Mrs A.
Great post, and it’s good to get to know more about you. Personally, I’m quite jealous of your hobby ranch – It’s something that I plan on doing later in life. I’m really jealous of the goats. Do you make goat cheese with them? I’d love to have a working ranch, but they are expensive to start. I’d like to have chickens, goats, and some sort of garden as well.
Great intro post!
Hi Jeff, yes we have made goat cheese! There is a quick cheese that is crumbly and very delicious, and we’ve made mozarella quite a bit. I never did get into the aged cheeses but I would love to learn how those are done. We attempted to make ours a “working” ranch for a few years, but most states are very stringent about selling milk and it is expensive and difficult to become certified to legally sell milk. Now we just provide for a few family members. You know you can garden just about anywhere… it’s a learning curve, I’d definitely recommend checking your local cooperative extension to find out when to plant what. I used to think I had a black thumb until I finally realized I was haphazardly going with my whim to plant seeds, and planting stuff at the wrong time of the year! Once I started planting the right seeds at the right times I was a lot more successful. And if you ever decide to get goats don’t hesitate to pick my brain. :-)
Thank you for sharing Mrs. A! These posts were an excellent idea. Getting to know all the Yakezie is fun reading!
Hi Beating Broke!! You’re welcome! I am looking forward to reading the others – I was preparing for going on vacation and then on vacation last week so I haven’t had much spare time to read but am planning to get to that this weekend! Thanks for your comment!
Wow, you are a busy woman! Congrats on blogging for 3 years (especially amidst so many other responsibilities)! It was nice to get to know you a little better. :-)
Hi BITFS! Thank you! I hope one of these days my hubby’s businesses take off and I can quit my day job and then I’ll have more time to blog! :-)
Mrs A – thanks for sharing your background! Very nice to get to know you better. I’ll be there for the blogoversary and will be contributing as well!
You’re welcome and thanks for the sponsorship for my blogoversary. I love your Squirrelers Gone Wild segment at your blog!
Mrs. A Great to know more about you! 3 years in the blogging world is awesome! I will be there for your blogoversary to cheer & contribute!
PS: I would love to live in a farm someday. But my husband might freak out if I mention it :)
Suba, thanks!! I hope one day you will get to have your farm, or maybe you will live close to a farm and can volunteer there in exchange for milk and eggs and veggies. :-)
Mrs. A, great to learn a little more about you.
CNC, thanks for reading and commenting! :-)
Great member post Mrs. A. It was nice to learn more about you. I grew up on a small farm so I know how much work is involved. Impressive that you are able to do all that you do! Happy 3rd blogoversary!
Hi Not Made of Money, thanks! It does take some time each day, and thankfully my husband helps with most of the chores. It was always our dream to own our own piece of land and have critters so I’m glad we got the chance to try it out.
It sounds like out “lives away from the internet” are very similar, in that we can’t escape! Great to meet you and read about your debt story.
NarrowBridge: Definitely not easy to get away… but then again I’m one of those homebodies and I love staying at home as much as possible. If I ever get a chance to retire from my day job, I’m staying home until I get cabin fever. lol
Thanks for sharing your story! I’m excited about your September blogiversary =)
Hi youngandthrifty, you’re welcome!! I’m getting excited about it, too!! Should be fun, I have over $500 in sponsored gifts to give away! Thanks for reading and commenting!
I like your story – your ranch sounds so neat and so different from crazy city life. Best of luck with the rest of your debt!
Hi Charlie, yes it is a nice change from living in the city. Even though I’m fifty miles from my job, I still find it worthwhile to live out here for the peace and quiet. And the stars at night!! We milk in the early morning (3:30am) on the days I have to work and I always look up at the sky and appreciate seeing the millions of stars that are visible out here. Thanks, I’m so thrilled that our debt is continually going down, like I said it was SOOOOO embarrassing for a personal finance blogger to have the debt increase!
How cool, that you have a hobby ranch!!! I think that sounds like a great idea!
Congratulation on your upcoming blogoversary :)
Hi Money Reasons, thanks, it’s something we always wanted and it has been quite a learning curve at times. Thanks for reading my introductory post and commenting!
Wow Fantastic to learn a little bit more about the myth, the legend lol. I didn’t know your oldest has Down Syndrome, I do a lot of work with special needs planning. If you ever want some info throw me an email. I have done some quick posts about the subject in the past:
http://www.myjourneytomillions.com/articles/category/special-needs/
Hi Even, duh I finally figured out if I log in my replies will be a different color. I will definitely keep you in mind for the legal information about our son. He lives at home and he’s in good health, so for now everything is going great. He thinks he’s a grown man in his own apartment (his bedroom). Thanks for reading and commenting!
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Thanks for sharing your story, Mrs. A. Since you are a farmer, can you answer a question for me? Do the cows really have trouble adjusting to daylight savings time, as I’ve seen reported? I’m betting not!
Best,
Len
Len Penzo dot Com
Len, good question. Since I live in Arizona and we don’t do that pesky daylight savings thing (guess we have plenty of sunshine here) I can’t really tell you first hand whether cows have trouble with the change. I can tell you with regards to my girls and milking at odd hours, they have absolutely no problem whatsoever. When it’s time to get on the grain stand, they are more than ready, whether that be 3:30am or noon. They just love that grain. Thanks for asking, I hope I’ve helped. :-)
I love your blog’s name/theme about going deeper into debt and climbing out of it, again. It’s so relatable. Your nicknames are great too :) not many people hold themselves accountable for their debt.
I really didn’t know much about you before this and your intro clears up some questions I had about you, but opens a couple more :) I’ll have to keep reading and see if I can get to know you even better :)
Hi Jesse, glad to have answered those questions, and I’m just email away if there are any others you are dying to know the answer to. ;-) Thanks for your comment!
I was reading your blog before you joined the Yakezie so was happy to see you part of the group. My favorite thing about your writing is the optimism shines through and I know you’re going to achieve your goals!
Hi Kay Lynn, that’s sure nice of you to say about me. I do try to see the glass half full and I’m too laid back to get too upset if things don’t go exactly as planned. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Hello Mrs. A it was great to read more about you. I never knew about the Farm, very interesting. As I read all these stories we are a wild and crazy bunch of bloggers :-)
Hi Jeff, yep. When we moved out here and got goats and chickens (we currently also have one duck, but in the past we’ve raised turkeys and beef, lamb and pigs – just a couple of each) people at my job thought I was a little bit nuts. It has been a good learning experience though. One of the things that struck me was how most people are so far away from the food they eat, and how hard it is sometimes to raise food. Vegetables are simple in comparison to raising animals for meat – we have even learned to butcher ourselves, which is really not any fun at all. It’s interesting to learn more about our group, I agree. Thanks for commenting!
Mrs A., you obviously have a great plan to pay off all your debt and that’s really admirable. Your devotion to your blog over the years and how far you’ve come is super impressive, especially over the course of the Yakezie. Keep up the great work and I’m keeping an eye out for your blogoversary. Let me know when it’s up!