Kate Fortmuller

If I'm being honest with you, when I was in my early, mid-20s, like 25, 26, I would see a lot of people going on trips and, you know, doing those type of things and like buying.

So it was like, I want to go on a trip or I wanted to travel more.

So I would put it on my credit card.

When you add all those things together, it became thousands and thousands of dollars.

I was like, I'll pay it later.

I'll pay.

And so it just kind of like snowballed slowly but surely.

And I was like, all right, I got to stop.

I got into budgeting and doing more of the spreadsheets.

I was just kind of building habits to be better in my finances because I come from a lower income background.

I'm also a first gen as well.

I didn't grow up with any personal finance understanding or I didn't grow up with any understanding about investing or savings.

I think now as an adult, now that I can do that for myself, I really wanted to make sure that 1A was

that I'm getting better in my personal finances.

It's not just going to happen for me.

I had to take actual time and educate myself as well to try and reach certain goals that I'm trying to do for myself.

I would consider this month a success for my no spend.

I didn't feel completely like strapped for cash or I didn't feel like I was able to go out and do things that I wanted to do.

I still had a pretty enjoyable month and I was able to save and invest for the month.

For me, that was a win-win.