I’m going to be brutally honest with you: I have no formal financial training that applies to my life today. In a past life, I read every financial self-help and investment book out there. I had smart investments, tracked every dollar, and kept a detailed ledger of all my bills. I was a lifetime member of Quickbooks.
But those days are long gone. My income has changed so drastically that none of that is relevant to my current situation. For the last 10 years, my spending has been unplanned and mostly spur-of-the-moment. I’ve managed to make enough to get by, but I’m in a totally different place now. I want to rebuild my life the right way, and I’ve got a lot of time to make up.
This isn’t a “how-to” guide from an expert. This is day one of an experiment.
I live in a Jeep on an income that averages about $20 a day. That small income is my lifeline, but it’s also a magnifying glass. Every unplanned purchase, every random meal, feels like a major life choice. The truth is, I’m trying to resolve this chaos in my own life right now. I’m learning in public.
I’m even trying to build a simple app, “GigTrack,” because I can’t find a tool that feels like it was made for someone like me—someone who’s starting from scratch, with a variable income and a deep need for simplicity.
This post is my first, real, practical step. I’m sharing my “No-Shame, $20/Day Survival Budget” not because I’ve perfected it, but because I’m starting it today. We’re going to figure this out together. This is the real, unglamorous work of building a foundation for a dream.
The “Why”: Facing the Chaos
For the last ten years, the biggest cost of my unplanned spending wasn’t the money. It was the chaos. My husband used to have a saying for that feeling of being powerless to your circumstances; he called it being “a turd in the toilet.” It’s a crude but brutally honest description of what life can feel like.
As a stealth cardweller, my routine has been completely at the whims of my environment. That chaos has been my reality, especially in the time since I left the quiet of the desert. But now, I’m back in a place that gives me the freedom to finally create structure. I have a chance to build a good routine, and I know this is the foundation for the rest of my life.
That feeling of being stuck is a heavy weight. It’s the shame of knowing I used to be so on top of my finances, contrasted with the reality of my life now. It’s the feeling where every small, spur-of-the-moment purchase—a coffee here, a snack there—carries the weight of a major life choice because I know it’s taking me further from my real goals.
This isn’t about judging those choices. It’s about recognizing the chaos they create. Taking control of my spending isn’t just a financial goal; it’s how I reclaim my mental and emotional energy so I can finally focus on what really matters: building a life I don’t need to escape from.
The “How”: My Three Steps to Taking Back Control
This is where the experiment begins. My plan isn’t complicated because it can’t be. In a life of chaos, I need simplicity. This is my three-step approach to building a financial foundation, starting today.
Step 1: The “No-Shame” Data Collection
Before I can make a plan, I need to know what I’m working with. For the longest time, I avoided this because I was afraid of what I would find. I was worried about judging myself for my spending habits. So, the first rule for this first step is: No Shame. No judgment. Just data.
My Action Plan for the Next 7 Days:
- I will track every single penny. Every coffee, every gallon of gas, every snack. Everything.
- I will use the simplest tool possible: A small notebook and a pen that I’ll keep in my cup holder. I’m not ready for a complicated app or spreadsheet. I need something tangible and immediate.
- I will not change my spending habits this week. The goal isn’t to be “good”; the goal is to be honest. I need a clear, unfiltered snapshot of where my money is actually going right now.
This isn’t about creating a budget yet. This is about gathering the raw information that will help me build one. It’s about trading the anxiety of the unknown for the clarity of the known, no matter what it looks like.
Join Me on the Journey
This seven-day experiment is just the beginning. It’s the first step of a much longer journey, and I’m going to be documenting every single part of it in public—the successes, the failures, and all the messy, real-life lessons in between.
If you are on your own journey of rebuilding, you don’t have to do it alone.
The best way to follow along is to subscribe to my free weekly newsletter. You'll get my field notes from the road, the results of these experiments, and the practical tools I'm building, all delivered directly to your inbox. No fluff, just the roadmap.
Let's build together.
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