by Hope
We move in one week from today. Everything that is going to storage has gone. Everything we don’t use every day but needs to be with us on our Glamping Adventure is in big plastic bins, labeled and stacked and the last few things that we’ve listed for sale are on their last few days before I just donate them. Every one of us has our clothing in those small plastic drawer sets which can be tucked in closets and corners in the trailer/RV combo we are moving in to. And school is over.
All that’s left to do, is throw out the furniture that is not going, clean the apartment and load the car (probably a few times) and move stuff over. I think/hope this next week will be an easy one. The little kids are just ready for us to be there already.
Now, I feel like I can turn my attention back to the big task at hand…work and money.
I was able to borrow a truck to move a couple of items that I couldn’t move in my car and take them to storage and the RV. That was such a big help. Essentially all this move is costing is a bit extra gas money since we received all our boxes for free and borrowed the truck. So grateful for small favors!
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
I’m not a regular commentor although I am an avid reader and fan of BAD. When it comes to Hope’s story I have previously taken the path of skipping her posts or skimming through them without much more than a passing look because the content does not speak to me nor does it relate to the purpose of this blog, in my opinion. Hope’s story is no longer one related to getting out of debt, it is a difficult and unfortunate story of someone making poor life choices that result in debt and poverty. I have read this blog for years following stories of people who are actively living a frugal lifestyle and making smart well-thought out choices abut their lives in order to become debt free. Ashley is a great example of a relatable individual and so many others have been the same. While I might not agree with every choice, I can understand and see why it makes sense in the context of their life. Hope’s story is not inspiring, practical, or helpful. I feel as though it is followed by readers more for the soap opera drama factor but the debt journey is over. Hope’s choices and the example she sets do not belong in this community. Her last post regarding the stopped payment check appalled me, it was unethical and inappropriate. One week she posts about splurging on a trip/event with her kids and the next she chooses not to pay her bills. This is not a person I can support anymore and her story belongs on her personal blog as it no longer suits the content of this website. I would like to know others thoughts on this, particularly the site owners who have a responsibility to provide appropriate and valuable content for their readers or they will lose them. I wish Hope the best but feel it is time for her to end her work with BAD. Her journey is to a different place then this website and its readers intend to go. We would be much better served with one or two new stories to follow that meet the mission of this blog.
Yes! Thank you so much, I couldn’t agree more. It’s so frustrating week after week and I was feeling as though I was the only one who felt this way as I read through the comments. It feels like other readers are enabling these horrible decisions. Obviously nobody is perfect and we all have made bad financial decisions or else we wouldn’t be here and interested in this topic. But the last post about the stop payment on the check and the support for that decision totally pushed me over the edge. There was NO excuse for that (especially since Hope has been looking forward to this upcoming time of no rent while “glamping”) I don’t understand the support for such a dishonest act
I disagree entirely. I think Hope’s blog is valuable, all the more because it’s not the usual PF debt blog.
I also think your judgement of Hope is excessive and ignores the majority of her posts. Have you forgotten how much progress she made prior to losing her largest client? The woman has downsized a family of five from a house to a tiny apartment and now to what sounds like an even smaller trailer, and surrendered her beloved pets (an agonizing decision for a pet lover), all in pursuit of lowering her expenses. How much more frugal do you expect her to be? So you disagreed with her decision to stop payment on her check. I caught my breath at that, too. But she explained that she did it to have funds for necessities and that she intends to honor the debt as she gets back on her feet financially.
I agree that Hope has made ill-considered choices in the past — isn’t that what qualifies one to write for this blog? But she’s also had an extraordinary run of bad luck recently, and gotten a very close look at the holes in our social safety net. I’ve had better luck and am farther along on my financial path, but I know how quickly unemployment would eat through my emergency funds, and then into my savings for the future. I am impressed by Hope’s commitment to rebuilding and I think the story of the choices she makes in order to rebuild will be a valuable example of recovering financially from extreme poverty.
Indeed. It’s nice to believe that only “bad choices” put people in bad positions… but right before her bad luck started Hope was making very good choices… selling her house, selling her large van, paying off debt. If she hadn’t done that, she’d be in a much worse place now than she is. I don’t know what more she could sacrifice, and I am cheering for her to succeed!