Yesterday was a momentous occasion, a freaking scream-from-the-rooftops miracle: after working toward it for years, I made the final payment on my student loans, and became 100% debt-free.

I still don’t quite believe it myself.

My debt was made up of common damages: credit cards, a car loan, and everyone’s favorite, student loans. I was 17-years old when I decided to go to a private university, therefore sealing my fate as an indentured servant from graduation on. Borrowing money for school led me to feel justified in borrowing money for other things (“What’s another thousand? At this point, it’s just a drop in the bucket”).

Thus, my entire adult life has been spent owing.

Just about two years ago, my 21-year old Honda Accord rolled to a final stop on the side of the highway just outside of Kansas City. I had no money in savings, and could only laugh when the salvage lot paid me $251 for parts. I had a $2,000 credit card balance, $17,000 remaining on my student loans, and found myself borrowing $8,500 to buy a used car. All of a sudden, after 6+ years of paying the minimum monthly amount on my student loans, I was basically back to owing the original sum I did in the beginning. In other words, in 6+ years, I had made no progress.

Maybe it’s tacky to give dollar amounts. Maybe you read those numbers and think, “Wow, that is a TON of money” – or maybe you read them and think, “Come on, Annie – that isn’t so bad.” The point is that the sum was much more than I was comfortable with, more than I was able to fathom settling – and I had no idea how to get myself out of the mess I had gotten myself into.

Around that time, I started listening to the Dave Ramsey Show. I’m sure there are other financial gurus out there with valid get-out-of-debt plans, but Dave is my guy, and I think he gives solid, common sense advice. I loved when people would call in to the radio show to tell Dave they were finally debt-free, and was sometimes moved to tears as they shared their stories. Some of these folks had more debt and a smaller salary than me. Some of them were single women like me. I started to realize that actually, mathematically, I could do it: I could get myself out of debt.

However, when it came to following the Dave Ramsey plan, I had a bit of a slow start. I spent about a year trying to pump myself up, listening to his show and reading his books but only kind of following the steps. I moved in with my mom for 3 months, built up a $1,000 emergency fund, and started the debt snowball. But I continued to overspend each month, making it so I could never quite pay off the credit card – because I NEEDED to fly to Nashville, or I NEEDED to have that dress from Anthropologie, or I NEEEEEEEDED to have whatever I wanted when I wanted it. I could write an entire book on how this “neediness” is nothing short of a disease. It’s a contentment killer, a sabotager of joy, and a dream stealer – because as long as money is owed, certain dreams have to be put on hold.

And this past February, I had finally had enough.

I knew that I had to “stop the bleeding,” and there was only one way how: I drank two glasses of white wine and took scissors the plastic. And when I realized that I had no backup plan – no way to buy something unless I had dollars for it right then – I stopped buying shit that I didn’t need. Simple as that.

That’s when my debt snowball really took off, first paying off the credit card, then my car. When my student loans were the only thing left, I upped the payment from $200 to $300, and a few months later, I said “I’m over it” and bumped it all the way to $1,000. One thousand dollars every single month on a single girl’s not-gigantic salary. This was the most fun, because I watched the digit drop every month, $10,000, $9,000, $8,000, just like the New Years’ countdown.

Speaking of New Years’, my 2013 will contain zero debt.

Again, maybe you think it’s tasteless to talk about money – and who knows, maybe it is. But I’ve become very passionate about being debt free, so I’m throwing caution to the wind and writing about it – because I want other people to know that YOU CAN DO IT. If you are up to your eyeballs in debt, and feel like there’s no end in sight, and that you will spend your entire life paying for decisions of the past, I’ve been there – and I’m here to say that THERE IS HOPE.

And the feeling I have today is worth everything that it took.

- – – – -

Don’t forget to enter the Stuck giveaway – a winner will be chosen tomorrow.

A few times, I’ve mentioned the fact that I’ve been working on a secret project.

And each time, I’ve thought, “I’ll tell everyone what I’m doing soon” – but it just hasn’t happened.  I’ve written about things like Zumba and ants and Tom Hanks as Animals instead – because I just couldn’t help it (and really, who could blame me?)

So months have gone by, working on this secret project, and now it’s happening TOMORROW, and I still haven’t even told you what it is.

Well.  Okay then.  It’s time.

Remember when I wrote a little song about LÄRABAR?  And they rewarded me by sending me bajillions of Cocoa Môlé?  Well.

It turns out that LÄRABAR is based in Denver.

And it turns out that they’re really, really nice people – and they like ME, too.

So they asked me if I could come up with some more songs about the brand, to which I replied, “Holy môlé” – and then a resounding yes.

Some fast and furious writing has taken place, and tomorrow, I’m flying to Southern California to perform these LÄRABAR songs at Natural Products Expo West.  Need proof?  Here’s the poster:

I know.  I KNOW.  It’s so fun.

Oh, and you might be wondering who this “Matt Whitman” is.  Well, in addition to being my co-writer for these songs (and they truly would not have gotten written without him), he’s a Louisiana redneck who shoots squirrels and cooks them in gumbo.  He’s also a farmer who knows how to grow vegetables.

All I’m saying is that when the world ends, I want him on my team – because when the LÄRABARs run out, this guy will keep people alive.

More to come…

Just when you were starting to forget it, I’m bringing up the song again.

In response to my video, Lärabar sent me the most wonderful package containing, among other goodies, 4 boxes of Cocoa Môlé.  That’s 64 bars – I’LL NEVER GO MÔLÉ-LESS AGAIN!

I love Lärabar.

You know my friend Annie Downs?

Of course you do.  She is famous in the blog world, famous in Nashville, famous in my heart, and now, famous in honest-to-goodness book print.

When I first met Annie several years ago, she was in the beginning stages of writing a book.  She wrote and wrote and wrote, more words than I have ever strung together.  She poured her heart and her time and her stories into this book – and now it’s finally ready for you to read.

Anyone who knows Annie in real life knows that she’s the greatest to hang around.  She is honest and funny and loves people like she means it.  She draws people in like a moth to the flame – except in the end, the moth doesn’t burn to death, so it’s actually not like a moth to the flame at all.  It’s more like cartoon birds and chipmunks being drawn to Cinderella’s song, or me being drawn to men with scruff.  (Please note that Annie Downs does not have scruff.)

Here’s the crazy thing: so much of the good that is Annie translates directly over to the way that she writes.  I’m only a few chapters into this book, and reading it feels like we’re sitting across the table from each other, hashing out the good, the bad, and the ugly.  The girl is gifted.

For those of you who can’t get enough of her hysterical, heart-felt blog, you will definitely want to grab a copy of “From Head To Foot.”  It’s geared toward young women – and chances are that you either are a young woman or you know a young woman, so order one or five or enough for all of the high schoolers at your church.

It’s a really cool thing to watch a friend’s dream come true.  Annie Downs is doing one of the many things that she’s meant to do – writing good, truthful, life-giving words, and sharing them with others.  It’s a big deal.  It’s a great story.  I’m so proud to call her my friend.

I have this friend named Mary who is tall and leggy and rocks the red lipstick like no other.  She is into fashion and design and music, has traveled the world, and – just like Uncle Chester – straight up owns the Buddy Holly glasses.

She is pure fabulosity.

And according to this…

… she is the winner of the Burning Daylight gift basket!  Hooray for Mary!

And a huge thank you to sweet Dani for offering such a fun prize.  I am super anxious to try some more of Burning Daylight’s products, and plan on ordering some of the Cherry & Roasted Almond cereal as soon as possible.  Be sure to check out their delicious-sounding options, and try something other than Grape Nuts for a change!

- – - – - – - -

Even though I’ve posted each day this week, I’ve left out some events and details.  Tune in tomorrow for everything I’ve been keeping from you (how’s that for suspense?).

I have to say, it’s scary to take little pieces of my heart and toss them out into the big bad world. But you have been a most gracious audience!

Thank you so much for listening to my songs this week – and thanks a million for buying the AP EP. Your support is helping me recoup some of the money that I spent to make it – which isn’t what it’s all about, but let’s be honest: it’s super helpful. My heart is overflowing with gratitude.

“By the Time”

There are only two things you need to know about this final track:
1) I love the “oooh-wah” harmonies during the bridge.
2) I like to pretend that I’m much more of a badass than I actually am.

This track has been deleted – you should buy the EP to hear it!

I am blogging through the weekend, because I started this thing, and I am not a quitter – except for when it comes to dieting. And Type From Home.

“First You Cry”

This world is totally screwed up. It’s a place where men leave their wives, where husbands and fathers have to be taken off of life support, where parents lose their 3-year old sons, where my own sweet mama was diagnosed with cancer this past Tuesday. Things are completely and utterly twisted, and we are sometimes left with the impossible task of picking up the pieces.

But the world doesn’t wait. Life goes on. You still have to do all of those little things that make up everyday life, even when you don’t feel like it.

But first, you cry.

This track has been deleted – you should buy the EP to hear it!

It’s Friday (happy Friday, by the way – congratulations on making it through another week).  Typically, I do not blog on the weekends – but we still have two more tracks to go.  So be sure to check in tomorrow and Sunday for the inside scoop on the final tracks!

“Starting Today”

In the fall of 2007, I spent 3 ½ months by myself on a road trip around the country; this song was born out of that time.  I wrote scraps of it during The Big Trip, and finished it right before I moved to Nashville.

But the song was really bad.  No, seriously – like, REALLY bad.  I didn’t want to play it for anyone, because it was so trite, so obvious.  So I did what any respectable human would do: I dropped it.

After tucking it away for about a year, one day, I happened to pull it out again – and realized that there might actually be some redeemable parts.  I decided to try to re-write the chorus, and wound up writing three different choruses – cart-wheeling choruses that remind me of what I felt like during those 3 ½ months on the road: “a poor broken heart chasing broken white lines.”

This track has been deleted – you should buy the EP to hear it!

And… we have arrived at the title track.

“Wish That I Was”

Sometimes, we write what we have experienced. Sometimes, we write what we have observed. And sometimes, there is no difference.

This was the first song that we recorded, way back in February, and I feel like it acted as a sonic compass for the entire project. Josh and I spent a long time talking about the “sound” that we were aiming for on the EP – what the instrumentation would be, what would unify all of the tracks, what the feel should be.

When the second chorus hits, you’ll hear it.

This track has been deleted – you should buy the EP to hear it!

“Could’ve Sworn It Was You”

This was the very last song that we recorded – we finished it just about a month ago.  And when I listen to the project as a whole, I think that this song is my favorite; Josh’s got it pretty perfect.  Probably because I told him that I wanted it to sound like a country version of “More Than Words” – and I’m sorry, but that idea simply cannot fail.

When I got the idea for this song, it was a complete idea – that is, I had the line “I could have sworn it was you,” and immediately knew exactly all of the different ways I wanted to use it.  Sometimes, a gift is just dropped in your lap – and then you might spend the rest of your days trying to find something like it again.

Listen for Josh’s harmony vocal (golden), as well as his super country dobro solo.  I think that his production really shines in this song.

This track has been deleted – you should buy the EP to hear it!