Happy Blogiversary To Me

One year ago today Nine Circles of Debt was born. It was conceived out of my growing sense of frustration that I seemed unable to gain control over my finances, that my debt had grown to an outrageous level, that I had virtually no savings I could tap for emergencies, that I wasn’t adding to my retirement savings, and that in spite of all this financial messiness, I felt I was still working my ass off and making no progress.

When the problems collectively reached what felt like critical mass, I started this blog with the very simple goal of using it as a place to account for what was going on in my financial life. Here is what I wrote in my first post:

This blog is the first step in attacking the problem, because this is where the reckoning will occur. I will post my collective credit card balance and saving accounts balances ... in the sidebar here. Here's hoping I can get the numbers to start going in the right directions.

Well, it has certainly functioned in that respect. I’ve tracked my slowly shrinking debt and my growing and shrinking (and growing and shrinking) savings on a regular basis here, and generally speaking, the numbers have started to go in the right directions. In the past year I’ve reduced my debt by $4,021.59 and built my combined savings accounts to a total of $1,305.54. To be honest, I had hoped that both those figures would be much higher after a year. But all things considered, I’m pleased to have accomplished as much as I have.

As helpful as the tracking has been, the way in which this blog has most helped me in the past year is by giving me a place to be open and honest about my finances. No one else in my real life knows how deeply in debt I am (partly because I’m too horrified by the numbers myself and partly because I just naturally tend to keep all aspects of my finances private). But here I let it all be known (anonymously) and in return I’ve gotten support, encouragement, and some very useful tips from readers and fellow bloggers. I learned how to get freebies, how to generate small streams of income online from survey sites and more, how to use coupons most effectively, and most importantly, how to just keep going, even when the odds of ever becoming debt-free seem insurmountable.

So, to those who’ve been along for the ride this past year, thank you. I hope you’ll stay with me all the way until my debt reaches that final zero, and then beyond that to when I can finally experience the simple beauty of a debt-free life.